Todd Greenberg has made it clear to all 16 clubs captains after a horror offseason for them to keep their noses clean, from the juniors all the way to the senior staff.
Good on him for this long overdue call – better later than never. What I don’t understand, however, is how he praised Greg Inglis for drink driving and refused to suspend him for putting lives at risks – yet he wants to suspend Dylan Napa for his sex tapes.
Greenberg, I find it impressive telling captains their clubs must step up for their players to stay out of strife, but this will always be marked with you letting Greg Inglis off the hook – and he’s the captain of South Sydney.
As for the whole idea in general, I totally love it. The game is slowly dying with off-field nonsense from the players. We don’t just see them as football players, we see them as role models for the younger generation who see these players as heroes.
When they see them as heroes, they want to reference them as heroes like Spider-Man, Batman and Superman, not any who get drunk and act sarcastic or uncivilised.
I remember mentioning the new policy the Newcastle Knights have and, despite it being totally severe, it could be very effective.
It’s a very high-risk move but we all know the phrase about the higher the risk, the higher the reward. Maybe this will spread through to the other clubs.
From the NRL’s point of view, they need to add on it. If the clubs choose to fine 25 per cent of the yearly salary, leave it as it is.
However, if the incident is so severe the player from any club who caused it has his contract revoked, don’t just stop there.
To show how serious it is, the terminated player shouldn’t just sign with another club right off the bat, he needs to be suspended from the game for 12 months.
In that time, he should take a look at life outside the game. Anything from stacking shelves at Woolworths to working on a construction site.
This way, they can look at it realising they spent 12 months away from the game missing out on what they love doing and they’ll never get it back. This truly teaches them a lesson.
I’ve said before that the board and the player’s union are too soft for their own good – and this offseason proved just that. The time to step up is now!
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