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The Roar

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SPIRO: A win for Hunt and a defeat for the Reds is a loss-loss result

8th March, 2015
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Karmichael Hunt took drugs because he wanted to, that's hard to prevent. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt
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8th March, 2015
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Karmichael Hunt has played a better game in reducing his cocaine charges to a non-conviction, a small court fine ($2,500), a larger fine from the Queensland Rugby Union ($30,000) and a six-week suspension than he did on the field for the Reds against the Brumbies.

As the Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph points out, one of his props received a five-weeks suspension for punching, which puts Hunt’s six-weeks suspension in a somewhat contentious light.

The financial penalties, too, are very light when it is understood that Hunt earns about $750,000 a year from the Queensland Rugby Union.

He has been stripped of his vice-captaincy position by the Queensland Rugby Union, which is nothing more than a tap on the wrist as a punishment given the fact that the Wallabies coach still reckons that Hunt is among the possibilities to make the Australian squad that contests the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament in England.

For two reasons, I think this redemptive approach to Hunt is overly generous. First, he has shown nothing in his one Super Rugby game to suggest that he is anywhere up to the level required of an international rugby player. And second, there should be an element of purging the harm Hunt has done to the image of rugby.

That purging element should be a ban on him playing for the Wallabies (if he is good enough, which I doubt) until, at the earliest, next year.

Anyone who watched the excellent Queensland rugby writer Jim Tucker try and suppress his disapproval of the relatively lenient treatment of Hunt by the Queensland Rugby Union, despite the unctuous promptings by the Rugby HQ panelists for him to approve the punishment, will be in no doubt concerning the anger in the rugby community about the entire Hunt matter.

As Wayne Smith pointed out in The Australian, Hunt ‘clearly, has a problem’ with cocaine use. His bust was not for some Mad Monday escapade. He was charged with four separate cocaine purchases in a one-month period. This suggests a habit.

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He has to undergo a drug rehabilitation program. But is the six weeks long enough for this program to do its job?

Having said all this, it has to be conceded that the Queensland Rugby Union has handled this Hunt matter will some skill. What it could do was compromised significantly by the fact that Hunt was an AFL player on the dates in question (1 September 2014, 8 September 8, September 27 and October 3).

As an important aside, the silence of the AFL on their responsibilities concerning Hunt during this time is shameful. Were they aware of previous infringements regarding illicit drugs use by Hunt? Were they aware of those noted in the court case?

It is important to make the point that these incidents happened some weeks before Hunt signed on to the Queensland Rugby Union and presumably when he was negotiating his contract. He knew he was using cocaine. He knew that this was illegal behaviour.

Part of the anger expressed against Hunt is that he must have known that he was deceiving the Queensland Rugby Union about being a fit and proper person to be major signing for the Reds.

What Hunt told the Queensland Rugby Union or did not tell the Queensland Rugby Union during his negotations with them is a matter than needs to be resolved. Was he questioned about whether he used illicit drugs? If he was, what was his answer? If he wasn’t, why wasn’t he asked?

No matter what your attitude is to drug use, the fact is that the use of many recreational drugs is illegal. The ARU, correctly recognising this fact, is extending their illicit drug testing protocol to Super Rugby coaches as a sign of their intent to ensure the integrity of the rugby code in the eyes of supporters.

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Stephen Larkham is quoted by Chris Dutton in The Sun-Herald making the point that ‘even coaches are getting tested now. It’s a firm stance … but they’re illicit drugs so it’s appropriate … I know that Wendell Sailor was playing rugby when he was tested and that was a blight on him and the sport. But we’ve got a fairly strong culture.’

Right on!

I am finding Larkham impressive in his commentary before and after matches about issues confronting rugby, and his presentation of the Brumbies as a team that is playing attractive and winning rugby. His forthright and intelligent comments show a maturity that marks him out as a future Wallaby coach and a leader in the worldwide rugby community.

The sort of position that Wayne Bennett has gained in the NRL as a deep thinker and leader about league issues is where Larkham is heading in rugby.

Tied up with this mess that Karmichael Hunt has bequeathed rugby is an ongoing discussion about the issue of sports people being role models, and what this means.

In my view everyone in every occupation is a role model. I cannot think of any occupation where the people fronting are not seen as role models by someone.

This argument that athletes sign on to play sport and not to be regarded by fans as role models is, therefore, utter nonsense. Part of the income that the top athletes receive is based on the fact that supporters identify with them. Why would a fan buy the number 10 Reds jersey of Quade Cooper, say, unless they identify with Cooper.

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A significant part of an athlete’s income comes from this identification factor. Why would Fox Sports pay Israel Folau a lot of money to come on programs like Rugby HQ, if he didn’t have a huge profile among rugby supporters?

The smart athletes know this. They are very conscious of their image and how they present to the outside world. This sort of behaviour is good for them and good for their sport.

Increasingly, too, rugby players (and athletes from many other sports) are using their role model status to push causes that they are passionate about.

We have seen here in Australia, for example, David Pocock being charged (with charges dismissed) for illegal trespass in the cause of preventing the exploitation of farm lands for gas exploration.

On Saturday night, when the Reds were being smashed by the Waratahs, Matt Toomua, along with some other prominent athletes, including his partner Elyse Perry, was on a float that was part of the Gay Mardi Gras.

On Saturday, too, Stephen Moore as ‘a Wallaby and captain of the Brumbies Super Rugby team’ published a thoughtful article in The Australian urging men to join the campaign to upgrade women’s rights.

These players have to accept that no matter how worthy their cause that there will be some people who disagree with their activities and arguments. It is a free country, though, and we are all entitled to our opinions, including athletes. Being seen as a role model does not mean having to suppress passionately held beliefs.

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Getting back to the Hunt matter, the Queensland Rugby Union has won praise for the expert way it handled what was potentially an explosive issue. This expertise reflects the fact that the franchise is extremely well run, off the field. They have a larger membership than the Waratahs. Their crowd numbers are much higher. They are apparently running at a profit.

But what happens on the field, as the Auckland Blues franchise will attest, is the real issue as it involves the financial viability of the franchise.

The Reds were woeful against the Waratahs. The famed Reds do-or-die resistance was not there. There did not seem to be a game plan, a way of actually winning the game which is in contrast, say, to the Highlanders opportunistic and gritty play to defeat the Chiefs at Hamilton. Even the most fervent supporter is going to be reluctant to go to the ground to see this rubbish.

Why was Liam Gill, who is the build of a rangy winger, used as the Reds battering ram to take the ball into the heart of the Wartatahs big-man defence?

Even more significant for the long term success of the Reds is the fact that players who should be leading the team are playing poorly. We were promised, for instance, that James O’Connor had come back from a stint of playing in Europe a better man and player.

Well, he isn’t a better player. On the form he is showing in his first two matches should not make the Wallabies starting XV.

The Brumbies wingers (Joe Tomane and Henry Speight), for instance, were far more impressive last weekend.

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O’Connor seems to have done all his off-field chores and duties with diligence. But his on-field performances against the Highlanders and Waratahs were extremely disappointing.

The Reds coaching staff must have rued the day they let Mike Harris go to the Rebels as they watched O’Connor miss kicks at goal which might have helped the Reds start within a remote distance, instead of being out-of-sight, of the Waratahs.

When O’Connor took the ball up against the Waratahs from fullback, he just ran into tacklers. What is this about?

Even this early in the 2015 Super Rugby season it is clear that two sides at least, the Blues and the Reds, need to get new coaches next season.

In the spirit of generosity to two beleagured franchises, I offer the names of Robbie Deans or Graham Henry (this time as head coach and not as an assistant) as a possible head coach of the Blues.

And for the Reds, Pat Howard.

Greg Growden on ESPN Rugby has mentioned Howard for the Waratahs head coach job. I think that this job is signed, sealed and waiting to be delivered to Darryl Gibson. Anyway, Howard is better suited to the Reds. He was schooled in Brisbane and played for the Queensland Reds.

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He is/was one of the most brilliant thinkers on rugby matters, especially on back play. His father Jake Howard played prop for the Wallabies and his grandfather was the immortal Cyril Towers, a centre for the Wallabies like Pat Howard, and one of the creators of Australia’s gift to world rugby – the Randwick flat back line. This was the running game as played by the Galloping Greens in their glory days of Ken Catchpole and later the fabulous Ellas and David Campese.

As I write this I get a thrill at these memories. I reckon that the smart Reds management should make Pat Howard an offer he can’t refuse to coach the Reds so that the excellence of the franchise off the field is matched by an equal excellence on the field.

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