Let me get this right the NRL wants its players to be choirboys but uses stinks and aggression to market the game. Players are involved in a game where they are loudly cheered and celebrated when the physically harm others and then in public or when full of piss we want them to be held to a higher standard than the rest of society.
Think about the last year in Rugby League-
Greg Bird charged with assaulting his girlfriend and is banished to the English league…
Brett Stewart is charge with assaulting a girl and is suspended for 4 weeks.
Mosada Iosefa is charged with assaulting someone at a pub and is suspended for 1 week.
Tell me there are great differences in the above cases all are charged with assault….all caused harm to others as they are paid to do on a weekend……
Seems like the NRL only cares if the media cares….
I completely agree that the NRL has double standards!
ReplyDeleteStewart was not suspended for 4 weeks because of the sexual assault case though. The NRL said he was suspended because of being drunk in public as the face of the NRL. This is ironic because I am pretty sure Anthony Watmough was just as drunk when he punched a sponsor in the face. He is not the face of the NRL but he brought the game into disrepute. Where was his suspension ??
Then you get Brett Seymour getting suspended for a couple of weeks for getting blind and not hurting anyone but himself. I am pretty sure he is not the first elite sportsman in the history of the game to get completely wasted. Let the man have a million beers and sleep with a hot blonde chick if he wants to....I don't see the problem here.
I think Gallop has to go. We are heading down the same street as the AFL, where fights become melee's without a punch being thrown but somehow players get suspended and fined. The game is getting soft on and off the field. Even though Mason is a tool, how the f*#k can a human be suspended for having a couple of beers at home ??
Gallop its time to move aside and let an ex-rugby league player run the game. Give Tommy Raudonikis first crack. I think he can iron out some of the problems with the game at the moment.
Thank Christ Watmough isn't the 'face' of rugby league! Is there a stupider man in rugby league at the moment?? Maybe Iosefa?
ReplyDeleteAs a great ex Bluey kiwi league international said a few weeks ago:
"Thank Christ camera phones weren't around when I was playing"
i agree that there are double standards, but if it wasnt for media attention, these guys would be lucky to be paid 50 grand a year. the media scrutiny may not be fair, but its the way it is now-and sponsors will not stay in the game if there is continually bad publicity and the nrl needs every sponsorship dollar they can get, so they need to be seen to do something. with bird and stewart, the fact that women were involved is always going to bring more pressure upon the league to act, no one is too outraged by a young bloke getting on the piss and getting in a fight at the fiddler, but glassing your girlfriend or tinkering with your 17 year old neighbour is going to create the sort of publicity or outrage that the league has to act upon. gallop may have claimed that stewarts ban was for being drunk in public, but no one really believes that do they?
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