My thoughts on the culture of RL and changes over the last 25 years.
Firstly you need to define "culture".
cul·ture
n.
The patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.
The push for more professionalism since league players have been paid a lot more money (since superleague) - players are fulltime professionals now, which has created its own problems ie too much free time yet not enough time for players to have real jobs, less time for tertiary education and gaining other skills eg apprentiships.
The media. Possibly players in the past did even worse things than they do today but no one found out. The culture is changing today because of that and will even more in the future.
Loyalty. Is there as much these days as there used to be?
I agree about a handshake used to be as good as a contract.
These days there are managers/agents that make the deals. There are solicitors representing players at judiciary.
In the old days what was done on the field stayed on the field. Now there is the video ref who sees everything (potentially), and far far stricter penalties for foul play than there were 25 years ago. And there are players suing players for onfield incidents.
RL today is a business. And the bottom line is bums on seats and TV ratings. More emphasis is put on growing the game, what the general public and women think of the game.
The game at NRL level is no longer playing just for fun. With players at under 13 level being picked for scholarships there are even many youngsters that are playing with a future career in mind, not just having fun with mates. This is moreso at the top levels of the game. So is there as much mateship amonst players in a team? Or is it more rivalry? So does the team come second? How will player "bonding" change with the push for less alcohol? The Broncos I hear are getting sandwiches and cordial (or something like that) after games instead of beer.
Another difference in the things associated with RL is smoking - no sponsorship by cigarette companies, no (?) players smoke, even no smoking allowed in stadiums (in QLD anyway).
Also, the game of RL is no longer just representative of the working and lower classes - it goes across class structure now, possibly because many working class people have taken their love of the game with them as they rise into higher middle class and also because of marketing to all classes.
How will the culture of the game change in the next 10 years? Will more players have behaviour clauses in their contracts (like Hopoate)?
Is this the sort of thing you were after Costaki?
