El Diablo
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Writing for the Victorians
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/afl-rules-in-code-battle/story-e6frfhqf-1225880608976
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/afl-rules-in-code-battle/story-e6frfhqf-1225880608976
AFL rules in code battle
* Rebecca Wilson
* From: Herald Sun
* June 17, 2010 12:00AM
JUST for one minute, imagine this happened in the AFL in 2010.
A senior assistant coach - a football legend - attends a team bonding session. He has a few too many beers and tells those in attendance that they must target the black c--- from the opposition during this week's big match. He also has a crack at players of Polynesian heritage and other indigenous members of the opposing team.
An indigenous player who listens to the rant leaves the team camp in disgust. He has had enough of racial vilification over a long period of time. This is not the first time he has heard racist taunts from the same bloke.
The team managers decide on a cover-up. They are set to announce the player has a hamstring injury. He sneaks out of the camp and they bring another replacement player in through a side entrance to hide his presence from the media.
It is only when the media gets hold of the story that the assistant coach is finally caught out. He resigns the camp in disgrace.
The player refuses to return to the camp, but instead issues a home-made video explaining why he had no choice but to make a stand against the endemic problem of racism.
This actually happened in NSW this week. The team in question is the NSW State of Origin rugby league side, an elite football team aspired to by every young kid who plays the code.
The squad was preparing for Wednesday night's match against Queensland, the biggest series on the league calendar each year.
While the National Rugby League announced it does have a mediation policy in place (nobody in the NSW media was aware of such a policy until this week), it is powerless to intervene because although it is the governing body of the sport, it does not actually run State of Origin football.
Sound strange? Welcome to the world of rugby league.
While those close to league accept with resignation the chaotic nature of the sport's administration, big backers of the code acknowledge that this week's racism, and the shambolic response to it from senior figures in the sport, is another example of why rugby league will never challenge the AFL as the nation's premier football code.
As one very senior businessman said recently, rugby league is a game played by wharfies, watched by wharfies and run by wharfies.
Conversely, the AFL transcends class, is played by every kid in the southern states of Australia (and a growing number in Queensland and NSW) and run by real businessmen with a genuine corporate culture.
Andrew Demetriou, CEO of the AFL, is clever, often ruthless and extremely process-driven. He is backed by a commission that boasts a balance of Melbourne business, sporting interests and industry leaders. They are united as one in trying to make the code bigger, stronger and wealthier.
The National Rugby League, by contrast, runs only part of the game. The NRL boss, David Gallop, juggles a mish-mash of blazer-wearing dinosaurs, five boards and disparate interests constantly engaged in power struggles that nobody ever really wins.
While the push is on for an independent commission, the in-fighting and brawling has put a halt to such negotiations for months. The badly managed NSW team is a living, breathing example of why the game must change, or face extinction.
While the AFL has had a mediation policy in place since the 1990s for instances of racial vilification, the body that controls representative football in league, the Australian Rugby League, has no such thing.
The repugnant days of Mal Brown running around with "cannibals" have long been consigned to history by the strong measures put in place by the AFL over the past three decades.
The AFL's attitude to its indigenous players is a revelation compared with league. These young athletes are embraced, their communities are celebrated and their talents are held in awe by all who follow Aussie rules.
Those close to league acknowledge there has been little change in racist attitudes for decades. There can be no doubt they are right when a senior coach, two former champion players (the team managers) and Andrew Johns obviously colluded to cover up the sorry events at an elite team camp.
Johns, a former champion player turned assistant coach, resigned from the team this week for his appalling comments. He was not sacked.
In fact, the team managers said "Joey" Johns was "shattered" by the events in the camp.
They were serious, too. How can modern administrators of professional sport possibly turn disgraceful, rampant racism into some sort of martyrdom for the perpetrator?
The player who made the stand, Timana Tahu, says this is not the first time Johns has made racist remarks. A proud Aboriginal and Maori, Tahu said he walked out because he was sick of the constant racist remarks that came out of Johns' mouth.
While the AFL would have forced both men into mediation, and probably punished Johns, no such thing has happened this week.
Tahu has even been privately accused by some league administrators of being "soft", a pretty typical response from a core element in the sport who still steadfastly believe in the White Australia policy.
THE ARL formed an uneasy partnership with News Limited (the publishers of this newspaper) more than a decade ago. This disparate group became the National Rugby League. Remarkably, the NRL does not control the jewel in the league's crown - representative football.
When David Gallop was asked by a Melbourne-based journalist this week why he had not said much about the Johns drama, he had to point out that he has no say over what happens in Origin football. Unbelievable but true.
Without delving too deeply into the political minefield that is league, suffice to say that the constant controversies, scandals and dramas are not helped by the uneasy truce at the top of the game.
Meanwhile, Demetriou visited Sydney last week for the announcement of a $45 million stadium for the new Greater Western Sydney team. He saw at least half a dozen members of the Sydney media, looked them in the eye and faced criticism over the Israel Folau signing.
He did it with focus and self-belief - an administrator of a big, successful business. The AFL has long ago said goodbye to blazer-wearers, jobs for the boys and dinosaur policies.
Rugby league will remain in its own backwater while the grab for those blazers continues. The joke among the Sydney league media is that despite the shocking chain of events in the NSW team camp, they all agree the same people will manage and coach the side next year.
That's the way it is in league - excuse bad behaviour, have another beer and always remember the old saying: "Deny, deny, deny."
wilsonr@heraldsun.com.au
