Rugby league must act now on Four Corners fallout
Roar Pro
By Gabriel Knowles, 12 May 2009 Gabriel Knowles is a Roar Pro
171 Have your say
Sydney, February 20, 2002. Cronulla Sharks rugby league new recruites Matthew Johns (centre) and Brett Kimmorley (right) share a joke with Jason Stevens (left) at team training at the Sutherland Police Citizen Youth Club. AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Monday night football didn’t stand a chance last night. Not following a week of anticipation after word spread that one of the game’s most recognisable faces had been implicated in a group sex scandal. It must have been a nervous wait for more than a few in the NRL fraternity, both past and present.
Collectively they may have shared a sigh of relief that the damage wasn’t as bad as perhaps they’d feared. But that doesn’t mean it made for pretty viewing.
The now infamous Cronulla Sharks group sex incident of 2002 was told with a disturbingly detailed recounting of events from the then 19 year-old victim.
She spoke of how those involved didn’t directly talk to her at any stage during the act, but rather joked amongst themselves, with Matthew Johns said to be the loudest protagonist – a claim one of the NRL’s key ambassadors denies, as we already know following his statement on last week’s Footy Show.
In fact, Johns says that he even apologised to the teenager for his teammates behaviour.
Regardless of the veracity of each parties’ stories, Johns’ public, pre-emptive and carefully planned response to last night’s program was cynical to say the least.
Rather than a carefully worded response and segment for their star presenter, Channel Nine should have been standing him down from all duties effective immediately.
While that may sound harsh to some, especially since Johns was cleared of all allegations by police, given recent issues in the NRL, strong action needs to be taken.
Channel Nine’s position as one the NRL’s major stakeholders requires that they take action and show the fans, players and all involved that things must change.
Roy Masters conceded during the program that group sex had been a bonding tool for teams in years gone by, but was adamant that those days were long gone. Self-confessed league groupie Charmyne Palavi painted another picture, though.
She claimed that only recently a younger player had shown her a mobile phone video of a group sex session involving teammates and just one girl. She mightn’t be the most reliable of sources, but the way some of the young Newcastle Knights were shown to react to some similar hypothetical situations suggests she may be closer to the mark than Masters.
In any case, the problem isn’t exclusive to rugby league, or Australia, for that matter. The difference is that rugby league has the chance to do something about it now and not in seven years time.
At some point, an example needs to be set.
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kevin from glebe said | May 12th 2009 @ 3:04am | Report comment
with all the contractual obligations that matty johns has with 9 it will be pretty hard for the tv execs to axe him especially with all the work he does for them. typical of 9 they will probably stand him down for the rest of the year and then he will be back afresh next year when everyone would have forgotten about it, just like what his pill popping brother did.
the stuff that was shown on the show was pretty serious and it doesnt matter if the acts were consensual of not. i cant understand why footy players play with their sporting futures and risk doing these things knowing full well that if it gets back and 99.9% of the time it will that it will come back to bite them on the arse big time. the culture of group sex with footy players will always be around especially now with all the limelight of late. i dont want to be sexist but what are women doing in places where footy players hang out en masse? they ask for the trouble to an extent and should know full well that picking up a footy player and his mate is hanging around, stuff like this is always going to happen.
the biggest problem in rugby league isnt the fact that this stuff goes on but the fact that alcohol is the root cause of it all and that so many players binge drink. its part of the aussie culture and it will never go away unfortunately with league being such a macho sport.
kevin from glebe said | May 12th 2009 @ 3:12am | Report comment
gallop the fool should get some balls and do something to clean the game up its disgraceful. the penalties for this type of stuff arent there, there are no rules or obligations for sexual misconduct for these cases they just leave it to the clubs and everyone knows that the clubs will do all they can to cover the indiscretion up and do the best by the player. if they imposed lengthy bans on players caught doing sexaul assaults, general assaults etc players should be rubbed out of the game say minimum 3-4months.
risks of not playing the game for extended periods like this surely would be a great deterrent, no? but the penalties for this stuff are just not there.
Steffy said | May 12th 2009 @ 3:21am | Report comment
“if they imposed lengthy bans on players caught doing sexaul assaults”
That’s the job of the police and the courts. Banning players who haven’t been convicted of anything is dodgy territory.
Kurt said | May 12th 2009 @ 3:41am | Report comment
I think it would be really great given the seriousness of the overall issue of violence against women in our society that we endeavor to NOT use this as a forum for taking cheap shots at rival codes. No one should think they can point fingers and put themselves on a higher moral plane just because they happen to support a sport that isn’t in the news for the wrong reasons at this moment in time.
fred said | May 12th 2009 @ 7:35am | Report comment
certain sports continually have problems with this sort of behavior.why is this?clearly it is part of the culture and more importantly goes unpunished There is a strong code of conformity associated with binge drinking and substance abuse.;AND SURE the availability of women who socialise imprudently.
however no one deserves this degradation and players participating need assistance in behavior change.
few of these cases are sucessful in the court system and players are reinforced for this behavior.
therefore it is up to the clubs to implement education and in house discipline only given lip service.
these guys know they are overstepping the boundaries that is what cements the bond or turns them on.
consensual sex should not become gang sex/rape.
if this assault happened to your SISTER would you suggest she was at fault;educate the perpetrators;rely on the courts or sort it out yourself in a manner not too dissimilar to the way she was treated.
maybe a full time enforcer is the answer.thanks for saying sorry matt,you are a swell guy
sledgeross said | May 12th 2009 @ 8:36am | Report comment
I think the thing to remember here that it is consensual, no actual crimes are being comitted. People (both the women AND the men) put themselves in these positions, and they should know better that there will be some repercussions down the track.
What is more serious is the moral implications, not the legal. Why do these blokes feel the need to do this kind of thing? Why do they treat the women in such a way. I think it was a shame last night that the plight of the young, naive girl from NZ was somewhat countered by the proclamations of that horrible looking lady from Brisbane whose promiscuous sexual behaviour towards footballers would no doubt give some validation to people who would ask why do women put themselves in these postions.
The culture must change, just because it is consentual doesnt make it right, or make you free from guilt.
Jameswm said | May 12th 2009 @ 8:36am | Report comment
Controversy? What controversy.
Go to the Fox Sports website, and you’d swear there was no Four Corners program last night.
Listen to the news on Channel 9, and it’s the same.
What’s that, you say? Those are the channels that televise RL? Must be a coincidence that they’re acting like this didn’t happen.
As for bans, the bans are for bringing the game into disrepute. As steffy said, you can’t pre-empt criminal sanctions. However, you can penalise the players for putting themselves in this position in the first place, like Brett Stewart who shouldn’t have been drunk and crash tackling girls (what HE said he did).
sheek said | May 12th 2009 @ 8:41am | Report comment
Australian rugby league players especially, Channel 9 especially, but all sportsmen & TV stations in general, not to mention pollies & other high-flyers, all suffer from the ‘Marcus Einfeld’ syndrome.
That is, they are such superior beings to the rest of us, that they don’t actually commit any crimes’ that the rest of us might be subject to. We should all know there are two sets of rules – one for the celebrities, & another for the “great unwashed”.
At least, that’s what “THEY” think!
Redb said | May 12th 2009 @ 8:49am | Report comment
Jameswn,
What? no comments on Foxsports – ‘News’ Limited.
Redb
benicio said | May 12th 2009 @ 8:50am | Report comment
I have a couple of issues with the Four Corners program.
Firstly, purely from a legal standpoint, if the players have been investigated and declared innocent of criminal charges – why is it acceptable for them to be named and shamed yet the women involved need their faces blurred out and the use of false names?
Secondly, I seriously question the role of the women in these situations. Obviously at the time of the ‘incident’ they were understanding of what had taken place and accepting of it – if not there would have been criminal convictions, of which there have been none in any of these cases. Why, in some cases 7 years later, do they choose to bring up the details of these events and want to name names? Is it because they are older and wiser now and they look back realising they made an error of judgement and then see to release themselves from that error by implicating as many people as possible?
Finally, I believe the balance point is incorrect in the media portrayal of all of this. For me, this is a wider society issue that is being ‘showcased’ in a sporting culture, it is not something that only sportsmen do and now wider society are picking it up and partaking in it. This issue has been around in society for a hell of a long time.
I am not excusing the players for their actions at all. I do believe, however, that if this sort of issue is being brought into the public spotlight that everyone involved deserves their right whack for it, not just the superstar who earns $500k a year. If you want to name and shame the players, fine, but if society see this as a ‘wrong thing to do’, name and shame all parties in the incident. Don’t blur faces and use fake names. Understand that there are people out there who act as predators, there are many famous cases in the celebrity world of ‘gold diggers’, we should not be ignorant to the fact that these people exist a lot closer to our home, and in Australia the biggest thing to go after is a sports star.