I have a number of standing points for these particular issues, I'm not quite sure where to start so I'll just jump right into it.
Rugby League players are much maligned in society these days, as are any athletes. In Sydney in particular, rugby league is the dominant sport and with sport being such a dominant part of Australian culture, the mass support of rugby league in Sydney, NSW and most of the east coast of Australia, big brother is always watching Rugby League players. Do they deserve this? ABSOLUTELY NOT! They are victims of their own industry. People make the mistake that we live in the information age. How wrong you are. We live in the entertainment age. Where if I say the names OJ or Monica, you know exactly who I'm referring too. People in this world want to be entertained, people want to know all the gossip, all the details and people can recall all the details. Why? Because they're being entertained. The reason Joel Mongahan's act was undertaken, was for a form of entertainment. The reason the picture was taken and subsequently posted on Twitter, was for entertainment. Entertainment of the players involved, entertainment of the people who saw/would see that picture, the entertainment of the people who posted the picture and sent the picture to other peoples phones.
Rugby League players these days, are no longer just athletes, they're entertainers and as such they're subject to every level of scrutiny that is humanly possible. Kind of ironic when you see the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, who are also in the same entertainment industry (allbeit debateable granted those two don't do much) be subject to and play by a different set of rules. They can get off scotch free or with a slap on the wrist, while Joel Mongahan, like others before him, have paid the ultimate price and had their careers ruined or almost ruined by things that have only enhanced the profiles of Paris and Lindsay.
Now taking into considersation those two haven't done anything like Joel, the point I'm trying to make is that athletes have to be infalliable and squeaky clean otherwise they're outcasted, whereas Paris and Lindsay are embraced even though they engaged in immoral, unethical and illegal behaviour. And it's all happens for our entertainment. Joel is going to have a lot to face mentally for the rest of his life. He will have to live with that embarassment forever, everyone who sees him, knows him, they will all associate him with that one act and again, we're going to see it constantly pop up for years to come now, for our entertainment. I think it's disgraceful that he and other rugby league players in the past have to pay this type of price, be constantly maligned.
Rugby League players provide a hell of a lot more for society than the average person does, and with that, comes greater expectation (naturally) but we should not always be looking to outcast these players simply because they've done something wrong (allbeit something very very wrong in my books)
People, humanity, we do wrong things all the time, everyday! Rugby League is like any workplace, any community, it's made up from a cross-section of society. Different people with different beliefs and motives and agendas. Different aspirations, goals and dreams. They think differently and act differently.
My personal belief is that what Joel Mongahan has done is absolutely disgusting and when I personally saw the picture, I almost threw up. He has brought the game into yet another awful position. His club, the game but more importantly his family and himself, have been embarassed beyond belief. He does deserve to get sacked, he's sent out the wrong type of message to fans, sponsors, the NRL, rugby league in general and again, his family, that this type of behaviour is acceptable.
So what is at the heart of this problem? Many things....but one thing sticks out well above the rest. The education of our rugby league players is simply not good enough. Not enough is being done by the NRL or powers that be to bridge the gap between kids that finish school between years 10 and 12 and jump into a rugby league career. Kids are jumping from the shenanigans of the playground right into the media and national spotlight in almost an instance and it's happening at the same time that they're being exposed to alcohol, drugs, etc. They're growing up infront of the nation. Now, while Joel Mongahan is an older much more experienced player who should know better, does he really? He's like any other player, they've come out of school and are in the spotlight. There is not enough being done to bridge this gap! The education systems are poor, very poor and until the NRL fixes and properly invests in these systems, the will continue to have to react to problem after problem surfacing.
Is it stupid to ask the NRL to police everything? Of course! They shouldn't be concerned with what the players do in their private lives and they shouldn't have to be. The players should be free to do what they want and the NRL shouldn't have to be accountable, but until these education systems are properly fixed, the problems will continue to arise and the NRL will continue to be a reacting business, when they have the ability to be a lot more proactive.
Now because the NRL is in the entertainment industry, the product is always able to recover. The entertainment it provides to the community on a weekly basis 8 months of the year will always outweigh any wrong doings of the players or even the management of the game but there is a stigma associated with NRL players and the game of rugby league and we have great people working so very, very hard in the game particularly at a grassroots and semi-professional level, trying to address these problems and then these superstars ruin all that hard work with moments of stupidity. Rugby League needs to become more proactive and the investment into the education of players to bridge that gap between school and the big time needs to be a lot bigger and a lot better!
I know there's some contradictory points there, I know other people will have other opinions and see it differently to I, because naturally, this forum is a cross-section of society with different people who have different beliefs, motives, agendas, etc.
At the end of the day, Joel has done the wrong thing and it will haunt him for the rest of his life. He put himself in that position and needs to be accountable for himself and suffer the consequences of his actions.
Additionally the players and people involved in the taking of and distribution of the photo are in my opinion, just as bad. How dare they put their teammate in such a horrible position and sell him out like that. Regardless of what he did, no one should be selling him out like that. It's almost as disgusting as the actions of Joel himself. They too need to be accountable and suffer the consequences of their actions.
The NRL needs to stop reacting and start taking action now. The education systems for clubs and the NRL as a whole need to be invested into a lot more (and I don't just mean financially).
None of this is good enough.
