A great article on Hopoate on Crikey, written before Sunday!
Get Hopoate out of rugby league
By rugby league correspondent, Jeff Wall
Published: 16 March 2005 (Revised: 16 Mar 2005)
Even the uninitiated and the uninformed will have heard of John Hopoate. He is the Manly Sea Eagles player who was infamously caught on camera a few seasons back inserting his finger in the rectum of players he was tacking in order to annoy or upset them. (None owned up to being pleased or pleasured by this antic!) But there is much more of course. He has an appalling record for grubby on field behaviour and doesn't need a compass or road map to find his way to the NRL judiciary!
But todays story in the Daily Telegraph concerns me greatly. It is, arguably, as bad a piece of publicity as one can get for the game and it could not have come at a worse time after an excellent opening for the 2005 premiership. The story goes that a 14-year-old ball boy for the New Zealand Warriors, Jamal Thompson, who was abused by Hopoate during last Sundays Warriors v Sea Eagles game in Auckland.
When the ball boy correctly placed the ball on the sideline (after it had been kicked out) Hopoate called out to him: Throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball in you little s..t (and I assume the word was not s**t). At the same time, the touch judge made matters worse by yelling at the boy to throw the ball in to the field of play. And he was wrong as well...but that's hardly surprising given the grossly inadequate performance of many touch judges these days.
Not only does Hopoate not know the rules (and thats even less surprising) he has behaved in a disgraceful way towards a young kid almost certainly a junior footballer doing what he enjoys...and a job that would make him the envy of many boys who follow the game. And even though the ball boy was right according to the rules, the touch judge admonished him and told him he would not be allowed back for the second half. That outrage was subsequently over ruled by wiser officials.
There are two issues here.The first is the touch judge, whose actions were made even worse by the fact that he has given the appearance of backing a bullying, and frankly, boring footballer who has been given far too many chances. And what will happen to touch judge Pat Reynolds? Nothing! He will be running the line in the Souths v Parramatta game this weekend.
And what will happen to John Hopoate? Nothing! According to the NRL, Hopoate has phoned the boy and apologised. End of story.
For my money that is outrageous.Hopoate is a serial offender. He has brought shame and embarrassment on rugby league, his club, and himself. And he has done it more than once.
I take you back a few weeks. For one drunken off field incident, bad though it was, the Knights Dane Tilse has been wiped out for the 2005 season. A first offender, a young player who had a bright future. One serious mistake. Gone!
John Hopoate serial offender. Abuses a ball boy doing his job. Again gives the game bad headlines. And the penalty? None! In fact, it could be argued that the Sea Eagles have (again) made excuses for the inexcusable. The Tele reports that Manly claim every move that Hopoate makes is being monitored and he is coming in for special attention every week. Who from? Fourteen year old ball boys?
This is David Gallops big chance to put into practice what he has been preaching higher standards, zero tolerance and so on. He should overrule the Sea Eagles, and his own Chief Operating Officer, and send the Sea Eagles, and Hopoate, a show cause notice to show cause why he should not be run out of the game.
The game does not need John Hopoate. It has simply put up with far too much, for far too long. If he is allowed to get off this latest boorish outrage then our great game should hang its collective head in utter shame!
Source:
http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2005/03/16-0928-1590.html
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