NRL chief executive David Gallop felt the heat turned on his own position on Wednesday as rugby league confronted the latest in its string of player behaviour scandals.
Gallop was forced to defend his performance in combating repeated outbreaks of anti-social behaviour when he fronted the media after the NRL suspended Manly’s star fullback Brett Stewart from the first four rounds of the competition.
The decision came after Manly said they would play Stewart in their season-opener on Saturday despite him being charged with the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl in the hours after Manly’s boozy season launch last Friday.
The NRL said Stewart – the face of their $1.5 million-dollar advertising campaign to launch the 2009 season – was being stood down for the drinking conduct which led to him being refused service and asked to leave the launch premises and not as a judgement on the criminal charge against him.
Since being widely commended for his handling of the Bulldogs’ salary-cap breaches in his first season as NRL boss in 2002, the league has suffered through numerous drunken player behaviour scandals in Gallop’s time at the helm.
Not that he hasn’t tried to prevent them.
But despite Gallop implementing a series of programs aimed at educating players on the responsible consumption of alcohol and the appropriate treatment of women, the code has been rocked time and again by controversy.
Among others, there have been the Bulldogs’ Coffs Harbour episode; separate toilet trysts with women by Sonny Bill Williams and three Brisbane players; Tevita Latu punching a woman; Greg Bird allegedly assaulting his girlfriend; Mark Gasnier’s unsavoury phone calls after a NSW State of Origin team bonding night; Wes Naiqama’s drink driving episodes; Craig Gower’s alleged fondling of Wayne Pearce’s daughter; Anthony Laffranchi facing a sexual assault charge he was cleared of; and Todd Carney’s deregistering from the NRL after repeated alcohol-related misconduct.
In the wake of the latest incident involving the game’s poster boy Stewart, Gallop was asked if it was getting to the point where he must consider resigning because of his inability to stamp out outbreaks of anti-social behaviour.
Gallop was steadfast in his belief he was not to blame and it was a long process.
“We need to continue to educate players about the types of issues that have been pitfalls for players for many years,” Gallop told journalists.
“We need to impose penalties where we consider that the rules have been broken.”
The league boss offered a strong “no” when asked if he had failed in his leadership duties.
When criticised over varied treatment of cases involving players – some being allowed to play on until their cases are heard in court and others not – Gallop maintained “it is very difficult to have a hard and fast rule”.
“Each situation will be different,” he said. “The extent to which the facts are in dispute will be different.
“There’s a court process for these types of allegations and that’s where we are today.”
Gallop was clearly displeased the Sea Eagles board went against his strong advice by naming Stewart in their team to play the Bulldogs on Saturday night.
“Certainly I discussed the Manly board’s decision with them last night and I questioned the decision that they’ve reached,” he said.
Gallop may also be accused in some quarters of double standards for not suspending Eagles forward Anthony Watmough, who has been accused of punching a sponsor at the Manly function.
Instead, the league fined the Eagles $100,000 for “not managing the function appropriately”.
“He (Watmough) was not chosen to be the face of the game and indeed launch our season as the other player (Stewart) was,” Gallop said.
“My understanding is that he (Watmough) will face penalties from the club. Certainly the penalty that we’ve imposed on the club is intended to capture that incident.”
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