There truly is never a dull day in the life of a rugby league lover.
Over the past year, I have been so impressed with the direction our sport is going. In the past year alone, the sport has achieved so much.
Under the leadership of people like Dave Smith, I have seen real change, with bold visions for the governance structures of our clubs, the participation of the players in various community initiatives and the commitment to ensure that we have diversity at all levels of the game.
The NRL is truly heading in the right direction.
However, if we are going to take this game into the next century and ensure its survival for generations to come, then everyone (and I mean everyone) needs to come along for the ride.
It was with tremendous disappointment that I kept my ear very close to the ground on Friday and heard whispers that a series of Gold Coast Titans players had been involved in a drug scandal. The story has developed over the weekend, with it being announced today that Greg Bird and Big Dave Taylor (one of my favourites) have been stood down by the Titans after being linked to the scandal.
They join other members of the Titans – Beau Falloon, Jamie Dowling and Kalifa Faifai Loa – in being served with notices to appear in court. Already there is talk of more than 100 people being involved in what will be an ongoing investigation. The TAB has already shutdown its markets for the wooden spoon this year.
When I heard about this news I was embarrassed and disappointed. Embarrassed because I have once again found myself defending the sport I love to detractors, all because of the alleged actions of a couple of buffoons. Embarrassed because I could spend all day talking about the excellent work in the community that so many players and clubs are committed to. I’m disappointed as a fan and disappointed for the administration, who must feel like they are taking one step forward and two steps back.
I cannot stress this enough – this, coupled with the issues that the Titans are facing in their back office, is enough to destroy the club. In addition to this drug scandal, Gold Coast are a club which is struggling financially in a major way. They do not have a sponsor for this year, and following the events of the last few days are unlikely to find one.
We have seen the impact that a scandal of this size can have on a club. The Sharks are still reeling following the ASADA drug scandal almost two years on. It creates uncertainty for fans, sponsors, the team and any players who would have had a potential interest in coming to the club. All these factors combined will almost certainly lead to one thing – financial devastation.
Kudos to the NRL and Dave Smith however for coming out strong. Dave Smith has promised that he will be coming down hard on the players involved. This is consistent with the approach that the new leadership has shown towards players behaving badly and sends a strong message that this behaviour will not be tolerated.
Rugby league is a microcosm of society. There will always be mistakes and there will always be players who bring the game into disrepute. However, the charges which are looking to be levelled at these players are extremely serious and the NRL is correct in taking a strong stance towards them.
Our game is a business and these players are causing damage to our brand. Damage to a brand which other players and other stakeholders in the game work hard to create and to preserve. This is another opportunity for the NRL to say no to this sort of behaviour and send a clear message to the community that the rugby league community will not tolerate behaviour of this nature.
To the Gold Coast Titans fans out there – I urge you to be brave and stick with your club. They need you more than ever.
@ladieswholeague
Kirk
Guest
Rugby has relied on its upper class "top notch" private school roots for decades and look where it is now. It would kill to have some of the working class grass roots that League has. This snobby outlook has almost killed the domestic game in this country. By the way, I am a League supporter and I'm not blue collar. In fact I work in a large corporate office and there's a few AFL mad people, but guess what? they're all from Victoria. The water cooler talk is still dominated by League. The office tipping comp is NRL.
conchie
Roar Rookie
Then you would be wrong, the AFL draws it's supporters and players from across the demographics far more than RL, many many AFL players are private school boys, from the top notch schools in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and increasingly Sydney and Brisbane as well as disadvantaged public schools. The NRL seems to be increasingly full of players from NZ and the pacific islands, the traditional working class base out West in Sydney and Brisbane and country still exists but nowhere the strength of what it was. RL has always been a blue collar game, supported and played by that demo, it has little traction outside, in essence it seems to be used as click bait for newspapers, just one off field drama after another.
conchie
Roar Rookie
I would agree.
Wayne Lovell
Roar Guru
I agree with you there, I have been staunchly defending the Titans for a few weeks, I didn't think they would finish that low. This has knocked the wind right out of my sails with that argument.
AR
Guest
"And for me as a fan it wasn’t just because they had previous success and the big 4 (at the time) but because they came out and stuck strong and put 100% effort into all their remaining games even though they were literally pointless games." That's a very good point. The Storm were very professional and impressive the way the played for the remainder of that season. Earned my respect anyway.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
He plays for the wolves now doesn't he? Pretty ironic.
Epiquin
Roar Guru
No probs Sprucey. Will DD, That was League, sadly...
Joe
Roar Rookie
Agree with this. Sure did work for the Storm. And for me as a fan it wasn't just because they had previous success and the big 4 (at the time) but because they came out and stuck strong and put 100% effort into all their remaining games even though they were literally pointless games. Just to see that effort and commitment was pretty inspiring right down to the last game where every player who was leaving managed to score points. Hopefully it is the same for the Titans, doesn't necessarily mean they have to win the premiership or top 8 but if they use that siege mentality to turn up every week with 100% effort win, lose or draw I think the fans will stick strong and the club will do well.
pjm
Roar Rookie
That's very prejudicial of you.
AR
Guest
The obvious difference between Essendon and the Storm, and the Titans, is that Essendon have generations of success and culture going back 150 years (the Storm with recent success and with future Immortals). The Titans have nothing like that. In fact, they've been on the nose for the last few years. It'll be much harder to stir up a usually-apathetic Gold Coast support base.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
I'm not sure that's true compared to AFL. Both would draw massively from those populations in the states they are most popular in.
spruce moose
Guest
Ah, I misunderstood you epiquin. My bad.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
My favourite was the dog rooter from canberra.
Epiquin
Roar Guru
It's still bad, but there just doesn't seem to be the same moral outrage from the soccer-mum set. Usually they would be getting vocal with their "typical football misogyny" arguments. But this time, most would probably look at these guys and think "I can name 10 friends right now who are into that..."
Epiquin
Roar Guru
Ken, BL, I'm disappointed that you even bothered to respond to this obvious trolling attempt.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
You would hope so, but were these players getting counselled? And even if they were, with so many involved, wouldn't you need to take a big look at the culture of the club that has been created? Something is seriously wrong, and it starts with fixing that front office. Set up avenues for whistleblowing anonymously etc so those players who don't approve, or those around the club that see it happening can report it and not lose there job or the clubs confidence in them.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
The Essendon siege campaign was probably ill conceived. They should've had people standing behind the club rather than Hird, but you can't always control that. Storm on the other hand are still making progress with many fans still thinking their club is entitled to have those two premierships reinstated despite blatantly cheating. ( please storm fans just give it a rest. Even if everyone else were doing it you're the ones who got caught so you're the ones who got punished) The sharks have all but come through the other side of their dramas, and not only are they all but set financially for many years to come, they've got a new board that know what their doing, a good playing roster that should start getting results, a good coach who was "punished" with a year long paid holiday which ended with a pay rise and contract extension, and a healthy number of loyal fans who stuck with them through the whole ordeal.
Boundary Line
Guest
Yes, frequently ugly, season in, season out. As Robin Williams said, "cocaine is god warning that you are earning way too much money" . And have no brains.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I agree. That's pretty central to this issue. From a moral point of view a crime against another such as rape, assault, etc are in a completely different league to drugs possession or use. Distribution is a bit more of a grey issue.
clipper
Guest
I suspect that's a fair assessment, spruce moose.