Rugby league must act now on Four Corners fallout
Roar Pro By Gabriel Knowles, 12 May 2009 Gabriel Knowles is a Roar Pro
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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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May 12th 2009 @ 8:55am
Josh said | May 12th 2009 @ 8:55am | Report comment
This was 7 years ago and Matty was cleared of any charges what so ever, so why should he be stood down, the women participated in the group sex, she didn’t have to but she did, So how can she come back and bring it all up again, it was her fault that she got into the situation, she didn’t seem to care at the time, just after a bit of fame and ruin Matty, his a top bloke.
May 12th 2009 @ 9:10am
Redb said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:10am | Report comment
benicio,
What would naming an unknown girl from NZ achieve? The issue is not that the act was consenual at the time although by the sounds fo it she was powerless to stop the endless attention “lining up at the end of the bed”, the issue is the trauma this type of ‘group sex’ act has caused, a trauma clearly audible 7 years later. Johns was 30, this girl was 19.
Roy Masters clearly confirmed group sex was used in First Grade RL teams to bond players together – what was the Kokoda Track closed that week? (Masters said he did not condone it)
This type of group behaviour is not defensible on any level.
Understand the message is that whilst a young girl might naive enough to think its exciting to sleep with a bunch of footballers, the long term effect is tragic on the girl. Have some decency and educate.
Redb
May 12th 2009 @ 9:12am
wallythefly said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Most people are thinking ‘why would footy players do this, what sort of attitude is this etc’. Well just look at a couple of comments on here and you can see a (minority) opinion forming; it was the woman’s fault etc.
The issue isn’t entirely a legal one but an ethical one. Just because someone is cleared of all charges doesn’t mean a certain act isn’t totally and extremely unethical.
May 12th 2009 @ 9:19am
sledgeross said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Good point wally, thats the oint I was trying to make.
Having said that, I can see what Benicio is saying though. It wasnt a balanced program, but then again, you wouldnt expect the ABC to portray it from any other perspective than what it did. That gal from NZ obviously didnt know what she was doing, and it has obviously followed her since.
What about tha young Knights player “It depends how you treat them afterwards, like you should put them in a taxi and send them home”. If it wasnt so serious it would be funny.
May 12th 2009 @ 9:25am
Rolling Maul said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
Johns even told Four Corners he thought this incident would come back and it has. There may be no grounds for criminal charges but here is a guy who gets in front of the TV each week and represents a code of football, even being the face promoting club membership with a slant towards females and family – and this story looks terrible for the code and for him.
Irrespective of it being investigated and no charges laid – this girl was someones daughter/sister and I’m sure none of those players present would ever have allowed this to happen to their mothers/daughters/sisters.
I thought the situation where the teams were shown a situation involving a female and two players was interesting with one of the players saying ‘they need a good lawyer’ as if it could still be won at court.. whereas the situation with male rape was horrific to them.
Kurt’s comment is odd – this whole forum is about a show on the ABC regarding rugby league and how it treats women?! No one is taking pot shots.. they are commenting about League and these incidents they continually find themselves confronting due to their own actions.
As a father – I don’t want my young son to get involve in a code of football, love it and want to follow it through his growing years and be confronted with these stories constantly. Manly’s actions with defending Stewart, the Bulldogs actions when they shut up shop and this Cronulla situation just goes to reinforce my feelings that I don’t want him to play League and grow with a culture where this is the publicly denied but constantly occurring.
And before anyone goes on the attack.. I grew up playing league until my early teens.. I loved League and I still enjoy the game but the culture is something I find concerning.
May 12th 2009 @ 9:25am
elcapitan said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
Josh,
I doubt she was after fame, as she had her face and voice altered to hide her.
One has to remember that this is 4 corners, not TT or ACA. When something is reported by this media outlet, things do happen (corruption in Qld in the 80′s, corruption in sport in NSW). Lets hope that this coverage will make a mark against treatment of women and that players of the future will be less inclined to behave like the old way.
May 12th 2009 @ 9:26am
Redb said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:26am | Report comment
sledgeross,
Depending on the scale of what you call balanced, the program did show a bunch of young players being educated – tick . Which shows the NRL and rugby league are trying to educate. They could have ignored those efforts.
They showed Smith (coach) who clearly is trying to educate ‘young aggressive risk taking individuals’ – could have avoided that as well if they wanted to show a one sided story. ie: not everyone in the game is happy with this behaviour.
It also protrayed ‘charmyne’ in a very poor light – the facebook and sexting set up girl who from any objective analysis is not helping. Could have ignored that angle as well.
Redb
May 12th 2009 @ 9:28am
Diplomatic Immunity said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment
Give me a break. All this bleating about suspending the bloke. Read this,… IT WAS CONENSUAL, NO CHARGES WERE LAID. Do you people understand what the words consensual and no charges actually mean?? The fact that seven years down the track the lady in question decides to have a cry about something she DECIDED and AGREED to do is just ridiculous. Everyone is saying that Johns should be answerable for his actions, well I ask what about her??? Is it illegal, NO, did she voluntarily put herself in that situation YES. I smell a cash grab going on here.
May 12th 2009 @ 9:37am
Hammer said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:37am | Report comment
Having watched that last night I must have been watching a different programme than some on here …. yeah sure the girl consented to sex with a footballer (most probably Johns) … what was pretty evident was she didn’t consent to group sex with up to 12 blokes in the room …. as Redb says she was powerless to stop the endless line of blokes … they’re grubs and to try and wash it away with a well done and a pat on the back a la Vautin shows the level C9 has reached …
and as for no charges – pretty bloody hard when you’ve got the whole team stonewalling the cops v 1 rather young nieve 19 yo …
the John brothers – what a quality couple they are – C9 is definitely the right place for them …
May 12th 2009 @ 9:39am
Rolling Maul said | May 12th 2009 @ 9:39am | Report comment
Was it just me or did the fact that more guys came into the room, crawled through windows raise some grey area’s as to whether or not it was consensual? I got from the show that she may have gone with two of the guys back to their room.. she didn’t consent to the rest of the team coming into the room. I think the fact that John’s later apologised to the girl, he said to Four Corners that he thought this would come back to him and his preemptive apology on the Footy Show shows that he was aware of how this would be viewed by the public.