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Opinion

A guaranteed way to rein in off-season bad behaviour

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Roar Guru
9th November, 2019
31

Here we are in the off-season, with the 2020 preseason pretty much kicking off and everyone looking forward to a new year of NRL.

Players are attending practice so they can work on their style on the field, but some players get into trouble during their downtime from competition.

I know I went over this last year when we saw way too many incidents during the off-season. It was five and a half months of nothing but incident after incident.

I know we’ve had some first-time offenders, and I get that. It’s like the law for first-time offenders with minor charges, when the authorities may choose to be more lenient. With that in mind, there needs to be a system involved with a three-strike policy. For instance:

  • Strike 1: a six-game suspension
  • Strike 2: a 12-game suspension
  • Strike 3: a 24-game suspension

No warnings. Just the suspension.

This should also be involved in the contract. If you get a 12 or 24-game suspension, that’s half your yearly contract to go with it. For example, on a $250,000 contract, a six-game suspension would amount to a loss of $62,500 from your annual earnings. For a 12-or 24-game suspension it would go up to a loss of $125,000.

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Now imagine being a million-dollar man with a 12-game suspension. There’s an extra $500,000 you won’t be getting this year. If after getting a 24-game suspension you still stuff up, you’ll be banned from the game for four years, just like an ASADA breach. When you return, you’ll be saddled with a one-strike policy.

Is this brutal? Of course. Is it strict? Absolutely. Will it be effective? To those who truly love the game, yes.

What do you think, Roarers?

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