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Fellow Roarers, I have an issue I would like to hear your thoughts on. Does violence have a place in rugby league?
Before you all roll your eyes at me, just take a minute okay?
I have a legitimate concern here and I’ll tell you why.
I coach rugby league at a schoolboy and junior club level. I am responsible for boys across a range of ages: 13–17 roughly, but sometimes I have players a little younger.
We play in both the local club and local schoolboy competitions, both of which are usually administered by the ARL and CRL (about to be known as NRL Development).
If one of my boys throws a punch on the field (as has happened to us at critical times this year), he is not only sent off but he is banned for a week.
If the player he assaults punches back, then he too gets sent off and has an automatic one week ban.
The local judiciary can then look at the severity of the incident and make the suspension longer if need be. If it happens at a school game, then the consequence applies to his club games as well.
Now, I don’t have a problem with this. In fact, I think it is useful to have a blanket policy like this because it means there is no grey area: everyone understands the rule (comes under the SAFE PLAY CODE) and the consequences if it is broken.
Not only that, but I don’t want my players thinking belting an opposition player is a useful tactic.
I want them on the field using their strength and skill within the laws of the game to win. I don’t want them out there bashing the daylights out of the opposition.
It doesn’t matter what age the player. If they compete in junior club level or a schoolboy comp, then rules are the same.
But when my boys turn on the TV on Friday night to watch the footy, they see players – professionals who make a living from the sport – belting each other with no apparent consequence.
Either that or they are sin binned for 10 minutes.
They can get a ban from the judiciary for high tackles, for cheap shots, for dangerous play, but not for punching each other?
I am worried about the contradiction of the message this sends my players.
For example, someone like Israel Folou, who debuted for the Storm at 17 years of age … if he played in a school game and threw a punch, then he would be gone from the field immediately.
But if he did the EXACT SAME THING in the NRL he wouldn’t.
This is one of the major dilemmas of our glorious sport. I know that the ‘biff’ has played a big role in the history of rugby league and I know that when I am watching State of Origin and they start belting each other, it gets exciting.
But I also know that restraining yourself and not expressing anger through physical violence is a skill a lot of boys I teach desperately need to learn.
So rugby league needs to decide: which is it?
Because, as any parent will tell you, if you TELL your kids one thing and then they SEE you doing the opposite, 9 times out of 10 they will do what they see you do, not what you tell them not to do.
We can’t exist in this state of one set of rules for some players and different rules when they get successful.
It doesn’t make sense, it hurts the game, and it makes us look like hypocrites when we are giving a half time talk to our team and telling them not to resort to violence.
I’d like to hear your thoughts.
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