Rabbitohs failed in duty of care

Sam Burgess (left) and Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett. Picture: AAP

There is one word that sums up the National Rugby League’s inability to reform the code’s dreadful image as a hotbed of scandal and sin. That word is clubs. In clubland, players’ personal dramas — public misbehaviour, mental ill-health, drugs, allegations from women about mistreatment and domestic violence — are reputational risks, not serious welfare concerns.

Time and again, the top brass of the NRL says all the right things about being a force for good in communities. And time and again a disappointed public watches rugby league clubs cover up and try to “manage” episodes where players are caught engaging in serious misbehaviour. And it’s the clubs that seem incapable, or unwilling, to grasp that rugby league stars are in essence children’s entertainers — that if the game doesn’t attract families to purchase tickets, buy memberships, watch games on television and enrol their kids in junior comps, rugby league doesn’t have a future at all.

It was the NRL itself — not the clubs — that finally implemented a “no-fault stand down” policy for players charged with offences against women after a string of examples where clubs defied public expectations that men who were subject to a police charge or an apprehended violence order should not be allowed to run on to the field. And it’s the clubs that continue to allow men to go on playing even after allegations of domestic violence have been raised.

Former Rabbitohs player Sam Burgess. Picture: Getty Images

Today, The Australian reveals concerning evidence that the South Sydney Rabbitohs knew of allegations about star player (and now star development coach) Sam Burgess but did not act on them. There was no one bigger or more valuable to Souths than Burgess: the man who won them the 2014 grand final with a broken face; who brought his three brilliant brothers to the NRL; who dazzled kids and grown-ups alike with his snaggle-toothed smile and spectacular skill. But behind the scenes, the club knew of allegations that Burgess’s life was out of control: including claims of recreational and prescription drugs, women raising allegations about infidelity and inappropriate conduct, serious medical episodes and a deeply distressed wife asking for help.

Burgess, via his lawyers, has denied all the allegations. He is currently the subject of an intimidation (domestic violence) charge relating to his father-in-law, for whom police also obtained an apprehended violence order. Burgess is pleading not guilty and has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

The NRL’s rules clearly state clubs are required to report any allegation of a registered player engaging in behaviour that could bring the code into disrepute to the governing body — the NRL. That way, its integrity unit can investigate. On Thursday night, Souths boss Blake Solly said he had referred one complaint — by a Melbourne woman — to the integrity unit. But the NRL strongly denied any referral was made. The focus of this investigation is not one man’s alleged misdeeds. It is South Sydney: a club that has failed in its duty to its player, his family and all those who believed in the Rabbitohs and rugby league.