Another recent case was that of Greg Inglis, who was charged with assaulting his partner in early 2010, and initially suspended by the Storm for two matches. A lawyer duly appeared at court and declared the charges would be defended, that Inglis had been acting in defence of his partner who was attempting self-harm, and that his partner had retracted her statement.
This declaration was enough for the Storm to put Inglis back on the field, and his 2010 season was then uninterrupted. On the date of his hearing, however, Inglis did not advance any argument that he was trying to prevent his partner from harming herself, and instead pleaded guilty to a less serious offence of assault as part of a plea bargain.
The Age reported:
…Inglis accepted the information provided in Ms Robinson's initial statement to police that he had pushed her onto the bed with an open hand after she had 'got into [Inglis's] face.'
The magistrate recognised this incident was clearly at the less-serious end of the spectrum, and declined to record a conviction, but did order that he attend a men's behaviour change program and donate $3,000 to a women's health organisation.
Whether or not it was because the matter was heard in Melbourne, away from the glare of the Sydney media, the case disappeared without a trace. There were no calls, as far as I am aware, for the NRL to make an example out of Inglis, suspend him for any further matches or deregister him for the year or for life.
Perhaps those who might have made that call judged him too important to the game, and the professional interests that surround it. Perhaps the charge he pleaded guilty to was not considered 'serious enough' domestic violence.
Inglis and his partner married later that year, and the following year he re-settled in Sydney. There have been no reports of what Inglis got out of the counselling program, but every indication since then suggests it could well have been successful.
One journalist, Jessica Halloran, in the Sunday Telegraph,
wrote a very positive piece about Inglis and his partner in April 2011, referring to the redemption he had achieved, post-assault, with the loving support of his partner.
