Bulldogs Mad Monday scandal damaging to NRL during game’s prime time
YOU could almost forgive a youngster for an error of judgment, but when you’re talking about long-term NRL players caught in a Mad Monday scandal, it’s unforgivable, writes Buzz Rothfield.
NSW
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THE timing could not have been worse.
On the day the NRL whet our appetites by lining up the eight captains of the top-eight clubs to promote this week’s finals, a couple of knucklehead footballers ruin it.
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The irony is that we inquired with the NRL last week to check in Integrity Unit boss Nick Weeks would be sending out his annual warning letter to the club chief executives.
The reply came back in a text message: “Clubs know by now.”
The Canterbury Bulldogs have had a wonderful season, considering the boardroom upheaval at the beginning of the year, the loss of franchise signing Kieran Foran through injury, plus having to release Test forward Aaron Woods and Moses Mbye to rival clubs.
On the field all season under Dean Pay, this side has punched above its weight.
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But yesterday’s episode on yet another Mad Monday scandal, this time at The Rocks, undoes everything the team has achieved.
What are sponsors going to think? What are parents of their youngest fans going to think?
Not just at the Bulldogs, but right across the game, because it has happened so regularly in previous years.
You could almost forgive a youngster for an error of judgment, but when you’re talking about long-term NRL players, it’s unforgivable.
Years ago, footy players got away with this rubbish. But that all ended with mobile phone cameras and social media.
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Not to mention they were exposing themselves in the outdoor area of a pub in The Rocks.
It’s like they were inviting trouble.
The NRL needs to come down hard on the Bulldogs for this, don’t muck around with fines of $50,000 or $100,000.
The fact this story is on page one in the first week of the finals has caused irreparable damage to the image of the game.
The NRL kicks off a women’s competition this weekend, hoping to attract more females to rugby league.
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And we’ve got these mugs getting naked in a public place in such a disgusting manner.
It’s got to stop.
Outside of Manly’s Gladstone strip club affair on an away trip early in the season, it’s been a relatively scandal-free season.
But it only takes one major incident like yesterday to hurt the reputation of all NRL players.
Maybe the clubs did need that NRL memo after all.