It's not over yet
Comment by Paul Kent
April 28, 2004
THE pity for the Bulldogs is that if they had conducted themselves better they would be in the clear with the NRL today and it would be all over.
Instead, the NRL board will meet this afternoon to decide what action to take against a club that fell victim to its own culture of arrogance and will now pay the price.
Ever since the rape allegation was made, NRL boss David Gallop has maintained one solid line on how the NRL will deal with it.
Gallop said he didn't want to punish the Bulldogs in piecemeal fashion, saying at the centre of whatever punishment the NRL hands out, if any, were the police findings into the rape allegations.
The Bulldogs missed that.
Now what happens is the NRL board will meet today and among the charges the board will consider taking in relation to the Bulldogs' public response to the allegations. These include:
THAT two players said within earshot of female journalists and photographers: "Should we pull out our dicks and come all over them?"
THAT another player urinated in front of cameras;
THE players' code of dress when they turned up to be interviewed by police;
THAT two of those players wore T-shirts saying "We Play Dirty";
THAT some players arrived as much as 2½ hours after their appointed time for their interviews;
THAT a player kicked a ball at a group of journalists at training;
THAT a player was quoted, anonymously, of the gang-bang culture not only within the Bulldogs club but, according to him, within rugby league;
THAT a player was having sex with a woman in a public area.
The Bulldogs blew it.
If they had acted intelligently the NRL board meeting would have come and gone without much more than a wipe of the brow and a collective phew that it was finally over.
Instead, the players fought back.
They blamed the media, blamed it on agendas.
It was the culture of the club that for so long performed so well when it was us-against-the-world, but now sees it come back to bite.
In buying into their culture, all but a few Bulldogs players lost sight of taking ownership of themselves.
But help has come.
The first steps to change the culture are already happening and the club has shown as much by trying, as sour as the taste must leave, to be more accommodating to those previously perceived as the enemy.
There have been changes at an administrative level, some players were fined, while others received suspended fines for inappropriately dressing for the police interviews.
What punishment should the players now face will be a litmus test for how serious the club is about change but is also filled with danger.
The NRL is keen to deal with the Bulldogs as quickly as possible to finally end it but might be unable to considering they will wait to see what action the Bulldogs take.
The league will then decide what, if anything, is needed over and above that. It leaves it up to what the Dogs' administration believes is a fair punishment.
If their rules have been broken the Bulldogs need to take action against the players specifically.
If only the club takes the brunt of any action such as a fine from the NRL the players will have, for all intents, once again escaped any penalty for their actions.
And as illustrated in bullet point above, while they are innocent of rape they have certainly brought embarrassment to the game.
The difficulty is how the Bulldogs will sanction penalties.
By suspending players they are revealing those who helped police with their investigations.
The alternative is to issue fines, but they could bring equally dire conclusions.
While the fine could be relatively clandestine, the pay cheques still travel home and, if any of the players have a partner, there is every chance the missing money could be noticed.
:mrgreen:
Ahwell i'll get ova it
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