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Opinion
After all that’s happened in rugby league, it takes a lot for me to do a double-take but I was truly stunned when St George Illawarra announced Jack de Belin would be captain for Thursday night’s clash with the Dolphins.
According to the Dragons, de Belin is part of their leadership group and due to the unavailability of players like Ben Hunt due to State of Origin and others such as Blake Lawrie due to injury, he was the natural choice.
It’s been quite obvious for a prolonged period that there are culture issues at the Dragons.
That’s not just the players. It comes from the boardroom down. This decision confirms those challenges, with the former coach now being the least of the Dragons’ worries.
Jack de Belin. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
It has been fascinating to watch the discourse about de Belin’s captaincy play out over the past couple of days.
For the subset of people who are comfortable with the decision to make de Belin captain, they point to the results of the five counts alleging that he and his friend, Callan Sinclair, sexually assaulted a woman in Wollongong in December, 2018.
With de Belin no longer subject to the NRL’s no-fault stand down policy and back playing for the team since mid-2021, for these people there seems to be no barrier to choosing him as captain. Let’s revisit what happened on those five counts.
In a second trial, the jury acquitted de Belin and Sinclair of one charge. In relation to the four other charges, the jury was unable to return a unanimous verdict. The verdict needs to be unanimous because in a criminal case the burden of proof is higher.
In relation to the four counts, the charges were withdrawn. De Belin was found neither innocent or guilty. While the Director of Public Prosecutions could have pursued a third trial, they made a decision not to subject any of the parties involved to another gruelling trial.
Without going into the challenges facing our court systems, particularly in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault and other crimes which disproportionately impact women, the result is really a non-result.
Those charges may have been dropped, but it is deeply concerning that at the Dragons, de Belin is considered the player that most demonstrates the important qualities a leader possesses.
It is also a concern that de Belin is the man that they want to effectively make the face of the club for this clash.
Let’s not forget that de Belin was also one of the players involved in the illegal gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic at teammate Paul Vaughan’s house. When police arrived at that party, de Belin was hiding under a bed.
Does that sound like leadership to you?
No media outlet has reported any information which would suggest to me that de Belin has grown as a person, or dedicated himself to his teammates or his community.
Instead, we’ve been pedelled redemption stories where de Belin tells us how humbled he is to be captain and how he has learnt to block out external noise.
De Belin also commented: “People are entitled to their opinions. But it’s a game of football, and I don’t see how me being captain has anything to do with my past. I’ve heard and seen the outrage online, but I’ve only had positivity and people in my corner when I actually see them [face to face].”
This suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of what leadership means. You can’t separate who you are off the field and who you are on it because the qualities required for leadership seep into both.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images
In a sport which has a crucial link to community, I would suggest that what happens off the field is just as important as what happens on it.
My strong view is we are all leaders; whether in our communities, families, sporting clubs or workplaces.
Some people have formal leadership responsibilities, but we all have the opportunity to be informal leaders.
Whilst not every player can be part of that leadership group, they all have the chance to be leaders. Was there no other player at the Dragons that could have been selected as captain instead? Zac Lomax and Jack Bird are also part of their leadership group.
If it’s true, that within the men chosen to play on Thursday night, that he is the one who most displays leadership qualities at the Dragons, to me, that is a dire reflection of the playing group and the focus that the club has on developing leaders within its ranks.