- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Roosters star Todd Carney's career could be over. (AAP Image/Sergio Dionisio)
Finally the issue has focused on Todd Carney the person and not Carney the rugby league star. The two are completely different. Carney the person is clearly not well. NRL CEO David Gallop said he was a “troubled soul.” That’s a pretty big statement from a man not prone to hyperbole.
Todd Carney the rugby league star, in contrast, is completely in control of his actions and aware of the consequences of every move he makes.
He’s confident and in a place where everything makes sense. 99 times out of 100 events pan out as he imagines.
For too long, it was thought these two sides of the Dally M medal winner had to co-exist. One surely couldn’t survive without the other. Playing footy was surely the best thing for him.
But even Gallop was forced to admit last night that his issues can’t be solved by “just thinking footy will fix it.”
If anything, footy has made it worse.
It’s simply too hard for a young man to recover from such significant issues while also worrying about form and fitness.
Being one of the most recognisable faces in Sydney doesn’t help either.
Sure, no-one would’ve recognised him if he stayed at home, but the city is a big place with many temptations.
Carney, for now, needs to forget about football. He needs to forget it exists and concentrate on fixing whatever issues has led to him being labelled a “troubled soul.”
Roosters CEO Steve Noyce, after suspending Carney indefinitely, said he’d be guided by medical professionals when mapping out the future.
That will be the hard part. What can they really tell Noyce?
He has a player on his hands who has a self-confessed problem with alcohol.
Can he play out the rest of his career without touching the drink again?
If the answer is no then what do they do with him?
You’d be foolish to think other clubs wouldn’t be lining up if the Roosters were forced to sack him in the future.
Does that serve the best interests of the club or the player? Definitely not.
The other problem for the club is that Carney hasn’t done anything illegal. He broke promises made to the NRL and the Roosters, but that isn’t against the law. The fall from such a lofty pedestal was always going to hurt.
No wonder Noyce looked like a man who’d spent the past 48 hours scratching his head. What was he within his rights to do?
Phone calls to medical experts aren’t the usual domain of a CEO.
Noyce has copped his fair share of criticism throughout this latest saga, but he could hardly have done any more.
It would’ve been easy for him to fine Carney so hard his hip pocket would hurt for weeks, but that wouldn’t have fixed the problem.
The harder option has been to exercise his duty of care and ignore calls for him to swing the axe.
This may not fix the problem either, but at least it may go some way to helping Carney the person, while Carney the rugby league player gets a much needed rest.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.