Jamie Pandaram
May 14, 2009
THE comments of one senior NRL representative player indicate how difficult it could be to change the sexual behaviour and attitudes of elite league players.
He warned group sex among NRL players would continue regardless of a warnings from chief executive David Gallop that unsavoury sexual acts would put their contracts at risk. The representative player told the Herald that his colleagues were left stunned by Gallop's hardline stance when no player had been convicted of sexual assault, adding that the caution would quickly be forgotten.
"It's fine for David Gallop to come out and say you can't have group sex but the last thing blokes will be thinking about on a Friday night at the club is David Gallop," said the player, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "I don't know how a chief executive can come out and say we can't have group sex if it's consensual. It's like discrimination because that is a person's private life. It's like saying you can't be homosexual, or you can't have such-and-such sexual preferences. How can he tell us what we can do in our private lives? What if there's more women than guys, is that wrong, too?
"We already have so many rules: we can't drink on these days, we can't go to these places, now we can't have group sex. About the only thing we can do these days is go to club functions, and just hang around other players. That's just isolating us more from the rest of the world, and it could lead to even more violent acts."
He said group sex was largely initiated by women, and therefore the players felt unfairly targeted by criticism swirling around the game since a report by Four Corners on Monday detailed the lasting psychological impact on a woman after an incident involving Cronulla players in 2002.
The report prompted Gallop to advise players that group sex was degrading to women, and he warned those who took part in such activities they could be kicked out of the game. "I think on any level it is still an extremely degrading experience," Gallop said on Tuesday. "It also has a lot of risk involved in it and players need to know that.
"If you are not on board with the change that we are endeavouring to implement then don't play rugby league."
However, the player said change would be difficult because women would continue to proposition them.
"Players get a lot of attention from girls in the clubs because they've got a high profile. That's not the players' fault," he said.
"Most of the time the girl goes back willingly and consents to everything, but sometimes regrets it when she wakes up in the morning and says, 'I didn't want that to happen,' and that's when the problems start.
"I don't know one single guy in the NRL who would resort to holding a woman down against her will or raping her, and nobody would condone that.
"I do see what they're saying about risk; you just never know how a girl's going to react afterwards. You're not supposed to say it publicly, but everyone knows that if you're polite afterwards and pay her cab fare home you usually don't have any problems."
He added that former players often told stories of their sexual exploits to the game's current generation. "Some of the stories you hear from the older guys, I wouldn't really say it was worse than what happens now but it was going on a long time ago, but there was just no media reports about it back then."
Another player said he believed group sex involving teammates was being phased out of the game, while several others refused to talk about the issue.
