Paul Kent: Why NRL doesn’t need Israel Folau to return
Among a host of reasons, Israel Folau should not be welcomed back to the NRL, mainly, because he let his teammates down and there is no way they could trust him going forward.
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The sign says full.
Now what are the ill-behaved and poorly disciplined to do?
Israel Folau should not be welcomed back to the NRL because he is praying to some god in the sky against others whose beliefs remain their own business but because he broke the first rule of sport.
He let his teammates down.
It was no inadvertent slip.
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Folau posted his religious ramblings last year and was formally warned - and agreed, which is important here - never to do it again and then he did it again.
So in a World Cup year, when his teammates knew they were a considerably better chance of winning with Folau in the team, he forced Rugby Australia to take action.
Waratahs teammate Nick Phipps was full of praise for Folau as a man and as a player. There was nobody they wanted to see lacing up his boots beside them more.
“But he kind of let us down off the field,” Phipps said Thursday on Macquarie Sports Radio.
Why, because the World Cup is important to Phipps who knows the best chance the Wallabies have in Japan is with Folau in the team. And now everybody in that team knows it will be a little bit harder.
Those who believe it is just sport and that Folau is appealing to a higher cause must remember the platform Folau is preaching from. Without his teammates Folau would be laying bricks for a living.
Warned once and for all last year, quietly advised to take down his post this time where he refused, it left Rugby Australia with no choice.
Folau could not guarantee he would not do it again.
So he was gone.
Now some, like the Bulldog, my colleague Dean Ritchie, believe the NRL should let Folau return. For a dozen given reasons that give me a great migraine.
“Should Folau agree to respect rugby league - and the game’s values - then he should return,” wrote the Dog.
Where is that guarantee? If your teammates can’t trust you, who can?
It is exactly why Folau was sacked this week. He condemned gays last year and agreed not to do it again and did it again.
The free speech argument gets plenty of followers but free speech does not mean you get to say whatever you like without consequence. It simply means you have the right to say it.
Folau’s rights to free speech were not impeded.
There are two sides in this argument and both have long lost sight of the simple issue and now fight for the right simply to be right.
The other side has sought to turn it into an equal rights issue. It does not cover Rugby Australia in glory.
Diversity and inclusiveness are the code’s new punchline. The hypocrisy is astonishing.
Equal rights?
The national team’s sponsor Qantas, which put so much pressure on RA to sack Folau, condemns him for asking gays to repent but partners with a sister airline from a country where men are jailed for the great offense of sleeping with another man. How does the chief executive, Alan Joyce, explain that?
Still, the NRL should not inherit Rugby Australia’s mistakes.
Not for political reasons but because Folau simply cannot be trusted not to embarrass the game at some point. And what players would want to play with him if their season might at some point be at risk?
The NRL’s public reputation was taken to with a ballpein hammer over the summer.
It is in the business of rebuilding that reputation at the moment, not risking it.
Just this week the NRL sought to bring all its integrity issues under one banner in the wake of last summer.
They hope clear consistent rules across the clubs will take out self-interest and remove uncertainty among the players about possible consequences for poor behaviour.
“This remains a work-in-progress,” Integrity unit boss Nick Weeks said on Friday, “but the Commission has asked us to explore options to strengthen our integrity systems so that we can more effectively protect the reputation of the sport.
“The new no-fault stand down rule is an example of that strengthened environment. But we are exploring other areas of our rules as well.
“For example, we are talking to Clubs and the RLPA about the merits of the NRL assuming responsibility for investigation and prosecuting all allegations of misconduct.
“We are also considering the introduction of a schedule of fixed penalties for different offences and the adequacy of the integrity unit’s resources to monitor and prosecute matters.
“In short, the Commission has asked us to consider all options that will assist the League to manage integrity matters and enhance public confidence in the sport.”
This is like all good ideas, which means it is dangerous in the wrong hands.
LISTEN! Latrell-mania has hit fever pitch but can he be considered among the game’s best players? And Matty also recalls the day the legendary Steve Rogers knocked on the door of the Johns family home. Tune in for the Matty Johns podcast with Kenty and Hoops.
Just last month Todd Greenberg, the boss, admitted to the Sydney Roosters that NRL penalty against Mitchell Pearce in 2016, eight weeks and a $125,000 fine for being drunk and making a silly video with a dog, was “overcooked”.
The penalty was wildly overcooked.
The Roosters have long believed the Pearce suspension had less to do with Pearce’s actions as it was about the power battle between ARL Commission chairman John Grant and Roosters chairman Nick Politis.
Leaving aside the political correctness, the inflamed opinions, sports are in competition with each other for corporate support and for the same dollar from fans.
It is an agreement every players enters into when he signs his contract. The terms of that agreement are all that matter in Folau’s case or anybody else’s case.
The rest is simply a convenient narrative to suit personal philosophies.
The NRL is already embroiled in its own argument in regard to Jack de Belin and the game’s right to stand him down, under the no fault policy, against the convenient narrative that every player is entitled to the presumption of innocence until his day in court.
Where does this “presumption” they speak of go when a civilian is charged with a serious offence and refused bail?
For instance, when Ivan Milat was charged for killing backpackers was he allowed to watch midday television in his lounge room until his day in court for fear of prejudicing his case?
No, the greater need was community safety and so Milat was held in remand until his hearing. It happens in many serious criminal offences.
In the NRL’s case the great need was not community safety but public reputation. Millions of dollars threatened to walk from the game if de Belin was allowed to play. Millions more might have stopped coming in.
The game needed to be seen to stand for something.
The same principles now apply when considering allowing Folau back in the NRL.
He has simply made himself a risk not worth taking.
FLETCH: BUBBLE IS WORST IDEA IN HISTORY OF TELEVISION
Life in the bubble has taken on new meaning for Fox Sport’s resident pranksters Bryan Fletcher and Nathan Hindmarsh.
Hindmarsh and Fletcher are camping out in a bubble tent on the forecourt of Suncorp Stadium as part of the promotion around this week’s NRL magic round.
“There must be 50 people outside the bubble,” Fletcher said.
“They’re just staring at us, they’re not waving. I feel like a monkey. It’s really off-putting.”
Fletcher called it the worst idea in the history of television with temperatures inside the bubble close to 50 degrees.
Hindmarsh has spent his time catching up on Game of Thrones - after an early start he is now up to series five - while Fletcher has basically got on his phone to have a bet.
In the early hours of Friday morning he was going all around the world in order to find some action.
NRL’S MOVE TO REVITALISE SUBURBAN GROUNDS
The NRL’s return to suburban grounds for the first week of the finals is another proactive move from a headquarters wanting to maintain faith with fans.
Given the move is brought about by the demolition of Allianz Stadium, though, it puts the clock on fans to show suburban grounds are worth the argument.
For years fans, and often a small but noisy lot, have argued the merits of suburban grounds ahead of the bigger stadiums.
The argument fails to acknowledge the flying flea circus principle, that if finals are to remain in smaller grounds then the game remains confined from ever growing, and becoming harder to sell when these so-called smaller suburban oasis’s failed to be filled.
It also overlooks Bankwest Stadium and the magnificent impact it is already having on fans.
Originally published as Paul Kent: Why NRL doesn’t need Israel Folau to return
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