The NRL’s trouble with Andrew Fifita
THE NRL dodged one bullet on Sunday night. The embarrassment for the game was that Andrew Fifita was there in the first place, live blog with PAUL KENT from 1pm.
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SOME day I hope they make a full-length movie about this current NRL administration.
These guys belong in a Monty Python skit, or a little Farrelly brothers madness.
On second thought, nobody could do it justice as strictly comedy, or even a sports movie. Maybe a political satire. A Kafka novel adapted for the big screen, although it might be a little hard on the intellect.
LIVE BLOG WITH NRL360’S PAUL KENT BELOW FROM 1PM.
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They stood outside until somebody arrived and unlocked the doors and they could go in and sit down and, with ARL Commissioner John Grant phoning in, pick the squad.
There was an elephant in the room. Just the previous night Andrew Fifita came within a minute or two of winning the Clive Churchill Medal and quite possibly a place in grand final infamy.
As keen observers will note, winning the medal automatically meant an acceptance speech must follow.
“I’d like to thank Joyce Churchill, my teammates, the Melbourne Storm ... and just want to say to my little mate in prison ...”
Rrrrrrip. Dodged a bullet there.
The embarrassment for the game, and the sadness for us, was that Fifita was there in the first place.
Nobody wants to say too much about it in the glory of Cronulla’s first premiership after 50 years.
And the Sharks do deserve to celebrate it as long as their constitutions can stand. But the game never stops and a day after the grand final the Australian squad was supposed to be picked until the NRL strangely delayed it.
An NRL spokesman explained the delay simply: “Decided to give Cronulla their time in the sun after their first premiership.” True.
Add this to the file showing how out of touch this current administration is with the game for which they are currently caretakers. Did somebody only just realise the announcement was scheduled for the day after the grand final? Hardly.
In times past, Kangaroo announcements were welcome news at premiership celebrations. Nearly always there was a smokey in the newly crowned premiers who demanded selection in the touring squad given his grand final performance. The players celebrated accordingly, celebrating their teammates’ good fortune, along with others named, as the icing on one of the great days of their lives.
Why would the NRL delay giving the Sharks more good news?
Unless it was bad news.
Fifita will not be picked for Australia. For two reasons:
The game realises it simply cannot afford to send him away with a touring team and risk him embarrassing the game again, particularly after the season it has just endured.
Best of all, the selectors are strong in the belief the Australian jersey should stand for more than what a player can bring on the field and that the jumper should carry a prestige.
Which brings you back to point one. Fifita is still under investigation from the NRL’s Integrity Unit after his public support of one-punch killer Kieran Loveridge, coupled with a police warning for consorting with criminals.
He needn’t be. If the game was prepared to make the tough call instead of delaying it and sinking us all in the misery, it might well be over now. But no, instead the NRL continued its practice of soft discipline.
Shortly after the story broke NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said it was time clubs took accountability for their players’ behaviour. In the same week Cronulla chief executive Lyall Gorman said it was up to the NRL to make a decision.
In other words, “your problem, not mine”. Meanwhile, Fifita kept playing, getting ever closer to that grand final.
A month after Cronulla looked to have hosed it down, offering all sorts of apologies and statements of regret on Fifita’s behalf, the big prop was left unaccompanied in a dressing room and came out and said he didn’t really regret it after all.
So thank heavens for Grant, the Commissioner, and Meninga, Fulton and Lockyer. They have done the job the NRL seems afraid to do.
The sure sign of the NRL’s disastrous handling of this is the opinion of many ex-players, usually the biggest supporters of players in such times, who question whether Fifita should have been allowed to continue playing at all.
With the administration crippled by fear it took the Commissioner and the selectors to restore integrity.
The most confounding decision, though, is why the NRL chose to delay the announcement.
And all for Fifita? We might be in more trouble than we thought.
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