The Roar’s co-founder and former publisher, Zolton Zavos, liked to tell us subs the story of how Van Halen would request a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed be in their dressing room before a gig.
Mistaken for being an example of rockstar excess, the candy-clause in the rider was actually a red flag – if there were brown M&Ms in the bowl, it meant other parts of their complicated and potentially dangerous stage show had surely not been set up correctly.
Zolt had his brown M&Ms with our daily site edits – small things that, if not correct, meant there were almost certainly bigger problems to be found.
I’ve carried the analogy with me, so when I find webpages littered with typos, grammatical errors and other basic mistakes, my estimation of that business drops.
These days, a company website is the first port of call for customers, employees and other stakeholders. If someone wants to know the ins and outs of what your business is, or does, or stands for, they’re going to dig through your online presence.
I obviously put it all into context and am willing to forgive a plumber for writing ‘you’re’ instead of ‘your’ if they do a good, honest job at clearing the pipes.
But when a company’s core business is selling entertainment to the masses, with an annual turnover in the hundreds of millions, they really should be nailing words on a webpage – especially if they’re spending $120 million on their digital presence.
And if the business has one major problem that keeps popping up year after year, the way it’s addressed online needs to be clear, concise and accurate.
One such issue the NRL faces, according to Peter V’landys, is player behaviour.
“Like it or not there’s a perception in the marketplace that rugby players are bad,” the ARLC chairman was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald this week.
“We’re trying to address it because the marketplace is telling us if we don’t it’s going to have an affect on us – and I’m serious about addressing it.”
Pre-departure Todd Greenberg and Peter V’landys (Matt King/Getty Images)
The NRL had a miss on this front last weekend, with Mick Fuller – NSW’s top cop, who had been heralded as a silver bullet to all off-field incidents – being ruled ineligible to join the ARL Commission.
So, for now, the game needs to fall back on its existing systems to ensure players are aware of their responsibilities as public figures, which makes the NRL’s Wellbeing and Education subsite paramount.
It houses the pages that explain to players how they should behave and, being public-facing, communicates to fans and sponsors – both current and potential – that player behaviour is central to the NRL’s business.
If Joe Frost Industries was ever going to fork out to be a sponsor of an NRL club, these pages would be my first port of call. I’d want to know how the game was going to ensure my brand was not sullied by ill-informed players being dickheads.
Most importantly, I’d want to know that the game treated these issues with the gravity they deserve.
But at the moment, after a peruse of these pages, I’d put my chequebook away.
Because while the NRL may talk the talk on player behaviour, after they’ve finished prattling on, they can’t even be arsed to re-read their own words.
Here’s an excerpt from the NRL’s Characterwise page, which has the noble goal of having players “be people of character”:
We want all our players, whatever their age or stage of playing career, to be great ambassadors for their Club and for their sport.
We want the public and fans to know that they can rely on the players they admire to live up to high standards of behaviour, maturity and integrity…
Our CHARACTERWISE programs are developed in partnership with expert advisory groups and are co-delivered by current and former players who have been trained as NRL Education Ambassadors and volunteer their time to this important work.
We want all our players, whatever their age or stage of playing career, to be great ambassadors for their Club and for their sport.
We want the public and fans to know that they can rely on the players they admire to live up to high standards of behaviour, maturity and integrity.
Each year the NRL/RLPA Welfare & Education Committee decides on the mandatory social responsibility and personal development workshops that should be delivered to all players and staff involved with elite teams from the U16s to the NRL…
We want the public and fans to know that they can rely on the players they admire to live up to high standards of behaviour, maturity and integrity.
(Ed. Ellipses and bold type added for clarity.)
They’ve repeated the first paragraph once, and the second paragraph twice. That means of nine paragraphs (two have been removed above for brevity) about how much store they place in character, three are word-for-word repetition – that’s one-third of your copy!
On the issue of personal brand, Raiders legend Alan Tongue offers up a few tips, including this nugget of wisdom: “Make the most of your Player sponsor nights, don’t sit in the back corner and keep to yourself go out and introduce yourself, talk about how their business is going, why the love there Rugby League etc..”
Now, I’m not having a go at an ex-footy player for writing “why the love there Rugby League”. But surely Tongue meant “why they love their rugby league” – or something else that actually makes sense – and someone could have clarified it before they uploaded the text? (I’m not going to pull apart the use of two consecutive full stops.)
Then we’ve got the social media and reputation page, which offers “Top 10 tips for protecting your reputation online”, then proceeds to list 12 dot points.
On the matter of education, it’s trumpeted that every club delivers the CareerWise program “to VB NSW Cup players, under-20s and NRL players”. That’s great, except the NSW Cup hasn’t been sponsored by VB since the end of the 2015 season, which presumably means this page hasn’t been updated in going on six years.
The camps page makes mention of the rookie camp being “compulsory for every player in the National Youth Competition”, a tournament that was wound up at the end of 2017, and then features photos and a write-up of a camp held in 2018.
And if you want to find out how well you know all these issues, you’re invited to “Take the Wellbeing and Education quiz for 2019”.
Look, I get that COVID meant certain aspects of the game were put on the back-burner last season, but these pages were created long before the NRL put a broom through its operations budget.
Clearly they were published this way – littered with embarrassing levels of repetition, typos, inconsistent punctuation, shifting tenses, and countless other issues – which suggests these pages are an afterthought, not worthy of someone giving them a thorough (or even cursory) copy edit to ensure the absolute clangers are fixed.
And they have sat this way, completely untouched, for years – years that have seen huge changes in the way the game claims to police and punish those who stuff up.
I understand that mistakes happen – just writing this piece is putting a massive target on my back for someone to point out errors I’ve doubtlessly made.
But my columns are the digital equivalent of tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping. Compare that to the public face the NRL puts on its efforts to combat player misbehaviour.
There should be absolutely no room for error when pontificating to your players, customers and stakeholders about the importance you place on wellbeing and education.
This is how you talk about the issue that has cost you millions of dollars in lost sponsorship – multiple people should have read and re-read it to ensure it is perfect.
Instead, for the NRL’s sponsors and fans, these pages are a bowl full of brown M&Ms. Because if you don’t care enough to get the little things right, why would anyone believe you can handle the bigger issues?
Heyou
Roar Rookie
I wasn’t going to mention the errors because my writing is rarely error-free and it ‘gets up my goat’ when the grammar and spelling commandos point out my errors with snide abandon. Bring the editors in when it’s important and bring the editors in again to edit the first editor’s editing. Rinse and repeat.
Paul
Roar Guru
There's every chance you're right Chris, but if so, why doesn't he simply say that?
Chris Love
Roar Guru
I think when he says market place, he means sponsors. I’m sure there are many potential sponsors that are either talking to him directly or in the case of clubs talking to clubs that pull out of sponsorships (or don’t want to sponsor ) over player behaviour. In the case of the Bulldogs losing a 2m dollar sponsor after the school girl sex scandal a perfect example.
Nat
Roar Guru
A, Explain to me how this is ironic? You don't even know what the words means let alone use it in correct context. B, You are never going to associate me with supporting Lodge because he plays for the Broncos. For the 3rd time, show me any example where I have supported him in the manner you are supporting Walker? Anything? Just once back your statements. All the information you need is right here, a click away but you won't because you can't. C, Walker is a DV thug. I cannot be more clear. I don't care at all for the jumper he wears, this is about his character. I have a family assocaition to Manly, I've been quite glowing of the team. You are the one who is making this about Manly because you have no other train of thought outside of the jumper. You can't even make a regular comment that you don't draw back to Manly in some way such is your limited cognitive capacity. D, The judge, the police, the witnesses, Walker and his misses knows what happened. Having his misses change her testamonial because she's too scared to get off the gravy train does not equal innocence. The transcripts are there to read. I would encourage you to read them but again, you won't. Don't wanna read any facts that may cause you to think. There is bliss in ignorance and your about as ignorant as it gets.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Ironically it's you who decides guilt or innocence based on the jumper. I accept the courts verdict unlike you because you are an uneducated hick. When Lockyer nominates Lodge as the captain of the club you now claim to not care about, instead of kicking up a storm and slagging off with ridiculous nicknames you fall in to line. I'm still waiting for you to tell me exactly what Walker has ''done'' , I've asked you before but you never answer. Why is that? It's as weak as it gets. I would draw up a list of all the things Broncos players have been guilty of in recent years but I haven't got a couple of hours. Try google and see the characters you are supporting.
Nat
Roar Guru
That's the thing, I don't care about the club. You are the only crack head who decides guilt or innocence depending on the jumper.
Nat
Roar Guru
100% agree, you are off in your own little world without doubt. One where you stick your head up your own A and pretend guys like Walker are great citizens. You know you've got hours, days even to show me where I've supported Lodge against his charges. All my comments are right here but you've never backed up a statement in your life have you? Lodge, by association to the Broncos has no relevance whatsoever to your protection of those DV thugs. You have a black soul and karma will certainly find it's way to you.
Nat
Roar Guru
This toss-pot has lost on every other subject so he's trying to bring me to his level by association.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Signing Lodge was extremely controversial and the Broncos , the sponsors , the fans and the NRL basically supported him and Lockyer was apparently keen for him to captain the club. I'm not going to label these people as supporters of D.V and make ludicrous comments about them but when I support Dylan Walkers right to play the game I'm hit with ridiculous names and absolute rubbish. The no fault thing i It's OK to support Lodge but not Walker? It's a ludicrous and most of all hypocritical . If the supporters were so against signing Lodge all they had to do is start handing in their memberships. It's all very well making big noises but where was the action? How would old mate Nat be describing Lodge if he was at Manly?
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
Lodge being signed by the Broncos predates the no fault stand down rule. And in any event, Lodge had served his sentence, had his contract torn up, and several years had passed before he was allowed to play for the NRL. So it isn’t really a relevant comparison.
Gray-Hand
Roar Rookie
A legal aid lawyer would have advised him to accept a guilty plea to a lesser charge. There just isn’t adequate legal aid funding to run a case like this to a final hearing without writing off tens of thousands of dollars of the lawyer’s time.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
You get all wound up with your own nonsense. I'm not in this mythical world you imagine , it's total rubbish. Lodge is guilty and the club you support signed him and were considering him as captain. How about you get stuck in to the Broncos all the time and Lodge instead of dragging Walker thru the mud all the time? Explain exactly what Walker ''done''. Your version means nothing. It's you that will end up being found guilty of a crime if you continue to slander him on social media. I wouldn't have a clue what really happened and I accept the judges ruling on any case unless I know otherwise. Meanwhile you pick and chose which verdict to agree with based on your ''magical'' insight , ludicrous is what it is. Worse than that , you chose to slander others who accept the judges ruling ( female judge ) . It doesn't make you a hero , you are a fool. Curtis Scott wasn't stood down , you can't even acknowledge that . Your version of reality is just hopeless and aggressive.
Nat
Roar Guru
Don't dare lump me into your DV is OK world. My entire comment history is there mate, show me where I've ever supported Lodge against his charges. I was quite vocal I didn't want him at the club so don't start making sh.. up. I have acknowledged the work he has done post conviction which is quite significant but that is no where near your supporting DV thugs and convicted criminals. AFB was charged,"Had I gone the other way and told the judge 'not guilty' it would've been a lie … I couldn't do that because it would have added to Ana's hurt." His words. If you think what Walker done is OK, you are a wretched human being. I know you do and I know you are.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Hypocrisy at it's finest, the plodder on the soap box savaging a fan for supporting all Manly players even though none of them are convicted criminals , cheering on the Broncos with Lodge leading the charge. Have another look at he footage and see your hypocrisy in all it's glory. How many woman are scarred for life by his actions but you still support him. Google hypocrisy. Last year you were cheering on Hopoate. It's OK if he's at the Broncos is it? Somehow different. Spent time in jail.
Nat
Roar Guru
Of course he knows. I'm saying that it is rare the police do anything more than 'go and get a new one straight away'. Granted, there is ahell of a process to prove a tourist has been here long enough to charge them. Not that hard to identify Sam though.
Nat
Roar Guru
Baahahahahahaha, I do like your shifting of the posts but I'll play along. Scott wasn't stood down? Google this champ https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/raiders-tell-scott-to-stay-away-from-training-as-stand-down-call-looms-20200129-p53vws.html No comment on Fuller by Fuller? You made the comments above 2x in as many hours. I take one minute to find his response. Shall we continue to discuss the benefits of google? Have you ever supported any statement with a reference? Ever? It is disgusting your support for this DV criminal because he wears a manly jumper. Having his misses change her story does not constitute not guilty, it steers toward the most horrible form of abuse.
Big Daddy
Guest
??????
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
Excellent riposte JF.
Monorchid
Roar Rookie
Well spotted BC. "Undenialability" appears as well.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
'' they were allowed to play again because because they didn't meet the minimum standard set'' I did miss it because you didn't say it ( just like I didn't say '' no comment by Fuller'') and even if you did say this it is ridiculous nonsense. Walker was stood down by the NRL and allowed to play again because the court case was concluded and he was found not guilty. The 11 year thing has no bearing on a player being allowed to play again. It's what the court decides that counts. Scott wasn't stood down. Try giving google a go before declaring things that are nonsense.