They are not saying they condone violence against women, they are saying let the courts deal with them as the most appropriate body to do so, the fact they believe that should then not impact their playing career is naivety more than anything. But it gives the righteous something to be outraged about for today.
Pretty much this. The whole 'debate' about domestic violence has reached ridiculous levels. It's at the point where if you don't support the echo chamber life ban nonsense or point out that hitting a woman once, while reprehensible, isn't actually the worst most heinous crime of all time, you get labelled as an enabler or part of the problem.
I support the NRL's current stance. A season out of the game is a reasonable punishment for a crime that a court doesn't even deem jail worthy.
If a player received a jail sentence, their prison term + 1-2 years out of the NRL would be reasonable in my books - in a lot of cases that would be enough to end a career anyway.
However for the lower scale of crimes, I think the NRL can do more good supporting rehabiliation and reform rather than immediately cutting loose a young man with obvious issues.
This is my view on any crime committed by a player, not just domestic violence. I don't believe it should be treated any differently and I don't believe in life bans except for the most extreme of circumstances.