Bulldogs and NRL must reveal the truth behind Ben Barba incident
Date
September 2, 2013 - 1:25PM
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer, The Sydney Morning Herald
COMMENT
FROM the moment Todd Greenberg was appointed as the NRL's head of football, there have been major fears in many corners of rugby league that this day would come.
When would Greenberg, the Bulldogs' former chief executive, have to answer questions about claims that Ainslie Currie had been allegedly struck by her partner Ben Barba?
The question for NRL boss Dave Smith and the ARL Commission is how they did not see this day was coming, too.
It seems we aren't being told the full story.
The Bulldogs are adamant that Currie did not make a complaint to them when she fronted Greenberg on Sunday, February 24 - the day before it was revealed publicly Barba was stood down indefinitely because of alcohol and gambling issues.
What they will say is that Currie approached them on that day with serious concerns about the welfare and mental state about Barba, the father of her two children.
This column has been told more than once by Bulldogs officials over the weekend that they informed the NRL of the issues surrounding Currie before that press conference.
NRL chief operating officer Jim Doyle said via a statement on Sunday: “We are not and have never been aware of a complaint in relation to Ben Barba”.
When I asked other NRL officials on Sunday afternoon if Greenberg had made any mention of the incident with Currie, they were adamant that they had only been made aware of the alcohol and gambling issues. Not a word about alleged domestic violence.
I asked, at various times throughout the weekend, if Greenberg had been confronted and questioned about claims of domestic violence in relation to Barba and Currie since then, and if he was aware of the photo of a woman with a bloodied face. The response was that Greenberg had repeatedly asked the couple about domestic violence and they had repeatedly denied anything untoward had occurred.
Is that where that matter should have been laid to rest? Of course not.
It was announced on February 7 that Tony Whitlam, QC, would head the NRL's Integrity Unit, long before Greenberg's appointment to his NRL position in late April, which he started on August 1.
Surely a thorough investigation around this issue that has kept Twitter and fan forums humming along all season - and the Bulldogs' and Greenberg's role in dealing with it - needed to happen during the past four months.
As a consequence, the NRL faces a major embarrassment concerning one of its senior officials.
As a consequence, the Broncos are seething about not being told about the issue surrounding their new recruit. They are also concerned, like many, about his welfare.
There were some heated negotiations behind the scenes about the story that appeared in News Corp papers, which showed the distressing image of a woman with a bloodied lip.
The Bulldogs had been trying to hose down that story late last week and thought that they had done so, with a softer story involving Barba and his family to run next weekend. When Fairfax Media and Channel 9 got wind of the impending story on Saturday, News Corp decided to publish.
If they hadn't, would the questions now being asked of Greenberg and the NRL have been raised?
Has there been a cover-up from the Bulldogs and have they withheld information about alleged domestic violence to the NRL?
And has the NRL been grossly negligent in failing to see this day was coming, when so many of us knew it would eventually arrive?
