A Wiggle wouldn’t do it, why should an NRL player?

Blurred out vision from the video of a toilet tryst involving an NRL player

There’s a certain amount of responsibility that comes with being a highly paid entertainer, particularly when kids make up a big slab of your fan base.

The demands aren’t too onerous – it largely comes down to behaving like a decent human being. And having sex in public toilet cubicles is not on. Filming your sexual encounters and sharing the video with a few of your mates is another no-no.

Do we need to explain this? Is it not self-evident that the sort of behaviour Penrith’s Tyrone May and an unidentified Parramatta player have been involved in is completely unacceptable?

Apparently we do. In particular, the Parramatta player, accused of having sex with a woman in a toilet cubicle while someone filmed over the door, is being portrayed as an innocent victim.

The offence, according to some interpretations, is not the grubby act of engaging in sex with someone you have apparently just met in a public place. The offence is filming it and disseminating the video.

Aside from anything, when you have sex in a public toilet in an age when everyone else there has a video camera in their pocket, what do you expect is going to happen?

But more importantly, the truth is that having sex in public toilets is tacky, inappropriate and reflective of questionable attitudes for anyone, let alone for an elite athlete.

NRL players – like AFL players, Super Rugby players, elite cricketers – are entertainers whether they like it or not. They are also role-models and heroes to sports fans, many of them children. When they accept the big salary and the privileges that come with being an elite athlete, they also have to accept the responsibilities of behaving like a role model.

Can you imagine a member of The Wiggles being caught in flagrante delicto in a public loo? It’s not going to happen because The Wiggles understand they need to live up to certain standards their fans expect. Someone needs to explain this to NRL players.

The standard of the NRL this season is better than it has been for years – fast and exciting, with feats of skill and athleticism in every match. A weekend of great football looms, with Anzac Day games on Sunday. Yet all we are talking about is grubby sex tape scandals.

In a crowded sporting market, where competition for bums on stadium seats and eyes on TV screens is intense, Andrew Abdo and Peter V’landys must be tearing their hair out.

The smartest comment on all of this has come from former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke.

“Seriously I don’t get it,” Clarke told his radio audience.

“Does he not have a house for starters? Like go home. What are you doing in a toilet?”