http://www.thedaily.com.au/blogs/mark-my-words/2009/mar/03/booze-footy/
Booze and footy don't mix well
March 3 | Mark Furler
It's amazing how quickly rugby league officials were keen to write off serious allegations that a 23-year-old woman was pack raped at a Caloundra resort in the early hours of Sunday morning.
By Sunday night, NRL chief executive David Gallop was being quoted as saying that while he understood there had been a complaint "the current feedback from police was that it would not be pursued".
This was apparently because after a number of Sydney reserve grade rugby league players were interviewed, they were allowed to return home as is the usual practice.
Balmain Tigers chairman David Trodden, who stressed the club took the issue "very seriously'', had also suggested the feedback he had received was that police would not pursue the matter.
That was certainly not the message delivered by Coast police chief Ben Hanbidge at a media conference yesterday morning.
As far as he was concerned, the investigation was still "in full swing".
"It is still in its early stages and there are a number of people we still have to speak to," he said.
"Obviously we won't be making any determination on this investigation until everybody has been spoken to and we have all the evidence before us.''
The father of the alleged victim, who said she had only gone back to the hotel to support her sister, certainly won't be allowing anyone to dismiss what he believes has happened to his daughter.
And nor should any of us.
It is deeply disturbing that after the number of recent incidents over the years that rugby league officials still have not woken up to the fact that alcohol and football are just not a good mix.
You have to wonder the sense in taking players back to a local RSL for a celebration and then allowing the situation where a player can take any young girl back to his hotel room.
On Saturday night, I went along to the football and enjoyed a couple of light beers, great company and the live atmosphere of the footy feast.
But going to the footy you can't help but notice how much drinking excessive amounts of alcohol is just part of the experience for some fans.
Football is not alone in this.
Go along to a Melbourne Cup Day or the new night races and you could easily be disturbed by how drunk some patrons, particularly young women, get.
From where I watched, the crowd at the football seemed well behaved.
But as I was leaving, a number of "spirited" young women were climbing on wheelie bins to get a peek at the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos players coming out of their dressing rooms.
If they had the opportunity, I'm sure a few of them would have thrown themselves over the fence at the players.
The fact is that there are some young women who would just love the opportunity to sleep with a rugby league star and then brag to all their friends about it.
But given the potential for things to get way out of hand rugby league officials should not only be protecting players but their potential victims from alcohol-fuelled incidents.
As a sport, rugby league has so much potential to get the message across about the responsible consumption of alcohol.
But too often we have seen some players and they are a minority spoil it for everyone for themselves, fans, and for young women caught up in it all.
Let's hope our sporting leaders realise they have a big responsibility to set a better example.
There are, after all, too many kids watching our stars for them to continue behaving like fools.
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^^^^
was written by the editor-in-chief of the Sunshine Coast Daily....:roll:
this man has an incredible skill of determining how intoxicated people are without even being in the same room ...
Just because the players were at a club doesn't make them drunk or bad role models .... that's if they are role models anyway . After all they're state cup players and not NRL players ... most RL fans would struggle to name a player who competes in state cup .
So it goes that allegedly mentally disabled females might also find it difficult to tell the difference between part time footballers in state cup and professionals in the NRL ... not much bragging rights in bedding state cup players .... that'd piss you off wouldn't it ? Especially if the extortion claims are true ...
