DJ1
Juniors
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ENOUGH is enough. The debate over player behaviour has gone on too long and too far.
I resisted the urge to join the frenzy over the Chris Walker incident in Brisbane a few weeks ago and I maintained my silence through the NSW State of Origin camp furore. But the time has come to stand up and be counted on the subject of players rights.
Thats right, football players have rights, too, although through all the latest upheaval about off-field behaviour you could have been forgiven for thinking that by becoming professional footballers they automatically forfeited the human rights we are all supposed to share.
If there is an aggressive part of me, it invariably surfaces when I see someones rights being abused or overlooked. Chris Walkers rights have been ignored and so have those of Mark Gasnier, and it has upset me.
I dont condone in any way what either of them did. They got themselves into trouble because they infrigned on someone elses rights and deserved to be punished. The level of that punishment however, is what concerns me.
Weve heard plenty about the rights of the victims in these cases but no one has raised the issue of the players fundamental right to justice.
Walker was involved in an incident at a nightclub and had an altercation with police on a footpath. He was charged by police and later faced court. He was expelled from the Queensland Origin preliminary camp, fined by the QRL and declared ineligible for selection for Origin I.
Then, for reasons I cant quite comprehend, his club fined him heavily and stood him down from an NRL match.
Gasnier made a stupid mistake after a NSW bonding/drinking session which went on far too long. Hes not the first, nor will he be the last, alcohol-affected young man to do something dumb and completely out-of-character.
The mistake cost him his first State of Origin appearance and Im not sure people realise the magnitude of that penalty, especially for a young man who has had to struggle through his career with the burden of a famous football name.
Gasnier was fined by the NSWRL and then his club decided to suspend him and fine him $50,000. A $50,000 fine for an alcohol-induced lewd phone call - its just as well for him that he didnt commit a criminal act.
And what about the public humiliation heaped on these players? Surely that counts for something when were weighing up the penalties.
Somewhere along the line, the penalties in these cases - and this applies to Anthony Minichiello, Craig Wing, Craig Gower and Willie Mason too - have to fit the crime.
I keep wondering what the clubs have had to do with what has happened in representative teams. Walker was under the control of the QRL when he did the wrong thing and was punished by the QRL. Gasnier and the others were under the control of the NSWRL when they played up and were punished by the NSWRL. Whats that got to do with the clubs?
If we take a group of players to Britain at the end of the season and there is an unsavoury incident, whose responsibility will it be to impose a penalty?
It will be an ARL event so you can be sure the ARL will take action. But will the NSWRL or QRL want to buy in because the player is from NSW or Queensland? Will the NRL step in because he plays in that competition? Will his club then want a piece of the action? The queue might stretch around the block.
One of the problems is that the game has so many administrative branches, but thats hardly the players fault.
A few years back, we held a talkfest where it was decided we needed a strategic plan to bring all the codes administrations under one umbrella. It was suggested wed have the plan "by Christmas" which prompted one club CEO to comment: "Yeah, but which Christmas?" Well, three Christmases have slipped by without a strategic plan, so he wasnt far off the mark, was he?
Again, let me stress that I am not defending the behaviour of these players, but what Gasnier and Minichiello did would not rate all that high on the fair dinkum scale of things.
Minichiello was fined by the NSWRL, dropped from the Origin squad and stood down by his club for having a mobile phone and telling a fib. Wow, if were going to suspend every player who tells his coach a lie were going to have a lot of spaces on the teamsheets.
As for ex-players buying in to the debate, well just let me say the behaviour of players these days is 100 times better than it was years ago. And some of the guys who are talking out against bonding sessions now are the same ones who bagged Wayne Pearce when he tried to break down the drinking-bonding cycle by taking the NSW squad horse-riding, bridge-climbing and on boat rides.
Through all the self-generating media feeding frenzy over these incidents, logic seems to have been replaced by hysteria and hypocrisy. There is a fine line when it comes to crime and punishment and Im afraid we stepped over that line.
The punishment has become a crime.
Wayne Bennett - Courier Mail
I resisted the urge to join the frenzy over the Chris Walker incident in Brisbane a few weeks ago and I maintained my silence through the NSW State of Origin camp furore. But the time has come to stand up and be counted on the subject of players rights.
Thats right, football players have rights, too, although through all the latest upheaval about off-field behaviour you could have been forgiven for thinking that by becoming professional footballers they automatically forfeited the human rights we are all supposed to share.
If there is an aggressive part of me, it invariably surfaces when I see someones rights being abused or overlooked. Chris Walkers rights have been ignored and so have those of Mark Gasnier, and it has upset me.
I dont condone in any way what either of them did. They got themselves into trouble because they infrigned on someone elses rights and deserved to be punished. The level of that punishment however, is what concerns me.
Weve heard plenty about the rights of the victims in these cases but no one has raised the issue of the players fundamental right to justice.
Walker was involved in an incident at a nightclub and had an altercation with police on a footpath. He was charged by police and later faced court. He was expelled from the Queensland Origin preliminary camp, fined by the QRL and declared ineligible for selection for Origin I.
Then, for reasons I cant quite comprehend, his club fined him heavily and stood him down from an NRL match.
Gasnier made a stupid mistake after a NSW bonding/drinking session which went on far too long. Hes not the first, nor will he be the last, alcohol-affected young man to do something dumb and completely out-of-character.
The mistake cost him his first State of Origin appearance and Im not sure people realise the magnitude of that penalty, especially for a young man who has had to struggle through his career with the burden of a famous football name.
Gasnier was fined by the NSWRL and then his club decided to suspend him and fine him $50,000. A $50,000 fine for an alcohol-induced lewd phone call - its just as well for him that he didnt commit a criminal act.
And what about the public humiliation heaped on these players? Surely that counts for something when were weighing up the penalties.
Somewhere along the line, the penalties in these cases - and this applies to Anthony Minichiello, Craig Wing, Craig Gower and Willie Mason too - have to fit the crime.
I keep wondering what the clubs have had to do with what has happened in representative teams. Walker was under the control of the QRL when he did the wrong thing and was punished by the QRL. Gasnier and the others were under the control of the NSWRL when they played up and were punished by the NSWRL. Whats that got to do with the clubs?
If we take a group of players to Britain at the end of the season and there is an unsavoury incident, whose responsibility will it be to impose a penalty?
It will be an ARL event so you can be sure the ARL will take action. But will the NSWRL or QRL want to buy in because the player is from NSW or Queensland? Will the NRL step in because he plays in that competition? Will his club then want a piece of the action? The queue might stretch around the block.
One of the problems is that the game has so many administrative branches, but thats hardly the players fault.
A few years back, we held a talkfest where it was decided we needed a strategic plan to bring all the codes administrations under one umbrella. It was suggested wed have the plan "by Christmas" which prompted one club CEO to comment: "Yeah, but which Christmas?" Well, three Christmases have slipped by without a strategic plan, so he wasnt far off the mark, was he?
Again, let me stress that I am not defending the behaviour of these players, but what Gasnier and Minichiello did would not rate all that high on the fair dinkum scale of things.
Minichiello was fined by the NSWRL, dropped from the Origin squad and stood down by his club for having a mobile phone and telling a fib. Wow, if were going to suspend every player who tells his coach a lie were going to have a lot of spaces on the teamsheets.
As for ex-players buying in to the debate, well just let me say the behaviour of players these days is 100 times better than it was years ago. And some of the guys who are talking out against bonding sessions now are the same ones who bagged Wayne Pearce when he tried to break down the drinking-bonding cycle by taking the NSW squad horse-riding, bridge-climbing and on boat rides.
Through all the self-generating media feeding frenzy over these incidents, logic seems to have been replaced by hysteria and hypocrisy. There is a fine line when it comes to crime and punishment and Im afraid we stepped over that line.
The punishment has become a crime.
Wayne Bennett - Courier Mail
