NRL players must learn what life is like in the real world to change their attitudes and behaviour
After an off-season in which the appalling attitudes and sense of entitlement from some fools dominated headlines, it is refreshing to see clubs teach their stars common decency, writes YVONNE SAMPSON.
Opinion
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After a long, dark NRL off-season, brutally honest Storm supremo Craig Bellamy ripped into the “lack of common sense and decency” in the game.
Since his first day as the Melbourne coach in 2003, Bellamy expected decency and common courtesy from his players.
Every single Storm player is forced to leave their NRL image and ego at the door and do manual labour. Hard work. Real work.
Premiership winners, record breakers, Dally M medallists, it didn’t matter who or what you thought you were; no one is exempt from rolling up the sleeves.
Cameron Munster is a millionaire, but that doesn’t mean the rep star is too good to dig holes on a construction site every single day for two weeks. For free.
This summer slog meant Brodie Croft and Scott Drinkwater became brickies and concreters.
Bellamy’s ambition to eliminate entitlement from his young charges equates to a 13-14 hour work day.
Pre-season weights in the morning at the club 5.30am to 6.30am, travel to the job site for a 7am start where they work all day until a 3pm knock-off.
Then it’s back to the training paddock again in the afternoon from around 4pm until you get it right. How ever long that takes by Bellamy’s elite standards.
It’s designed to make you feel uncomfortable. Because we know outside the bright lights and charmed life of the NRL star, life can be uncomfortable.
Labour intensive work like concreting, bricklaying, landscaping is physically taxing, but Bellamy is honing in on the mental resolve.
It’s about challenging the work ethic and attitudes of young athletes. No one is above appreciating the opportunities rugby league gives them. It’s about respect for others and above all it’s about decency.
As scandals escalate in the NRL, it comes as no surprise the Storm have recorded the lowest number of off-field misdemeanours from the entire rugby league landscape with just one incident since 2015.
Who was the worst club? Parramatta with 13 off-field offenders.
It’s important to point out the glaring differences not just in their culture but where they sat on last year’s ladder.
In 2018, the Storm appeared in their seventh grand final, while the Eels were regrettable wooden spooners.
Bellamy’s slave labour scheme is so effective, the Titans have adopted the program.
Playmaker Ash Taylor spent his off-season as a builders labourer, gun recruit Tyrone Peachey worked in steel fabrication and prop Jarrod Wallace became a landscaper.
Workhorse Origin star Jai Arrow held down two day jobs as a plumbers labourer and washing cars along with captain Ryan James.
New father Dale Copley welcomed a baby to his already full schedule of studying a law degree at QUT, pre-season training and still managed to do some heavy lifting as a baggage porter at the QT over the summer.
Honest work all done under the watchful eye of coach Garth Brennan.
After 15 years in the police force, Brennan knows the value of life experience.
Before I landed my dream job in journalism, I spent my early 20s working in horse studs and vet clinics scraping the blood and guts from the surgery floor, shovelling mountains of manure and fixing fences.
I moved to Alexandra Headland and worked out the back of a fish and chip shop peeling the membranes off cuttlefish to make sure the calamari was tender.
I was and remain grateful for these jobs, I was proud of my work and enjoyed the satisfaction of getting it right.
It also taught me to work hard for the things you want, appreciate the things you have and to have common courtesy.
Rugby league isn’t the problem. Appalling attitudes and entitlement are.
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