The Daily Telegraph can reveal young females are being referred to as “gangas” by professional footballers — a term that refers to the code’s group sex culture, a practice which is still prevalent despite attempts to change attitudes in the code.

The NRL’s gender adviser Catherine Lumby, who pushed for the NRL to benchmark its culture again, says terms like “gangas” are “distressing”, and that group sex can sometimes turn into an “abusive male bonding exercise”.

“Group sex is abhorrent to many people but it is legal,” Lumby said. “Some women may decide to consensually participate. We need to remember not to shame those women. However, it can be risky … when group sex happens, where you have strong powerful men, a consensual activity can quickly devolve into an abusive male bonding exercise.

“The language around calling women ‘gangas’ or ‘the bun’ is really distressing.”

Ms Lumby said the NRL hoped club cultures will change as part of funding the big research project, with a range of independent experts investigating footballers’ and clubs’ attitudes.

Professor Lumby, who works pro bono for the NRL, said research has been proven to help the code to better implement education programs.

She pointed to 2004 research commissioned after the Bulldogs and Cronulla Sharks group sex scandals.

“In 2004 the then-NRL CEO David Gallop stood up against a toxic male culture and initiated independent research, which he acted on benchmarking and education resources,” Lumby said.

“The good news is that in 2010, when we benchmarked the research from 2004, we found a positive change in attitude in the order of 20 per cent in the right direction,” Lumby said. “The fantastic news is in 2018 the NRL will take new research that will take the temperature of the off-field culture in terms of how players treat women,” she said.

Last month the NRL said it was introducing tough protocols in relation to how its players treat women.

The new protocols are set to be launched at the start of the 2018 season.

Getting women on to fields is part of the solution

Comment by Jessica Halloran

THE NRL is a code choosing not to ignore toxic problems — but rather confront them.

Commissioning a benchmark study into footballers’ and clubs’ attitudes towards women is a strong move. Serious problems remain, particularly in clubland.

The practice of toxic male bonding, whether it be “gangbanging” or referring to women as “gangas”, is utterly disrespectful.

At the start of the 2018 season the NRL will also launch the behavioural indiscretions protocols regarding the treatment of women.

No other football code is considering a protocol. While NRL boss Todd Greenberg’s administration is showing it is strong on changing some footballers’ and clubs’ poor attitudes towards women, more can be done — starting both on the field and in the boardroom.

It’s as simple as appointing Kasey Badger or Belinda Sleeman to their first official match as a match referee.

Not just running the touchline, which they have been doing for the last 20 months. No, the NRL need to show that they trust a woman to run an entire game.

Just like the AFL did when they elevated Eleni Glouftsis to become the first female field umpire earlier this year.

It’s about giving the women their own NRL competition. The current administration is hiding behind a line of building the competition from the grassroots up.

Rather they should take the AFLW approach — a shorter season over summer, eight teams, a good two months for little girls to see that if they take up the game they can become an elite player; that they deserve an elite competition and for their games to be broadcast on TV.

AFLW was an amazing success. It wasn’t built from the grassroots up.