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On Monday, the NRL handed down their punishment to Paul Gallen for the comments he made on Twitter last week.
Gallen was fined $50,000 and will also be ineligible for selection in the Australian team next year if he does not successfully complete a leadership course.
Looking at this incident in isolation, the punishment is fair. Given Gallen’s stature in the NRL, there is a higher expectation of him. It is not ok for any player to make those types of comments publicly, let alone a club and state captain.
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However, if you compare this incident to some other recent indiscretions, the NRL were harsh on Gallen.
In 2014 Mitchell Pearce was stood down for one game and fined $20,000 after being arrested in Kings Cross for failing to leave a licensed premise when asked.
Konrad Hurrell was fined $5,000 when an inappropriate video was leaked online. While it wasn’t anything illegal, it was a very bad look for Hurrell and for the game.
In 2013 James Tamou missed a State of Origin game and was fined $20,000 by the NRL for drink driving.
Nathan Peats missed one game and was fined $10,000, half of which was suspended, for an incident that occurred at a friend’s wedding last year.
Gallen definitely deserved to be punished for his actions, however players who ended up in front of a judge received lighter punishment.
The NRL are doing a great job about taking a stand against players who do the wrong thing but what we need is consistency. There needs to be a grading system for player indiscretions, similar to how the current match review system works for on-field foul play.
A benchmark needs to be set by the NRL. When an incident occurs, the Integrity Unit investigate and reviews the incident and then apply a grading, using the benchmark that has been set. The grading will determine how many games the player will miss and how much they are fined. Any players who receive the highest grading would have their playing contracted terminated.
Demerit points will also be applied to each grading, which will stay with the player for a certain time period. If repeat offences occur, these demerit points will be applied on top of the grading given for that offence, which will increase the overall grading and in turn see a larger punishment.
Any fines paid should also be donated to a charity linked to the indiscretion.
We will no doubt see inconsistency between gradings at times, this system will definitely improve the inconsistency of the punishments we are currently seeing.
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