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Sandor Earl painted a very carefully constructed picture during his tell-all interview on The Footy Show. He presented a front of naivety, broken trust and regret.
Now the dust has settled, the most important question we can ask is, why was Sandor driven to do this?
I can believe it all started out in sincerity, but it’s hard to cop that throughout the entirety of his treatment, the penny didn’t drop for Sandor at some point.
However, I’m not here to riff on whether or not Earl is telling the whole truth. For what it’s worth, I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
What I am concerned with, is why he went through with such drastic treatment, whether or not he understood its legality.
Throughout 2013, the NRL faced two of its greatest tragedies in the entire history of rugby league.
Despite what the media would have you believe, no, it was not Josh Dugan. It was not Blake Ferguson.
It was the stories the mainstream media refused to do justice because confronting truths don’t sell newspapers.
It was the horrible deaths of Alex Elisala and Mosese Fotuaika – two young players of promise who were struggling so much mentally they took their own lives.
The same mental anguish was faced by Sandor Earl, staring down the barrel of a double shoulder reconstruction and the end of his rugby league dream, which pushed him into the arms of Stephen Dank.
Mosese, dreadfully homesick according to those who knew him best, fell off the edge after a season-ending pectoral injury.
Friends and teammates of Alex Elisala saw no indication of his impending tragedy. It was a shock to all involved.
I fully believe each club would have done everything in their power to ensure the safety of these players. I don’t wish to disparage their handling of the situations.
However, after these two absolutely horrible events and the story told by Earl, I can’t help but feel the greatest issue in rugby league isn’t player behaviour, it isn’t the biff, it isn’t crowds, it’s isn’t conspiracies and it isn’t drugs.
It’s the mental health of rugby league stars, especially those on the fringes.
We as fans lionise and idolise our rugby league heroes. The greatest of them all, Andrew Johns, turned to party drugs to try and escape the burning spotlight of superstardom.
Many players, from Nathan Hindmarsh to Chris Sandow, tried to hide from the bright lights of rugby league with the bright lights of gambling machines.
Wendell Sailor’s recent biography reveals he turned to binge drinking and supercoach Wayne Bennett feared the larger-than-life character could hurt himself.
We know these stories because they are the men at the forefront of our game. It’s the one who wish to stand in their footsteps who are slipping through the cracks for whom we need to make sure we are doing everything to help; the Earls, the Fotuaikas, the Elisalas.
Perhaps it’s time to re-assess the position of the Holden Cup in the rugby league hierarchy. At such a young age, the pressure of being just one step below the NRL is far too heavy.
Open age reserve grade as the feeder competition allows young players to progress to a competition where they can be mentored by old hard heads that have seen and done it before.
It also gets rid of the situation where players can slip through the cracks if they don’t make it straight to first grade from the NYC.
An increase of the minimum wage and second tier cap wouldn’t go astray either.
Mental health is of great concern to the NRL clubs and they do a great job on the most part, of that I am sure.
But after the events we have seen transpire in 2013, it is time the league as a whole stood up and made the mental health of its players its number one priority.
Follow Pat on Twitter @The_Hoss12
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