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The NRL was right to throw the book at James Tamou. Presumably, he will be hit hard in court as well, but that doesn’t mean the NRL shouldn’t have taken the action they did.
I thought about describing the penalty of a $20,000 fine and suspension of one club game for North Queensland and State of Origin II for NSW, which effectively means a further fine of $30,000 since that is the match fee, as ‘harsh, but fair’.
But I didn’t want to look even remotely like I thought the league, which acted in consultation with the Cowboys’ management, had gone even just a little bit over the top.
Penalising footballers for off-field indiscretions is not an exact science, and this is probably one of the more difficult incidents to judge since there is obviously the potential for further strong penalties when Tamou faces court on July 2.
But if the league and Tamou’s club wanted to go this hard, I’ve got no problem with that.
NRL chief executive Dave Smith’s description of the matter as a “high level, high risk, high penalty situation” summed it up pretty well.
Tamou was charged by police after recording an alcohol concentration level of 0.197 when he was pulled over and tested at about 3.30am in a suburb of Townsville on Monday. Tamou was unlicensed as well. It has been reported he has indicated he will plead guilty.
That’s drink-driving with four times the legal limit in your system.
There is no excuse for it, and anyone who drives under those circumstances puts his or her own life and the lives of others at risk.
Some people will argue it is unfair to penalise Tamou so strongly when the vast majority of drink-driving charges against normal citizens don’t attract publicity or cost those who are charged anything outside of what the courts may impose.
But there is a clear difference in that Tamou is a high-profile representative of a major sport and his actions have brought that sport into disrepute.
You can’t expect the NRL not to act, and leave it all up to the courts, when the matter is so serious as to threaten the sport’s integrity if it doesn’t act.
Remember how it was just a few years ago, when there were regular off-field incidents, usually alcohol-related, in which players let the game down?
The league started coming down hard with penalties and now we don’t hear of nearly as many incidents.
It is no different to when the league judiciary started handing down massive penalties in the 1980s for violent conduct on the field – it acted as a deterrent.
The vast majority of people out there – footballers or otherwise – don’t need a deterrent from driving with four times the legal limit of alcohol in them, but it will nevertheless act as one.
Those experienced in the area of trying to attract sponsorship to sport will tell you as well that bad publicity caused by off-field incidents drives potential financial backers away.
That obviously wouldn’t be the major consideration in a case like this – there is a human safety issue here – but every sport has got the right to do what it can to protect its brand.
It didn’t seem likely anything would trump Paul Gallen punching Nate Myles as the Origin news item of choice – at least not until Origin II – but Tamou has sure managed to do that.
And, for what it’s worth, I believe Wests Tigers prop Aaron Woods is the man who should come into the NSW squad for him.
Woods has only recently turned 22, but don’t let that worry you. He talks and plays like someone much more experienced.
I would have said Tim Grant had he been available, but he is dreadfully unlucky to have been injured at the worst possible time.
Amazingly, referees’ boss Daniel Anderson said in the wake of Origin I he was “comfortable” with the decision by the referees not to sin-bin Gallen.
It was as open-and-shut a case for a sin-binning as you will get.
Then, sensibly, NRL boss Smith said violence wouldn’t be tolerated in the remainder of the Origin series and if there was foul play the referees would be expected to enforce the rules, which included the use of the sin bin.
So, if Queensland decide to get square with Gallen, they risk such action coming at a cost.
It just adds more intrigue to a game that already promises to be enthralling to watch.
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