If the NRL is uncompromising enough to fine Curtis Scott for an indiscretion that hurt nobody, offended nobody, came in his own private time, was broadcast without his knowledge, was understandable if foolish on a beer-soaked Australia Day and had already subjected him to the unfair misery of baseless police charges, ultimately thrown out by a magistrate at Downing Centre Local Court, what of Craig Bellamy’s one fingered-salute?
Scott was blind drunk and asleep under one of those giant fig trees across the road from the SCG, on Driver Avenue at Moore Park, in the early hours of January 27. Police roughed him up and then charged him. Those allegations were tossed out in court like Gorden Tallis threw Brett Hodgson over a State of Origin sideline.
Regardless of Scott’s innocence in the matter, it was unacceptable behaviour, said NRL boss Andrew Abdo, giving him a breach notice on the weekend for “bringing the game into disrepute” and breaching “the NRL’s policies concerning the consumption of alcohol”.
The notice said Scott would be coughing up $15,000 for his late-night nap, all of which would be suspended if he “completed an education and counselling program implemented by the NRL’s Wellbeing & Education Department. Part of that education and counselling will be to directed at gaining a better understanding of the risks of excessive alcohol use.”
In other words, the NRL wanted to tell Scott about the dangers of the plonk. Tell the poor bugger something he wouldn’t already know. He tasered by police, handcuffed, pepper-sprayed in his eyes, arrested, dragged through the courts in a harrowing nine-month legal battle, had his name turned to mud, lost sponsorships, trained and played below his best. He was bruised and bloodied in a heavy-handed arrest that made him groan in agony. That’s not enough punishment for him?
Give the bloke a break. Yet Abdo said: “Our players are role models in the community and must set an example for young people who look up to them. In our view, Curtis should not have placed himself in a position where he was found in the state that he was in. That sort of behaviour is not acceptable and impacts on the reputation of our game and our brand.”
Scott is justifiably “bitter” about his treatment from police and is likely to launch legal action of his own. He has until the close of business on Friday to respond to the NRL’s brutal breach notice.
Meanwhile, Bellamy flipped the bird at his Melbourne Storm captain, Cameron Smith, from the coaches box on Saturday night. It was great TV and hilarious and wonderfully entertaining. Smith was in prime smart-alec mode and Bellamy played his grumpy older man role to perfection.
Smith had just scored a try that took him past Bellamy’s career mark of 46, winning a bet in the process. When the try was confirmed, he laughed like he was watching The Two Ronnies’ repeats. He pumped his fist like the Storm had won the comp. He sprayed water like it was coming from a champagne bottle. He’s won Origin deciders and Tests and showed less emotion.
All the Storm players started pointing at Bellamy and chuckling at his expense. He flipped them the bird. Then took it down. Flipped it again. In a round of virtually dead matches because the top eight was already set in stone, it was just about the highlight of the weekend.
Offended? Nobody. Hurt? Nobody. Embarrassed? Nobody. Thinking less of the NRL? Nobody. But at the end of the day, a leading coach was broadcast and photographed doing a one-fingered salute, an act normally regarded of contempt or anger. If parents don’t want little Johnny and Joanna to pass out drunk under a tree, do they want them flipping the bird? Strictly speaking, what’s the difference? Are they both offensive gestures, or not?
If the NRL was heartless enough to fine Scott, it has to punish Bellamy. Ridiculous, I know, for Bellamy to be sanctioned. There’s context to it. The humour and mateship. But there’s context to Scott’s situation, too – he’s already been punished enough.
If you ignore Scott’s context, you have to ignore Bellamy’s. He was on club time, on NRL time, in prime time, he knew he might be on national TV, there’s photographs everywhere of him raising a digit. Should the NRL’s words against Scott not also apply to him? The words about “role models in the community” who “must set an example for young people who look up to them.” If we’re being that ruthless to Scott’s nap, does bird-flipping not also behaviour “not acceptable” that “impacts on the reputation of our game and our brand.”
Everyone assumed Scott was guilty when he was going through the legal wringer? As he said, “Everyone just kind of took their (police) side and didn’t even consider my side to the story, making out you’re some monster cop basher …”
Now he’s been found innocent in a court of law, the NRL has decided he’s still guilty. If it’s sticking to the most immovable letters of its own laws, it has to be equally harsh on Bellamy, who joked of Smith’s four-pointer: “It was a scrappy old try. I thought he deadset knocked it on. I’ll have to apologise for my reaction when they all looked up at the box and started laughing at me. I just sort of stuck it up. I was surprised the camera caught me, actually.”
So was Scott. No joke.
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