NRL players Jack Wighton and Latrell Mitchell will defend charges laid over an alleged fight outside a Canberra nightclub, with a lawyer for one of the State of Origin stars saying "every story has two sides".
But the charges will hang over their heads throughout the forthcoming football season, with their hearing still more than eight months away.
The NSW Blues teammates travelled to and from the ACT Magistrates Court together on Wednesday, when they both pleaded not guilty to charges of fighting in a public place.