A serial offender, this time Greg Bird from Cronulla. Glassing your G/F, phew, not just physical abuse but potentially she will lose sight in one eye!!!

But there is more, Bird then lied to the club and got them to go public with that lie. That is a full house in card terms: assault over lies!!!! Carey over Didak!!

Over to Cronulla. Lets watch what they do. They failed previously. Will they fail again? The impact this time is much greater this time: The semi’s. His behaviour affects the team, the club, the district and the code.

Compare this to the Raiders. They belatedly took their medicine, and got on with playing passionate footy. The result is clear. A stronger team and a lower risk of having their efforts derailed by a selfish, piss head criminal.

Of course, the alchohol companies are major sponsors of NRL. Go figure the message it is sending to their audience!!!

If they had half a brain, but they probably don’t, they would reconsider their funding.

Meanwhile, the code will be further tainted and distracted in the next week or so and then on through to the court hearings.

the club can now commit resources to building a team on a no dick heads policy.. “we sacked our play maker, so dont try to get away with anything of you will be out too!”

The players know exactly where they stand with the club.

the NRL has come to the party and ensured that canberra wont be competing with carney just because they did the right thing. The NRL removes a serial pest from the game. they wont need to commit their resources to patching further unseemly behaviour from carney.

Carney could win if he wises up and realises that his behaviour is a real problem for himself!!!!

Furthermore, the idea that rugby is only played by the leather patch brigade is also rubbish. Having played against teams like Dundas Valley (with the Price brothers running the water) and having seen the passion for rugby in the bush I can tell you this cliche is rubbish.

And by the way, in answer to Westy’s question about who supports club rugby, I do. This year the standard is as good as I can remember, crowds seem to be growing, the Wallabies are back in club colours, future looks bright…

Your comments re AFL clubs and pokies is wrong. Pokies revenue is a relatively recent revenue additon for AFL clubs, most raise revenue through club memberships (574,000 Australia wide) , gate takings (ave crowds 38,000) and sponsorship. Sydney NRL clubs have always relied on Leagues clubs for revenue.

In saying that, I dont think you can directly link poor player behaviour with how a sporting club raises funds.

Redb

I’m not going to go through your post point by point because, quite frankly I have work to do. However, because you are waiting for a response I’ll make an abridged comment.

My point, and I think it I thought it was fairly clear, was not that the players hadn’t done the wrong thing but that there is no point blaming the code for these problems because 1. they exist in other codes 2. they exist in society as a whole.

Players in rugby league are routinely fined and punished for their off field behaviour, Mark Gasnier for example was fined $30,000 for his mobile phone episode while with NSW (is this the ‘players of class’ you refer to?) Gower was fined heavily as was Willie Mason while at the Bulldogs, more than $50,000 if my memory serves me correctly.

There are also countless players who have had their contracts torn up by clubs.

I’m wondering if you can tell me what players who are referring haven’t been punished by their clubs?

Should any player involved in a punch up have their contracts shredded? Those players will be suspended and will be forced to serve them. You seem unaware that the game has a judicary.

Of course, it damages the game when this stuff gets dragged through the press, mostly because there are plenty of people who just love blowing many of these things out of proportion. Certainly you’ll agree that the media has been prone to a beat-up with this stuff.

Perhaps the general policy is that the ‘no dickheads policy’ is great in theory but how hard it is to know that about a player when you sign him. Who would have known that so many Western Force players would love throwing quokkas?

Rugby league faces problem players and deals with them, like every code. Perhaps what I find perhaps a little boring is that every time it happens people feel the need the scream from the heavens and make out they have had a brain wave with the “no dick-heads” policy.

No club goes out of there way to sign dickheads.

Finally, I would never take myself so seriously I to believe I represent rugby league. I am but a humble fan, like the hundreds of thousands of others.

Andrew Marks,

I agree that codes of conduct are a good thing, what a pity they needed to come about, of course they aren’t exclusive to rugby union. The junior rugby league, football and basketball competitions that I am involved in all have the same.

I have played football since I stopped playing semi professional RL and Union (was offered a place at Eastwood back in the early 70′s chose not to accept)

Played now I guess for over 30 years, been watching sport, Football. Union, Cricket, RL, ……… felt most unsafe at cricket …….. feel the safest your words at the A-League. Stop the stero types.

As for it being the force ………… I was waiting for that sorry its was the tahs pissing in a cab in SA. ………. See my point pick on a point and keep hounding on it untill it becomes the truth. So now we have 50% of union out of control.

Yes the football story on the 3 player roit was taken back but only after some time and today if a football story has any volience in it it becomes a roit …….. read can you smell the fear by Simon Hill.

Stero typing is simply wrong and while RL is no where near my first game or prefence as a sports person I cannot justify the acts of a few being associated with the whole ………. simple as that.

Zac
The Roar

No wonder most leaguies want to see union die.

High Moral Ground?

Unionistas, read this as Jesus weeped.

http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=162445

there was nothing to celebrates about Vichy France it was a low act in the history of rugby. Guys playing union are not necessarily angels, but the point has been made that there are bad eggs in every sport, as I suppose they represent the society they are drawn from.

As an obvious league supporter, judging from your words, what do you think of leagues clubs in Sydney relying on poker machines to fund themselves…that is profiting from people’s addictions, which leads to a lot of social stress, and from my line of work, I have seen that it can lead to a lot of crime being committed as people need to feed this addiction.

Aside from Peter Holmes a Court, I haven’t heard any other club CEO or official from Sydney NRL actually say that this is not on…or have there been other voices clamouring for poker machine money to stop flowing?

I discovered that good parents have good kids. I then did the same with elder son in the following season, and was able to coach both teams concurrently, because the kids were easy, keen and parents were supportive. A true pleasure for all concerned. Kids developed incredibly over the next 4 years.

This is not a new concept and yet elite teams continue to ignore it.

As a roosters fan, I was one of the many who were appalled that they signed Mason. It just sends the wrong message to the other players and supporters. Then they further compound the situation by not being able to retain Tupou. I dont get it!

Lets wait for Steve, Westy and John’s responses.

I would like to reiterate for the last time – that this is a behavioural problem that will continue to manifest itself unless it is addressed. Again take a look at Wayne Bennett (Bronco’s), Paul Roos (Swans) and Robbie Deans (Crusaders). These clubs have a “no dickheads” policy. They have good men in charge who have instilled thier own culture and will not accept dickhead behaviour. These men are good man managers (emotionally intelligent) and have all won lots of premierships with this successful formula.

Those of you who believe that this is code war – bullshit – it is about conducting yourself in a civilised and respectful manner regardless of what sport you play!.

Football: Conversely, the players the issue is the behaviour of crowd. I have experienced it first hand. Assault by a drunk, ridiculously behaving spectator, spraying beer over 20 people, swearing, pushing patrons etc. He was in a group of 5, all with the same attitude. “I am a big “man” and I am cool. I am using football and its mythical importance, as the basis for criminal behaviour. Again, an idiot completely out of step with acceptable behaviour. He had his son with him too. I had 5 kids with me and needed a police escort to get to the car. Never again.

westy and John Ryan, this thread is not about the code war. it is about behviour, and in the main, player behaviour. Read the initial post. Crockett from Warriors! Still in court.

Steve, I disagree with your post. Let’s look at the factual basis for the article:

1. Assault, rape, Fleeing police, drunk driving, etc. It is criminal behaviour.

2. My article comments on League and league alone. I submitted the article because this week, like previous weeks, we have had 4 examples of this behaviour including a serial offender. Add to this the U20′s brawl, I think 12 players in one week is sufficent to submit the article.

3. On the very next day, and in support of the previous day’s article, we discover that there are allegations of a cover up of previous criminal behaviour.

4. Again, one day later, he get McIntyre’s comments in the press. He encapsulated the mind set that exists, his words not mine. No regard for or mention of the victim, the code or the club. He was just concerned that their attempt to make the playoffs was affected!!!

4. Despite this evidence, neither yourself, Westy or John Ryan say that the behaviour is wrong, unacceptable and damaging the game and the clubs. If you represent the League community, the code has no hope because the community doesnt understand how far out of step this behaviour is and the damage being done to the code.

5. The “societal” argument is no defence. It ignores the authority and ultimate sanction that the code and the clubs have to remove this element once and for all. Serial offenders are not “societal”. They are criminals.

6. I included by personal solution in the final paragraph. This is a tried and tested solution and hardly evidence of a code basher or a class warrior:

I quote, “A memo to coaches: “Implement the ‘No Dickhead’ rule, for the sake of our teams, your clubs, and the code itself.”

Left Arm Spinner, I’m not going to defend the list of players you’ve mentioned, and it has already been pointed out that many of the problems aren’t ‘criminal’. And it is always easy to just roll out the ‘education line’.

But sadly I think you’ll find most of this stuff to be a societal problem. You might not like the way a lot of young men behave, but it isn’t just league players, sadly for the league blokes there are always plenty of people willing to ring the Ray Hadley show to say they saw a player having a few beers.

I honestly think if people who are calling for public stonings actually had a think about what they may have got upto on various nights out they might lighten up.

If you think the same thing doesn’t happen in rugby I think you’re setting yourself up for a big fall.

Look at the behaviour of the Western Force this pre-season for example.

Or take a peek at the All Blacks or the English on tour, even Union boys joked about the Bulldogs scandal that the same thing happened in Rugby “they just kissed her after”. Have a look at George Smith’s record of blueing with the public and he is the wallaby captain this weekend!

Of course, looking overseas and you’ll see English Premier League players and American basketballers all taking the proverbial…and not a League player in sight.

And don’t think Timana Tahu suddenly changed his tune just because his paymaster changed, it never helped Matt Dunning.

There are plenty of players in League that would fit your Tahu mould, they just don’t fill the headlines.

In the end, if you are looking for moral guidance from professional athletes you are only asking for trouble.

Enjoy your footy.

S14 has four teams one is out of control, does that mean 25 % of union players are the same.

Using media hype and pointing fingure is easy …….. RL would have in its game the normal population spread. It scares me when people look at the third quartile events and then assume the norm.

Coming from a football back ground we have seen our fair share of poor press, often totally wrong or so overstated / so over the top.

A good example on the 9th of December 2006, soccer fans of the past and present were celebrating the game’s coming of age in a country where it was largely frowned upon for several decades. More than 50,000 patrons attended a league game between Melbourne and Sydney – a new national record. However, the following day the soccer community was once again rolling its eyes at the sensationalist exaggeration used by the media after three patrons were ejected.

That’s right. Three out of 50,000 were ejected.

However our papers, radios and television screens were polluted with stories of crowd violence and emotive language such as “hooligans, lunatic fringe, ethnic violence, walk of shame” used to generate shock amongst the public. Journalists showed videos of fans singing at each other – which is general practice amongst soccer crowds all over the world, every weekend and used this to try and display the “riot”.

Australia has a different sporting culture to other countries – where chanting and singing at sporting events is prevalent at sporting fixtures of all kinds around the globe, we are more used to the bored, drunk, fluorescent wearing teenagers blowing up beach balls and contributing to mindless war-cries such as “Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi”.

After the media made three ejections look like a full scale riot akin to what we would see in World War Three – four weeks later, 190 fans were ejected from the MCG at a one-day cricket match. One could only expect what sort of backlash this would have. However, in typical jingoistic fashion, this was laughed off by the Aussie media as “a few lads letting of a bit of steam” or “boys being boys”.

Why do I mention my football media story is because RL is easy to pick on with its background. If player X did something wrong jail em end of story but please lefty don’t just pick on a code because of sensationalist and acts by a few.

As a famous man a tad over two thousands years ago said, “let he without sin cast the first stone”

settle down. So the downtrodden league players have no alternative but to behave badly! Please. Criminal behaviour is not just being young, otherwise our jails would have quadrupled in size and still be overflowing.

Tell you still think its just being young when you are standing in the loo, and a drunk guy pisses on your leg. then “people” come in and try to stop you reporting it!!! Or your daughter comes home having been attacked by a drunk. I dont think you would still be calling it small minded or just youthful behaviour!!!

Then, in line with head in the sand, you immediately react on the basis of class: class upbringing, supposed class wars. Leave it out.

The behaviour is unacceptable. It just happens that there are more frequent occurences and those occurrences are not dealt with according to current public opinion and put a game of footy ahead of everything else. I refer you to McIntyre’s comments in the initial post.

Luckily he was the WBs WC coach at the time and all was quickly forgotten.