Rugby League scores another PR disaster

NRL stars named in toilet sex scandal | NEWS.com.au.

THREE high-profile Brisbane Broncos players are at the centre of a police investigation into an alleged sex scandal that has thrown the NRL finals series into chaos.

Broncos and Queensland State of Origin stars Karmichael Hunt, Darius Boyd and Sam Thaiday were allegedly named by a 24-year-old woman in a sexual assault complaint made to police on Saturday night, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The three were allegedly engaged in sexual acts with the woman in the toilet of a Brisbane nightclub and she complained to police after one of the players allegedly began filming with a mobile phone.

The revelations sent shockwaves through the NRL yesterday, with betting on the finals series suspended while police sifted through the allegations.

Three deadbeat players have ruined the finals series as a promotional exercise for a football code facing considerable commercial pressure.

You don't need to be a brain-dead moron to play professional rugby league but it obviously helps. Many of these players are ugly, immoral boofheads and thugs who think that getting their bodies smashed up week in week out makes them special.

The problem is that sponsors don't want their brands associated with behaviour that most people find abhorrent. Parents, particularly mums but also many dads, don't want these low-lifes paraded in front of their kids as role models.

The second-raters that run rugby league have never had the guts to stand up and enforce a zero tolerance ban on bad behaviour. They have messed this up just as they have messed up marketing, scheduling and just about everything else. Including, on-field brutality in the form of shoulder charges which should have been banned long ago. Every one of these sickening king hits turns more mums off in droves. Imagine your kid being assaulted in that cowardly fashion in the name of sport? It's not allowed in rugby union.

The AFL reckon they can cut into rugby league territory in western sydney. Maybe.

But the real challenge is coming from soccer. Australian is on-track for another world cup appearance in 2010 and with the Internet and pay-TV you can follow your favourite soccer teams and competitions all over the world.

Rugby league is on the downward slide unless there are drastic changes it will become just a second-rate sport played by a dwindling band of devotees.

Australia can't sustain four professional football codes. Rugby league is in the weakest position and time is running out.

Comments

[Troy Edwards]

Trevor

Let me make the partisan declaration up front - I'm a Victorian who has been to more A League games than AFL over the last three years.

I think you're right about the threat being posed to alf, league and rugby by soccer. The simplicity of the game, the low levels of physical contact and strong junior participation rates from both genders are creating a groundswell. Not to mention the impact of Lowy's A-League and the World Cup roller coaster.

However, I think soccer also suffers from a fair share of the brain dead who have a neanderthal view of women and no idea of what is acceptable behaviour. The European football leagues have had their share of disgraceful incidents.

Let's hope that sponsors, administrators, the media and fans start demanding that clubs and players clean up their acts.

Cheers

Troy

[Trevor Cook]

Thanks Troy, I agree it would be wrong to suggest that Rugby League has a monopoly or anything like it on stupid player behaviour. But I think as the competition hots up between the four codes in Australia the damage done by this behaviour in any code could be catastrophic.

[patcook]

There were several players involved in spitting incidents in the A-League and NRL in the last couple weeks. The NRL players got off arguing over intent and whether they really did spit by debating the size of the fluid that came out of their mouth and a lot of lawyer stuff like that.

In the A-League Dino Djulbic got a 5 week suspension and Ney Fabiano faces 6 weeks. On field, spitting at someone is pretty much one of the most disgusting, boofhead things you can do and the two codes have certainly shown how they are willing to deal with such acts.

If the NRL can't even enforce an on-field behavioural code they don't have much chance off it.

It's disappointing because the NRL has become one of the most competitive competitions and no team has been able to monopolise the premiership for some time now.

In the end its fotballs (soccers) market to lose. In almost every country, once it starts to establish itself it completely swamps every other sport.

[Trevor Cook]

Thanks Pat, good comparison on the spitting charges and that's interesting about the way soccer takes over once it gets a foothold

[stu]

i don't think that anything that happens in rugby league stands a fair chance when you're at the keyboard, Trevor..."It's not allowed in rugby union" was a dead giveaway.