Comment: Education is not enough, only punishment can fix this violent epidemic

COMMENT: Five players charged with serious domestic or sexual violence against women since October. When is enough going to be enough?

We need action, not just education.

I would rather eat glass than watch another abuse scandal of any nature unfold in the NRL.

I would rather attend every single hospital visit or community program and write a million words on it.

But here we are, yet again, reporting on more horrific allegations — and it makes me sick.

We must say allegations, of course, because none of the five rugby league players who have been charged with assaulting women since the grand final on September 30 have been convicted.

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However, the allegations alone are as damaging as it gets. And to say it’s a disappointment is the understatement of the year.

I don’t know a single league fan — female or otherwise — who isn’t utterly crushed by what seems to be a constant wave of accusations of violent crimes against women.

And by fans I mean fans — the diehard, rusted on variety. The people who work 40 hours a week and then spend their cash buying merchandise and tickets to watch the sport they love in their spare time.

For the women in particular, it’s getting to be too much.

Last week Zane Musgrove and Liam Coleman were charged with indecent assault. This week Dylan Walker and Jarryd Hayne appeared in court to face serious violent charges.

And now Jack de Belin, Origin star, has been charged with aggravated sexual assault in company.

These alleged incidents are just a snapshot of the society we live in, where one in three Australian women will be a victim of domestic or sexual violence at the hands of a person they know.

By now we should all be aware that violence of any kind against women starts with a lack of respect.

Dylan Walker leaves Manly Local Court with his fiancee, Alexandra Ivkovic.

It’s been a particularly rough week to be a woman in Australia and a rugby league fan.

This week we read about Olga Edwards, the woman who took her own life months after her two children were slain by their father.

We can count her life as another claimed by domestic violence.

I have quite literally lost count of the amount of women who have been killed this year alone. I do know, as should you, that it’s a nationwide epidemic.

What I don’t know is how it’s going to change when it seems so overwhelmingly and frustratingly ingrained into our society.

Players calling out this behaviour and refusing to play with a convicted offender would be a nice start.

NRL players get more education and training on these social issues than just about any other people in the country — and rightly so.

There are so many good things about rugby league, and the NRL get so much right. The way they handle equality and promote mental health awareness is second to none.

Jarryd Hayne leaves court after facing aggravated sexual assault charges.

But evidently the anti-violence message is not enough.

And it’s not their fault.

Good, reasonable men should not need education programs on how to get consent, or how not to be violent, or the dangers of alcohol and drugs.

It should be common sense.

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The NRL can spend millions on prevention tools and techniques to curb these kinds of scandals but if the message isn’t taken seriously it’s not going to be received.

How do you undo years of learned behaviour and societal ignorance in an afternoon workshop?

You don’t.

You hold people accountable, draw a line in the sand and set an example.

If convicted, these players need to be rubbed out of the game for good.

No longer can we tolerate a standard of behaviour that feeds into a nationwide epidemic with deathly consequences.

Not because these women are mothers, sisters, friends and wives — but because they’re human beings deserving of respect no matter their relationship to the perpetrator.

The message needs to be that for every convicted violent NRL player there’s a deserving hopeful ready to toe the line and take his place.

They are replaceable.

Because frankly, we’re all tired of it.

We need to be better, do better and demand better.

Our game and the lives of women depend on it.

Originally published as Comment: Education is not enough, only punishment can fix this violent epidemic