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Too late, but not too little: ARLC gets it right on NRL player behaviour policy

28th February, 2019
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Editor
28th February, 2019
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Jack de Belin must be presumed innocent until the opposite is proven. Jack de Belin must not step onto a rugby league field, for the good of the game.

Contrary to what some people think, those two thoughts are not mutually exclusive. They can sit quite comfortably next to one another, and would be doing just that in everyone’s mind if the ARLC’s new policy on standing down players charged with serious criminal offences had been in place long before today.

That is the only fault to be found in that new policy – that it has only now been announced in the midst of a number of high-profile court cases involving prominent NRL players. Had this change been ushered in when no players were facing criminal charges, it’s hard to imagine a similar level of outrage over the decision.

Really, making a player ineligible for selection while they face charges which carry with them a maximum jail term of 11 or more years, or involve violence against women or children, while still paying them their full salary and allowing them to train with their side as per usual seems a common-sense approach.

But instead, today’s announcement has been tied inextricably to the case of Jack de Belin. The fact he was charged with an offence when one policy was in place, only to be stood down now under a brand new one – one which has only been implemented because of the recent “tsunami” (Peter Beattie’s word, not mine) of alleged incidents, including de Belin’s – has clouded the debate, at times centring it around a single player rather than the broader issues it aims to tackle.

Of course, just saying the NRL and ARLC should have introduced this years ago would have a Harry Hindsightesque element to that criticism; easy to say now.

But there’s no doubt it would have been far wiser of them to act last December, well before the start of the season and during a time when media coverage was far more focused on summer sports.

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Instead, we’re having this discussion now, when the policy has seen a player instantly handed a “no-fault stand down” – there’s every chance that number will rise in the coming days, too, as Todd Greenberg weighs up whether to use his discretionary powers in Dylan Walker’s case.

Separate this from Walker and de Belin, though, and what you have is an entirely sensible approach to player misbehaviour.

Rugby league, rightly or wrongly, has a wretched reputation. Creating this kind of ‘line in the sand’-type policy, creating a clear threshold and outlining what criminal charges players will be stood down for, sends the right message: that the NRL has no tolerance for serious violent crimes, including those committed against women and children, or sexual assault.

ARL Commission Chairman Peter Beattie speaks to the media

ARLC chairman Peter Beattie. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

That players will still train with their club sides and be paid their full salary if they’re stood down is a sensible, necessary step, both from a presumption of innocence and player wellbeing perspective.

So too is the provision for the NRL to grant sides salary cap if they have a squad member stood down – although you’d imagine it’d be awfully tricky to find a comparable replacement for someone of, say, de Belin’s skill so close to the start of the season.

Ultimately, we have a sensible solution which will go some way to rebuilding the NRL’s public image.

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Not that everything’s locked in yet. RLPA CEO Ian Prendergast, as expected, stated his organisation are against the changes, citing concerns around the presumption of innocence, and are considering their legal options. We’re still awaiting de Belin’s response. This isn’t a matter which you can see being concluded before Round 1 gets underway in a fortnight.

But just because it’s going to drag on a while longer should not detract from the policy itself.

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