While the Dragons hide Jack de Belin from the media the Rabbitohs let their players speak
Jack de Belin is not scared of a microphone; so why are the Dragons so scared of letting him speak into one, asks David Riccio.
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Why are the Dragons hiding Jack de Belin?
The last time I checked, de Belin is a grown man. Indeed, he turns 31-years-old in three weeks.
He’s also a father.
I’ve spoken to the St George-Illawarra forward many times.
I can confirm, de Belin speaks fluent English.
To be fair he‘s a good chat, not intimidated, like other players can be.
He’ll sit with a tape recorder under his nose and with great detail, share a story about his upbringing, his family, his love for his junior footy club the Cootamundra Bulldogs, or his NRL aspirations.
This is the guy that St George-Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin considered naming captain last August, remember?
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Yet nine months, or 277-days to be exact, since The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution dropped its case andadvised that de Belin’s court matter would not be proceeding to a third trial, no one outside of the Red-V rectangle have heard from de Belin.
South Sydney supporters, this is where you should tune-in and applaud the freedom of which the Rabbitohs management allow your players to express themselves.
As Souths CEO Blake Solly says: “To speak from the heart and show their character.”
As the club’s outstanding recent on-field results show, the Rabbitohs willingness for their players to mature on and off the field, is also enabling performance.
Solly explained the club‘s reluctance to shackle their players when defending Rabbitohs star Latrell Mitchell, who spoke to every TV, radio and print reporter, for over an hour, earlier this week.
Instead of offering vanilla, one-word, clichéd answers in response to his current suspension for a high shot on Joey Manu last year, Mitchell claimed rugby league had become “OzTag” and that “the match review committee is swayed by media outlets.”
“We would encourage Latrell, like all our players, to be considered, open and articulate about how they feel about the game or our club,” Solly said.
What are they afraid of? Backlash from the sponsors? Concerns over potential legal issues?
If there are ongoing legal issues, de Belin is well within his rights to provide a simple, “no comment.”
However, such is the lengths that the Dragons have gone to hide de Belin from a camera or microphone, he has even been guarded from answering deeply probing questions including, ‘What do you eat on the morning of a game?” and “Which NRL team did you support as a kid?”
On a recent trip down to Wollongong for pre-season filming of Fox League’s The Fan, the show’s producer was told that of the 25-odd players on the club list to be interviewed by co-hosts Lara Pitt and Andrew Voss, de Belin would be the only player off limits.
Spare a thought for the nervous rookie in the team, looking past the camera and over at de Belin, again, the proposed captain, kicking back in his seat.
Plenty of fans would argue they have no interest in hearing from de Belin anyway.
That’s fine.
But then next week, don’t ask why so many professional athletes struggle to deal with life after football.
Life doesn’t come with a minder.
I would argue the Rabbitohs club-wide policy of wanting their players to front-up, share their story and voice their personal opinion on an issue, is far more advantageous in preparing them for life after football, than the mothering going on at the Dragons.
I’ve spoken to the Dragons CEO Ryan Webb about why de Belin is yet to discuss, well, anything?
Webb responds with a left and right foot step better than Cody Ramsey.
The Dragons say they’re happy for de Belin to talk to the media.
But in the next sentence, they claim “just not at the moment, possibly next week.”
NSW State of Origin coach Brad Fittler has an open-door policy with his players and the media.
As he professes ahead of every Blues camp; “If a player can’t handle an interview from a journalist, how is he going to handle an Origin match?”
At one stage, the Dragons were considering handing de Belin the captaincy.
A captain that is, who is barred from talking.
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Originally published as While the Dragons hide Jack de Belin from the media the Rabbitohs let their players speak
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