Paul Kent: Mad Monday celebrations threaten to put NRL players in contract danger zone

Clubs are no longer protecting footballers like they once were and the writing is on the wall for anyone considering misbehaving during Mad Monday celebrations, PAUL KENT writes.

One day not so long ago a small battalion of NSW Police walked into a nightclub down at the King St Wharf after receiving unsavoury reports a man was knocked unconscious.

The coppers found exactly what they expected.

The man was still there nursing his aching brain and the offender had long since absconded, no doubt in search of better times and, in a big city like Sydney, he might as well have been invisible, such were the chances of nabbing him.

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The police diligently performed their duties, interviewing the victim and what witnesses there were, everybody’s memory a little fuzzy, and then looked at the security vision where they received an unexpected break.

Cameras showed the man walk out of the nightclub and also the direction he was headed and, armed with nothing else, the police trudged in a southerly direction, combing each nightclub as they came to it.

Mad Monday dress-ups were once a time-honoured tradition. Picture: Craig Greenhill

Finally they struck some luck.

The man, an NRL player out with his team on Mad Monday, was quite indignant that the police had picked him out from inside the half-full nightclubs to make such alarming accusations.

“How do you know it’s me?” he demanded, hoping to sew some doubt in their minds.

The copper was having none of it and dropped his big paw on the player’s shoulder and hauled him in.

“You’re the only one wearing a Fred Flintstone costume,” the copper said, and with that the player was hauled away and his club was called and everybody inside the football office went into damage control, rapidly trying to determine who knew and what their chances were to keep the entire incident quiet.

The incident was not leaked, the Integrity Unit not informed, so by any terms their cover-up would be considered a success.

Except the incident has come back to bite them many times over.

The player became a repeat offender, fooled into thinking that one of the perks of life as a quality NRL player was that the club would move small mountains to ensure his bad behaviour was covered up so he would be allowed to continue playing.

Paul Vaughan, speaking on NRL360, after he was sacked by St George Illawarra.

It means it always makes for a nervous weekend this time of year for the NRL, with exactly half the clubs in the competition ending their season by Sunday night primed for a solid start to their off-season with a flourish.

Some have been known to suck on salt licks in the days leading up in a bid to gain a proper thirst.

NRL boss Andrew Abdo has warned the clubs and their players about the need to behave, particularly because the other half of the competition that is still alive remain the guests of the Queensland government.

Doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen, though.

But as players warm into Monday’s muted celebrations there is a new fear emerging.

NRL players are on notice not to step out of line on Mad Monday. Digital art: Boo Bailey

Earlier this year St George Illawarra prop Paul Vaughan was sacked after hosting the now infamous Covid-breaking barbecue at his Wollongong home.

Vaughan was in trouble immediately.

Not because he was the host and that the Dragons were being boxed in to acknowledge the strong public backlash, with some kind of strong action, but because Vaughan was on such a good deal at the Dragons.

As the club struggled to get its salary cap in order, which is always about value for money, Vaughan made himself vulnerable.

With a salary of $800,000, the Dragons were quietly shopping him around, prepared to carry some of his contract in their cap next season if a suitor came along.

Bulldogs star Adam Elliott’s career will go on the line on Monday. Picture: Richard Dobson

When Vaughan breached his contract, though, in clear terms, the decision to sack him was easy. It immediately helped rebalance the Dragons’ cap position.

Canterbury’s Adam Elliott will fight for his future on Monday when the Canterbury board holds a Zoom meeting to decide Elliott’s future after he broke the NRL’s Covid restrictions by dragging NRLW player Millie Boyle into a restaurant bathroom for a kiss.

Elliott claims he dragged Ms Boyle into the bathrooms because he was embarrassed to kiss her in a public place such as the restaurant they were in.

If so, it highlights the corruptive influences Mad Monday can inflict on normally fine, upstanding young men.

It was only several years back, after all, that Elliott was seduced by the rich bass-baritone tones of Neil Diamond enough to disrobe completely on the balcony of a Sydney hotel and, joyfully, dance until the crowd could stand no more.

While Sweet Caroline has never been the same since, shyness did not seem to be an issue that time around.

Canterbury chief executive Aaron Warburton has privately told at least several people that Elliott’s ultimate sanction “will not be a salary cap play”, which is positive news for Elliott and his $450,000-a-year contract.

NRL players are now vulnerable thanks to Mad Monday celebrations.

Maybe so, but he has certainly made himself vulnerable.

The Bulldogs know this all too well, having picked up Vaughan’s contract for less than half of what it was worth at St George Illawarra.

That the club is also in the market for a quality playmaker, with Lachlan Lewis’s deal also expiring October 31 and, between them, considerable money potentially being freed up, means Elliott has played himself into the danger zone.

It is a consideration players have never before had to really consider.

As Fred Flintstone showed that night not so long ago, clubs always had an interest in helping players cover-up their misbehaviours, doing all they could to ensure certain situations did not get out publicly to keep them on the field.

Not anymore.

Now, for many players, if they do not fit into the club’s plans for the future, and they might not even know it, that safety net has gone.

The only solution moving forward, it seems, is the same solution as it always was, which is to stay out of Barney Rubble.

It would be wise for players to stay out of trouble.

SHORT SHOT

The startling difference in scorelines across the NRL will be a major thinking point for the NRL over the summer.

The Raiders were walloped 40-16 by the Roosters on Thursday night who, just a week earlier, were walloped 54-12 by the Rabbitohs.

Although it doesn’t always work this way, it is worrying to think what the Rabbitohs might have done to the Raiders if they were in their same frames of mind.

More, the reality is the Roosters could name a stronger team from their injured list this season than those who were healthy and available Thursday night, yet they were still able to embarrass the Raiders.

As it sits, Cronulla is in eighth position and primed for a playoff game despite having a losing record by several games.

Most blame the new rules for the blowouts in scorelines but it might be just part of the problem.

The new rules have absolutely tested each team’s resilience.

And certainly the absence of the old penalty square-up late in the match, always denied by the NRL but one with enough circumstantial evidence to defy their denials, has contributed to the blowouts.

So, too, is the fact the salary cap is an incomplete science, with the NRL not having enough powers to ensure there are no nudge, nudge, wink, winks.

The NRL has never fully disclosed what clubs earn in third-party payments and the official parameters they reveal are never close to what club insiders say are the real figures.

Whatever the game decides, let’s hope it comes early enough for teams to be able to adjust over the summer.

Originally published as Paul Kent: Mad Monday celebrations threaten to put NRL players in contract danger zone