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Today the NRL officially fined Cronulla Shark and NSW captain Paul Gallen $50,000 over his controversial tweet following the announcement of Steve Noyce’s dismissal from the club.
For the purposes of this I won’t be making any comment regarding the reports in the Daily Telegraph earlier re: Gal’s battle with depression. I don’t even pretend to understand the disease and won’t comment any further other than to wish those affected all the best.
As well as the fine, Gallen has also been banned from representing the Australian Kangaroos in 2015 until he completes a leadership course in the future.
There is also talk of the NRL putting pressure on the NSWRL to strip Gallen of the NSW Blues State of Origin captaincy.
Straight up, Gal’s tweet was inappropriate and uncalled for, but the punishment is massive overkill, at least in my eyes.
Johnathan Thurston in years gone by flatly accused the NRL of a conspiracy to ensure his North Queensland Cowboys side did not progress deep into the finals. The basis of this was Thurston’s assertion that the NRL wanted an all-Sydney grand final.
His punishment? No sanction.
Gallen, on his private Twitter account, called a group of people a rude word. Possibly the rudest word – and for the record I am not defending the tweet.
I’ve managed to use social media for years without ever using the word in question, but there are thousands of fans who call people worse every single day.
Gallen should have known better, and should be punished for his actions. In his position, you simply can’t use that kind of language toward the people who are directly or indirectly your boss.
If you spoke to your boss tomorrow in the same way, I bet it wouldn’t end well.
But $50,000 and a ban from representing the national side?
A $10,000 ban and severe warning to not re-offend would surely have sufficed. It’s not like Gallen has been known to sit on Twitter and abuse everyone and everything.
This was a one off tweet, I suspend whilst enjoying a few beverages, which is a result of two years of extreme pressure and career altering headlines.
No excuses though, he shouldn’t have said what he did, but there is no way he should have copped a $50,000 fine and banned from representing his country. It’s massive overkill by the NRL.
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