- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
All intrepid extra-terrestrials landing in Sydney for the first time this week would’ve assumed the National Rugby League to be the most significant assemblage of barbaric reptilia this side of Roswell.
But I’m here to set straight those opinionated and nosey aliens.
Contrary to the crime pages and reality, such assumptions are unfair and inaccurate.
Sure, the Roosters may be operating like the fifth division of Silverwater Correctional, plus there’s been the game’s fair share of bad eggs along the journey. But not all professional rugby league players are pisswrecks, derelicts and yardbirds.
After a long week where the game copped quite the bum rap, I’m here to hose down this damaging stereotype by providing a platform for the voiceless good guys among the ripped and wealthy of rugby league.
So armed with a feeling of goodwill and some mace, I’ve been pounding the pavement to smoke out some of those good news stories that are so unfairly eclipsed by the nefarious actions of the small 97 per cent minority.
Initially, it was tough – a lot of the virtuous ones seemed to be unavailable while attending appointments like training, marketing opportunities and parole.
But after some gentle encouragement and chequebook baiting, eventually the unsung heroes began to surface.
What did I discover?
I met many, many modest professional footballers, all so humble and grounded that they pleaded to remain anonymous for this exercise, concerned it may be viewed as a selfish grab for exposure or used as evidence.
Here are their stories.
1. Did you know a large chunk of footballers selflessly opt for only one salary from their club?
Yep, you wouldn’t know it, but there’s guys out there who insist on signing only a solitary contract with their employer.
These heroes take one for the team by complying with all conditions of transaction, foregoing any deceitful duplication of income streams, and even going as far as declaring all of their free flights and speedboats. I know, right?
And even though they were reluctant to say for fear of appearing boastful, a lot of these guys also pay the appropriate amount of income tax.
The best of the lot is Player X from one Queensland club. Not only is he up-to-date with his child support payments, he once declared almost half of what he received in a bumbag full of $20s.
Why aren’t the piranha journalists clamouring to print this?
2. Did you know some footballers are active anti-drug campaigners in their spare time?
It’s one of the 56 biggest issues in rugby league, but thankfully a percentage of the playing community are fair dinkum serious about drugs in sport. Take for example one 200-gamer from a prominent Western Sydney club.
I won’t sugarcoat it; this guy used to do a lot of drugs. Heaps, as in, he was three orders away from having a suburb named after him in Bogota.
But after one 72-hour day of inappropriately utilising his mirror, he used it to take a long hard look at himself.
Here, he experienced a psychedelic epiphany and realised that drugs have no place at the forefront of professional sports, and from that day on he changed for the better.
So while he still does a lot of drugs, the difference is these days, he does it surreptitiously.
That’s right. Now it’s never in front of kids, the elderly, club suits or camera phones, he takes that stuff to hotel rooms and his dashboard at traffic lights.
Why? Because he’s a role model for the up-and-comers. He’s also on a good behaviour bond.
It’s a story that simply screams ‘positive’. More of it, please.
3. Did you know there’s players who devote their spare time to helping charitable organisations?
It’s hard to believe when someone works a gruelling 25-hour week that they could spare time to help the needy. But you know what? There’s plenty of them out there.
Some even perform up to 30 minutes of charity work bi-annually, sometimes even outside of a community service order.
Take this regular first-grader from one of the NRL’s expansion franchises. He courageously gives time to assisting local dog shelters, despite it being a hazardous choice of philanthropy given the current reputation league has earned itself in the canine community.
But no need to whip out your camera phone – this gentleman is no canine casanova. He takes in abandoned dogs and nurtures them with healthy diet and exercise before helping them settle in new homes.
Well, most of them anyway. He usually keeps the good ones for underground dog-fighting rings.
But under no circumstances does he try to date them. That’s because he’s serious about animal rights.
Don’t see that as the lead story on the nightly news, do you?
4. Did you know there are players who have rebounded from serious transgressions to enjoy fruitful careers?
Yes, you’re right. Sometimes the ‘R’ in ‘NRL’ could stand for recidivism. But not all offenders burn a path back and forth to the Integrity Unit. Some are even so well rehabilitated that they only choose to drink-drive in daylight hours.
Take Player X from one particular Sydney team. He was crippled by his own inability to understand the concept of social media.
That tricky ‘send’ button stumped him every time, resulting in a raft of abuse on various platforms towards the game’s CEO. It cost him dearly.
But after his club paid his $50,000 fine while he served a three-game suspension in the trials, the penny dropped on sensible mobile phone use.
Now he only uses his device strictly for emergencies or secretly filming colleagues at Australia Day parties.
Thoroughly deserving of a headline somewhere, in my opinion.
5. Did you know some footballers refuse to participate in Mad Monday?
This is mainly because they are elsewhere, probably in remand or sleeping with the wife of a teammate.
Nevertheless, they aren’t off-chops in Kings Cross, wearing a pink blouse and chatting up a street sign, are they?
C’mon, media types. Any danger of this seeing some decent column space?
A bit of balance in your reporting please.