Rugby league can’t stop the Monday Madness

 
Hayley Byrnes Roar Guru

By , 11 Oct 2012 Hayley Byrnes is a Roar Guru

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    Mad Monday. For over four seasons, those two words ran through me like a cold chill, the fear and anxiety alone would cause me to turn from a calm girlfriend to a paranoid version of my former self.

    Ringing in sick to work the following morning having had no sleep due to not knowing if my then boyfriend was alive or in a gutter somewhere, was an annual occurrence.

    Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all about the comradery and I support boys being boys. I love that this is the only time of the year strapping 6″4′ men can get drunk, get into a cuddle and declare their love for one another all while dressed up as Minnie Mouse.

    I’ve even played host when I had to put up with very intoxicated men (invited by my drunk partner at the time), all turned up at 6pm Monday night looking for food. One had lost his shoes, another couldn’t even string two words together.

    “Yes you can eat my pizza,” I muttered, 20 minutes later there was no food left in the house and they were off on another inebriated adventure, leading to a 5am call from my ex to say they were going on a boat and he’ll see me in a couple of days. Good times.

    My only real concern with any Mad Monday was this: the fear of my partner being so gone he would end up in a dangerous situation, or even worse one he would regret (cue mass orgies or overdosing).

    See when you attend a Mad Monday you are in it for the long haul. All or nothing. Don’t want to drink that shot? Do it you poof! Don’t want that little white pill? Drink this spiked water instead. Trying to backdoor it before the sun comes up? Not a chance, lockdown it is.

    Sadly for the recent events that have followed the Canterbury Bulldogs Mad Monday celebrations, we now have a new cloud over an already touchy subject.

    Truth be told, if those cameras were never there this tiresome story would never have surfaced, and for the record I believe whatever the team wants to do in their own club, they should be left to do without cameras trying to find a headline.

    ARLC interim chief executive Shane Mattiske has now come out and called for a ban on Mad Mondays for NRL clubs, an opinion which is clearly ridiculous and unjust.

    “People should be able to celebrate the end of a season but regardless of whether it is at the end of the season or any other time of the year, they have a responsibility to abide by the game’s agreed code of behaviour,” he said.

    “There is no place for ‘mad’ behaviour at any level in our game. Calling something Mad Monday is almost an excuse to go over the top and it is time for clubs across all levels of the game to seriously review how end-of-year celebrations are planned.”

    Maybe Mr Mattiske is just trying to look the part and put on his responsible hat. Every sports team celebrates with an end of season booze fest, and if you are in the top grade and have trained your butt off for up to 40 weeks a year, then you deserve to let it all out and celebrate your teams triumphs and downfalls.

    Mattiske is right, however, in saying it isn’t a good look for the game. But every other Super 15, AFL and cricket team are victorious in having Mad Mondays without the media scrutiny, so why is it that we look upon the NRL end of year shindig as a story waiting to happen?

    Now the scenarios I mentioned earlier are a fact when it comes to Mad Monday, and you simply cannot have famous footballers off chops in public. Unfortunate as it is, I believe nowadays every high-profile club needs a sober PR/Media man on sight to oversee any possible scenario that could jeopardize the clubs image.

    It’s not babying the players, it’s simply taking the responsibility for teams getting maggoted and making sure that they give journalists nothing to write about.

    So long live Mad Monday I say. Stay mad, just try to do it laying low and with Minnie Mouse ears still in tact.

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