- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Manly Sea Eagles' Brett Stewart scores a try during their World Club Challenge rugby league match against Leeds Rhinos at Elland Road Stadium, Leeds, England, Sunday, March 1, 2009. AP Photo/Paul Thomas
At the end of this year’s Grand Final, you could cut the tension with a knife as Brett Stewart and David Gallop came face to face for the first time since Stewart was suspended at the beginning of the 2009 season. No one was quite sure what to think.
The facial expressions showed some animosity, yet the handshake suggested something agreeable.
For a brief moment, everyone dared to believe that the pair had buried the hatchet, and the media reported that the feud was finally over.
However, since Sunday, other media outlets have revealed that the Manly fullback had audaciously demanded an apology from Gallop as the CEO congratulated him on the Sea Eagles premiership victory in front of 80,000 fans.
After all, this time Stewart still wants everyone to believe he is a victim.
A court of law found he was the victim of false allegations of sexual assault, and now he wants the rest of Australia to believe that he is also a victim of an NRL agenda against him.
It is difficult to comprehend how Stewart has arrived at this conclusion. While everyone seems to have an opinion on this matter, and admittedly the NRL has struggled with consistency when dealing with players’ off-field indiscretions, there is one thing I believe Stewart seems to have forgotten in his crusade: he was drunk.
The start of 2009 should have seen Brett Stewart on top of the world. He’d won a premiership with Manly, made a successful origin debut and been chosen by the NRL as the face of its new marketing strategy.
However, it all came crashing down the night he was refused service for being intoxicated, and at an official NRL function no less.
If Stewart hadn’t had too much to drink that night, his life would most likely have taken a different route.
He probably would not have been suspended for bringing the game in to disrepute and, if he had, he may actually have been entitled to seek an apology from the NRL with any sort of legitimacy.
In fact, if he hadn’t been drunk, he would have found it a lot easier to defend himself against allegations of sexual assault.
Yet despite being drunk at an official function in which he was representing the NRL as a high profile player, Stewart, and indeed many in the Manly administration, still seem to think he deserves an apology from Gallop.
It is hard to imagine a high profile employee in any other industry who would demand an apology after being reprimanded for misconduct which tarnishes the company’s reputation.
It is even harder to think of an industry in which a high profile employee is free to bad-mouth their CEO to the media.
Most industries, rugby league included, have a union which defends employees against mistreatment and it seems the NRL players’ union has been deafeningly quiet on this matter.
The problem for Stewart is that the longer this carries on, the more it damages the Brett Stewart brand, because it seems there are few outside the Manly fraternity, who believe he deserves vindication.
Nowhere was this more evident than at ANZ Stadium itself when Stewart’s name and image appeared on the big screen before the game. The jeers and boos were louder than than any players’ crowd reaction before or during the match.
While he may still be popular with the maroon and white crowd, the rest of the the League community are beginning to see him as little more than a whinger; a man who, despite hitting rock-bottom and taking nearly two years to fully recover, still hasn’t learned his lesson.
It may be too late for Stewart to repair the damage done to his image. It would have been easy for him to apologise for his behaviour, show the NRL and its fans he had turned over a new leaf by moving on and conducting himself in a way that shows he is truly sorry.
Unfortunately for him, on-field performance is just not enough. Had he taken the high road, he may well have come across as the bigger man.
For the meantime, however, the NRL has moved on, the fans have moved on and the only reputation in disrepute, is that of Brett Stewart.
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.