Should NRL players have social media?

I was expecting a sooky Newcastle Knights article.

Maybe they should mate, the world would be a better place. I agree criticism does help but only if its constructive. People these days especially of social media give criticism without justification. Its like me saying your article is $hit. (Which is not by the way, its completely valid) with no reasoning to why i felt the article was not to my particluarly liking. Thats the problem with social media, you can say what you want without consequence. No one is going to reach through the computer and punch you in the face for commenting on social media. No fear of consequence, chaos runs wild. Having said that though. Once again words can only hurt you if you let them so again, HARDEN THE F*UCK UP!!!!!

I think there are some underlying issues here. Some players need coaching outside of the game. Has anybody sat down with Josh Maquire and explained the pitfalls of playing the villain? Personal branding? Not only to him, but his family? Also, the question needs to be asked around the influence of gambling and social media behaviour. There is so much promotion on gambling in the NRL - losing money can do funny things to people. I don’t understand the racism stuff though -no excuse for those haters at all.

Too close...

Social media provides nothing of a benefit or value to society. It is home to the most vile parts of humanity. It encourages self destructive behaviour in it's uses and followers. Companies use it to track and influence our decisions both big and small. Should NRL players have social media? No one should use it. Get off social media and help make society better.

I'm not a big fan of the word criticism. To me it's either positive or negative feedback. If a player or any official, administrator wants to use some form of media tool fair enough, but you run the risk as you say from the keyboard warriors but they pay their money and are entitled to their opinion. Other than this site I don't use any platform. We have seen in the past , not just footballer s harassed, bullied and threatened. It's part of today's society and you have to make a decision that suits your lifestyle.

It's really up to the player and how they handle it. But when you talk about criticism and then threats, they are two very different things. The line must be drawn at personal abuse or threats, that is not on. I saw the story about Josh Maguires wife and her instagram post calling for threats against him to stop. That is not on. At the end of the day, I would bet that almost none, if any at all, of those who threatened/abused Maguire on social media would have the courage to do so in person, but that is what social media has created, the keyboard warrior.

Haha! Oh that hit home...

If players want social media then that's up to them. If criticism upsets them then they should give it a miss. Players may feel it's a good medium to connect with fans and good on them. Personally, I don't see anything in social media. Maybe it's because I was born halfway through the last century, maybe not, but there is nothing about it that appeals to me. Each to their own.

"...how would you feel if someone gave you brutal criticism..?... I'm married with children Adrian....it's water off a duck's back mate.

All yours Paul, I can't remember where I picked it up but I'm sure it was said to me after I did something stupid ????

really like that last phrase, Soda. I might borrow that please?

Big difference between receiving criticism and abuse. Criticism is fine and comes with the territory when you earn as much as they do. If the players can't handle that then that's on them to learn how to cope. But when fans cross the line and start with the personal abuse the players shouldn't just be expected to tolerate that. At the end of the day it is just a game and the players don't deserve to be personally attacked because of it.

Adrian, you need to separate two very different issues. The first is; should players have social media and the simple answer has to be, it's up to them. Naturally the bulk of players in the game will have at least Facebook, but surely it's a personal choice. What they have to understand is the consequences of "allowing" people into their space when they have social media. The second issue is all about the actual messaging and my question is, who decides what messages are acceptable and which are not? This can only come down to the person receiving the message, so how can the receiver filter what they receive? They simply can't, even if they employ someone to read their messages first! In this day and age, there are so many avenues for people to carpet players, including this forum. Should players be banned from reading The Roar? The bulk of players can shrug off criticism pretty easily and those who can't, probably don't have much of a shelf life in the game anyway.

To get to the top, like superstar level, players will get high volume of criticism everywhere and blocking this negativity out is a skill they have to hone as they rise in prominence. The fringe first graders I feel are more susceptible to getting affected by social media. Although the volume is nowhere near what a superstar would get, their mental armour and support networks are not battle hardened in the same way. I hope the game has serious social media training for those developing players because you can't stop trolls from doing what they do by asking them nicely. You can't childproof the world but you can worldproof the child

“Why is he in first grade? He cannot play and the coach must be crazy to think he should be playing. I swear if he plays next week, he’s going to cost us the game!” That’s not OK. I disagree with this being not ok. It’s a not a direct threat to the player and really just an angry fan having a rant, it’s part of the game. It’s social media the best way to deal with it is to not go on it. If a comment like that upsets you then you shouldn’t be playing NRL as your clearly too much of a wimp to play. Stick and stones mate, harden the f#ck up! Who cares what some loser who hides behind a computer thinks. The coaches opinion of your performance is the only one that matters Players should definitely not go on social media there is little to no benefit to it. Want to talk to someone make a phone call, want to announce something to the fans, use a radio station or newspaper.

I recall not that long ago Latrell was being hounded for an average game! It was right here actually, players can avoid these types of criticisms, unfortunately it’s the criticism that comes from the media that’s unavoidable!