Great article by Kent on Packer
Why Russell Packer deserves one last chance at an NRL career
Paul Kent
The Daily Telegraph
December 12, 2014 9:08PM
Russell Packer deserves one last chance, writes Paul Kent. Picture by Peter Lorimer. Source: News Limited
WAYNE Bennett was in front of a crowd in Bundaberg when Russell Packer was still on the market many weeks ago.
Bennett was asked if Packer should be allowed back into the NRL. He took one of those long breaths he likes to take before saying something profound. He spoke of how Australia was built on a nation of convicts given a second chance and so who were we to say Packer wasnt worthy of a second chance.
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It got applause from the crowd, all genuine rugby league people. That might be something the NRL finds worth remembering when it decides when to register Packers contract with St George *Illawarra.
Russell Packer in action for the Warriors. Source: Getty Images
Soon after, I had Bennetts microphone in front of the same Bundaberg crowd and I was not so forgiving. I am not against second chances, we all make mistakes. I am against one more chance, when second, third and fourth chances are not enough, and several more are often needed.
Too many players take that second chance knowing they will offend again and rely again on the goodwill of the game to let them keep playing.
The NRL is suffering from battle fatigue at the moment.
Every time it finds clear air a landmine goes off causing fresh chaos, and people are fast growing tired of repeat offenders embarrassing a game they genuinely want to feel proud of, but continually find themselves defending.
So thats where I stood with Packer, who had more form than a Melbourne Cup horse.
And then I changed.
It started about the time details of his childhood came out in court, a 12-year-old boy freely given cartons of beer who never stopped drinking from that day on. He soon learned not to trust adults, living a life unsupervised.
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He had no idea how to control his life. He had never been taught and alcohol was impairing every decision he made.
Something most of us take for granted, respect, he never learned. There were a few other traits as well.
He was an alcoholic for all his teenage years. Never supervised as a child.
When he got older and was still drunk he got involved in numerous episodes of violence that generally ended well for him, not the other party.
He continually made poor decisions under the effects of alcohol. Somehow he got through and was still able to play NRL even though he was essentially a drunk.
So when he was aired on TV peeing on a football field he didnt care. By then he had switched from alcohol to prescription drugs, initially to play through the pain of a broken foot but also playing through a haze of I dont give a damn.
Russell Packer appears to relieve himself on the field at Suncorp Stadium against Brisbane. Source: Supplied
The only good decision he made through all this was to get out of New Zealand and sign with Newcastle. But as soon as he made a good decision he made a bad one.
He came to Australia without his partner and accepted an offer to go out drinking with people he should have avoided.
It ended in a violent, vicious assault that had him jailed last January.
But there is also growing evidence that the most damning allegation that he stomped on the unconscious mans head did not happen.
That it was an allegation made by the prosecution, and because Packer already pleaded guilty, he was unable to contest it.
If so, things change a little. The belief Packer stomped a defenceless man is crucial to the outrage against his assault. Then something else happened and it changed a whole lot.
Packers eyes got clear. It was the first time he was alcohol- or drug-free since he was 12. Inside, he had no choice but to go cold turkey.
Ikin backs four-quarter game1:02
And when the anger and the sense of injustice finally ebbed out of him he sat back and realised something.
I needed a major trauma in my life to wake up to myself, he told a visitor.
For a man who was the dux of his high school, it was the first smart thing hed said in a long while. After a while in jail he received weekend detention and, now seeing through those clear eyes, has begun mentoring young men.
One of them shares a childhood frighteningly like his. A young man whose father was a bikie in New Zealand, where they play for keeps, and who never slept in a proper bed until he was 15.
I know that there will still be some people, determined to remain outraged, unable to process new information, who will still insist he needs to be punished and that he should not be allowed back to the NRL. But right here is more of a full story than offered anywhere else.
I felt the same. But he has been punished. When he is released next month he will have done 12 months in jail, a lot more than many NRL serial offenders endure.
NRL player Russell Packer arriving at court. Source: Supplied
Seeing clearly for the first time he has seen the effect on his family. And it has been profound. A family without their father, his wife as solid as oak. There is a large debt there he knows he owes.
It has been a poor week for the NRL. Greg Bird embarrassed the game, more than anything. Jamil Hopoate was sent to jail. Charges were dropped against James Roberts. Former NRL star Craig Field was found guilty of manslaughter and thats all within seven days.
And now the Dragons want to sign Packer and want him to play, and they remain confident he will not reoffend.
It is a crucial decision for the game. It needs to be seen to be strong and continue the stance it has started against anti-social behaviour.
But it also needs to understand its own power the ability to repair its citizens as much as create them.
For the first time Packer is seeing clearly and the NRL must not lose sight of that.
I am against repeated chances, but I am not against last chances.
And I am not against hope.
