NRL 2022: RLPA fears online abuse will drive players away from the game
The players’ union fear NRL players could quit the game through “racist, abusive, vile, personal and targeted” online bullying and believe the perpetrators should face consequences for their actions.
The influential players’ union has predicted star NRL players could sensationally quit rugby league through “racist, abusive, vile, personal and targeted” online bullying.
RLPA chief executive Clint Newton claimed the game would be left “devastated and sad” if players walked away due to social media persecution.
It comes as Wests Tigers player Fa’amanu Brown claimed he broke down after being abused by fans last weekend, while Souths winger Jaxson Paulo has been rested this weekend after receiving online death threats.
After his side’s 72-6 loss to Sydney Roosters, Brown posted on Instagram: “People screaming at you, ‘you suck!’ Voices in my own head doubting my ability. Comments saying you’re useless. I cried that night because I let myself and my loved ones down.”
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Paulo was subjected to repulsive death threats after his performance for Souths against Penrith last Thursday night.
“It would be devastating to think a player leaves the game because of sustained online attacks, saying: ‘This isn’t for me’,” Newton said. “I would hate for us to be in a situation where the scrutiny becomes so great that players ask whether the impact it’s having on you and your family is worth it?
“You’d hate for a player to think that the better alternative is not playing. How sad would that be? With sustained attacks, and with the pressure that builds, do players have the capacity to continue to operate at a level that won’t put themselves at risk? I don’t know too many people who respond in a positive way to abuse.
“It becomes very much an internal conflict – they’re saying they love playing but how much are they prepared to take before it significantly impacts on their mental health, relationships and on-field performance?
“We know that wives, parents, partners, kids and family members have been attacked and threatened as well. We have seen in world sport where players take time away.
“No one is suggesting people can’t critique individuals or the game – everyone is well aware of that. But when it becomes racist, abusive and vile then that’s absolutely below the line. We have to understand there are consequences to comments that are made.
“There is absolutely the need to strike a balance between critiquing the game and being passionate about your team winning and losing but once it drifts into abuse and vile attacks on players or family members, administrator, referees, fans on chat forums, it could be anyone, then all of a sudden it becomes targeted and personal.
“I don’t think the answer is: ‘If you don’t like it then leave the game’. Players need to be playing in a safe environment. Let’s keep prioritising that people are human beings and you’d hate to see people be in a situation where they are choosing to exit the game because of how volatile it becomes.
“I’m not suggesting it’s happening on-mass but people choose to play rugby league, to follow their dreams and pursue a career that they love but this is the dark side.”
South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has elected to rest Paulo for Saturday night’s match against North Queensland as concerned Rabbitohs players continue to rally around and support their shaken winger. The RLPA is resisting calls for players to shut down their social media accounts.
“We have been in contact with Jaxson, his agent and the NRL, who are investigating the comments, and may get some guidance from police,” Newton said.
“We would like to work with the NRL to try and significantly beef-up their sanctioning regime in the event they can identify people.
“The game has worked swiftly in the past on banning people from games and to block access. I think it’s an all-in approach – all of us have a responsibility to look after our people. Social media has proven to be a significantly useful and necessary tool for fan engagement.
“It’s often forgotten just how accessible our players are and how much that helps promote the game, with every post a player puts up, it’s effectively free publicity for the game. Some of our players have got bigger profiles than the entire NRL on their own.
“There is huge value in it, however I have always been told not to wrestle with alligators in swamps. Unfortunately social media can sometimes turn into that. We have some work to do to ensure we’re giving players the right tools and the right security in place for some consequence in those areas.”
The average age of an NRL player is 24, the average age of an NRLW player is 22.
“They are considerably young and are exposed to a lot,” Newton said.
Brown was gutted after last Saturday night’s big loss, posting: “Last weekend made me realise how hard this game is to play. Not just the physical aspect but the mental side of it too.
“It was probably the first time in a long time I felt like there were little cracks into my wellbeing and mindset. We work hard to feed our families and strive to be the best person at our job just like every other job in the world.”
Mavin’s wise words for Souths flyer Paulo
-Brent Read
If Steve Mavin could give South Sydney winger Jaxson Paulo one piece of advice, this is it.
“Just be proud of what you have done and move on,” Mavin said.
“There is plenty of good footy to come for him. There are plenty more tries and making the fans happy, as opposed to one bad day.
“As far as Jaxson goes, he has played 42 games and scored 19 tries. So that is a fair record. Anyone who is trying to bag the bloke, have a look at yourself — how many games have you played and how many tries have you scored?
“He has that x-factor, he knows his way to the line, he has great hands. It was a bad day at the office. I do feel for the bloke but you just have to deal with it.”
Mavin had his own bad day at the office 35 years ago, making a litany of errors in the first half of a semi-final against Canberra.
Things got so bad he was eventually taken from the field. Legend has it that he watched the second half of the game at the Cauliflower Hotel in nearby Waterloo.
To his eternal credit, Mavin would spend three more years at the Rabbitohs and finish up playing more than 100 games for the club.
He was at Redfern Oval on Monday in his role as a co-host of the Rabbitohs TV YouTube channel, watching in the grandstand as Paulo trained with his teammates.
The young Souths winger was the subject of disgusting abuse following a difficult night against Penrith last week, prompting the club and his manager to ask the NRL integrity unit to intervene.
As of Monday, there was yet to be a formal complaint lodged with NSW Police. However, it is understood that could still happen given the level of vitriol that was directed at Paulo.
His teammates have rallied around him in the days since.
“The whole club cuddled him — that is what we do here,” Souths star Latrell Mitchell said.
“It is this team and the foundation of what it is. It opens up scars definitely. But it is about how can I protect my energy, but also how can I get around Jaxson and let him know I am here.
“The first thing I did was text him and say are you smiling. He laughed. It is a start. The best thing about this game is you get another week to prove people wrong.
“I have been proving people wrong my whole career.”
Mavin has come to terms with his difficult afternoon at the SCG, where he was mercilessly targeted by the Raiders and their star centre Peter Jackson.
“I was off Peter Jackson for years and I finally got to meet the guy and he was a champion,” Mavin said. “Back in the day they said it was a plan to target me. Jacko said I kicked you the ball and you dropped it. So I kicked it to you again.
“It was a big game and it was devastating. You can’t live with regret. I have to be happy with the things I achieved. I played 101 first grade games.
“We posted something on Rabbitoh Fan TV (to Paulo) and we said we stand with you, keep your head high and that is all you can do. As far as those online trolls go, that is disgusting. All you can do is not give them the light of day, and not let it get to you.”
Good advice.
‘Stop these idiots’: Souths coach’s plea to end cyberbullying
By Dean Ritchie
South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has called for government intervention — starting at the top with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — to stop anonymous “idiots” from bullying after Rabbitohs winger Jaxson Paulo received online death threats.
Concerned for the welfare of all rugby league players, Demetriou wants every social media user to be officially registered by the government to help prevent cyber persecution.
Paulo was subjected to death threats after a forgettable game in South Sydney’s loss to Penrith on Thursday night.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Souths players — particularly Damien Cook and Taane Milne — have rallied around Paulo while the winger also received enormous support at a player and partner-organised dinner on Saturday evening.
Demetriou said he has seen his own family targeted by “social media bullying — just relentless attacks.”
“The government needs to do more in making sure that anybody who goes on social media has been ID’d. You can’t have an account without submitting your ID so if you’re going to make death threats, you would be treated as you would if you were walking the street,” Demetriou said.
“I think the government has to start making social media companies more responsible. You can’t have an account unless it’s registered. Until that changes, we’re going to keep getting these idiots on social media thinking they can throw out these comments.
“The only way to legislate is to make sure you cannot have a social media account without having your ID checked — once you do that everything changes. It’s common sense to me.
“We have created a world where you can do whatever you want on social media — and do it multiple times — and get away with it. Just cancel that account and start a new one. It’s just ridiculous.
“It’s a difficult one because unless you can track who they are … most of them have fake names. I don’t see how anybody should be getting that kind of abuse. It’s just ridiculous. No one should receive those threats regardless of whether they made mistakes or not.
“It’s a game at the end of the day. They (the trolls) have a right to wake up in the morning and get on with their day so why shouldn’t the player?
“This is not just rugby league. I’ve got three teenage daughters so I’ve seen first-hand how it has affected some of my kids and some of their friends as well, through social media bullying — just relentless attacks, whether it be through private or public messaging.
“It’s a real issue and it’s a real eye-opener for our players as well to make sure they control the amount of content that they put out there and to be aware, unfortunately, that this is how it is. It’s not right but we can’t control it.”
Demetriou remains on Twitter despite the constant and ugly vitriol.
“I cop it every game but I don’t care,” he said. “If it’s about coaching, decisions or errors, I can live with that. But when it starts to get personal because someone is losing money on the punt, that’s their problem.”
In his bid to halt social media bullying, Demetriou has access to Souths number one fan — Prime Minister Albanese.
“Obviously he would be really aware of what’s going on. He is a close supporter of Souths,” he said. “I’m sure Blake (Solly, club CEO) will be having some conversations in and around this.”
Sky News Australia contributor and sports broadcaster Erin Molan revealed this year social media trolls had threatened her three-year-old daughter before she realised it was “time to fight”.
Molan has successfully campaigned for legislation that helps protect victims and forces social media companies to reveal the identities of trolls.
Demetriou said his club was backing Paulo.
“That’s what is special about our club — making sure we’re looking out for each other,” he said. “The senior players have been outstanding. Taane Milne went and spent the day with Jaxson.
“Jaxson owns his performance. He understands the criticism in his performance but it went way too far and, as a club, we’re not happy about that. As humans, we have to make sure we look after him. It’s not on him.
“He knows his performance wasn’t at the level he wants and he’s disappointed with that. But he has good people around him, he’s good. Ultimately, it has taken the gloss off what was a very good game of footy and there were periods in the game where we played some outstanding footy.”
Paulo made five errors against Panthers and bombed what were seen as two regulation tries.
Demetriou would not reveal the make-up of his side for Saturday night’s big match against North Queensland at Accor Stadium, meaning he couldn’t guarantee Paulo’s position in first grade.
“I don’t know yet. We will have a sit down with Jaxson,” he said. “We have some decisions to make. Potentially we have three or four players coming back from injury.”
Souths urge Paulo to take police action over death threats
- David Riccio, Michael Carayannis
South Sydney boss Blake Solly has urged Jaxson Paulo to follow Latrell Mitchell’s lead in “calling the cowards out” and taking police action.
Solly has also threatened to rip up the perpetrators’ membership if they are found to be season ticket holders.
Paulo was the subject of shocking abuse including death threats on his social media account after an unhappy night on the field in South Sydney’s loss to Penrith on Thursday night. Solly praised the way Mitchell has reported online trolls to police and encouraged Paulo to take a similar stance.
Solly said Paulo had taken inspiration from the way Mitchell has handled his own abuse.
“He felt he could bring this up because of what Latrell has been doing for two years,” Solly said on Triple M. “In some ways Latrell led the way and it’s great they feel they can bring it to public attention.”
Paulo and his agent Nash Dawson spoke with the NRL’s integrity unit on Friday. The integrity unit along with Paulo will decide if there is enough information to push for the police to investigate.
The 22-year-old was also forced to turn his personal Instagram page to private to try and limit the abuse.
Last week everyone was preaching mental health, this week people are attacking Jaxson Paulo online, I hope the poor kid doesn’t read social media. It’s only a game of football 🤦â€â™‚ï¸
— Keith Galloway (@kgalloway85) August 18, 2022
The Rabbitohs had to stop comments on the club’s official Facebook site. More than 1000 people commented before the club shut it down such was the level of abuse for Paulo.
“They are working with police and will investigate,” Solly said. “Jaxson and the club will take it further if the police believe they can.
“The cowards are using aliases and burner accounts to abuse people. The police do everything they can do to track them down.
“We have to call it out when it happens and make it public. By raising it publicly it makes people think twice before they do it again.
“I spoke to Jaxson (on Saturday morning). He is pretty resilient. He bounces back really well. Thursday night and Friday wasn’t great but he has had a lot of support from senior players and the coaching staff.”
Solly will also explore banning the alleged offenders from the club.
“In our minds when you speak with some of the fans and members who have contacted the club, the people that do this aren’t real fans or members,” Solly said. “They are cowards.
“It’s not something our club will tolerate. Hopefully we take the strongest possible action.”
MARTIN GOES FROM ZERO TO HERO AS PANTHERS CLAIM MINOR PREMIERSHIP
—Martin Gabor
Liam Martin was getting ready to cop it from his Panthers teammates after a couple of bombed tries, but he went from zero to hero in the blink of an eye to seal the minor premiership for Penrith with a late try against Souths after a major medical recovery.
The edge forward failed to ground a grubber in the first half and then spilt his lollies over the line, and it looked like he and Rabbitohs winger Jaxson Paulo were having their own private battle to see who could botch the most tries.
There was something poetic about the final few minutes as Paulo unfortunately dropped a kick that gifted Penrith the field position for Martin to make amends with a crash play close to the line off some Api Koroisau wizardry around the ruck.
“I was so glad to get over the line,” Martin said in the sheds after the 26-22 win at Accor Stadium.
“I obviously bombed the first two and was kicking stones for 75 minutes of the game going ‘geez I’ve cost the boys the win’, so to get the last one made it feel a lot better.
“They were butcher jobs. When I scored the third one, all the boys were like ‘oh my god, we were going to spray you after the game’.”
It’s the first time Martin has scored a matchwinner in the NRL, and he put the errors down to a new pair of white boots that might not be in the kit bag next week.
“I think that’s just the kind of player Marto is,” said Stephen Crichton, who praised his Blues teammate for not giving up after a tough start to the game.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. He’s the definition of that and that’s what he did tonight.”
That Martin was even on the field makes him a medical marvel given he was on crutches seven days earlier after he twisted his ankle against the Storm.
There were fears he could miss up to a month, but those reports were wide of the mark according to his captain and coach who said the Temora local was guilty of grade 3 carry on.
“Even as he was going up the tunnel with the two trainers on either side of him, he realised he was putting weight on it by the time he got to the dressing room, so he was a bit embarrassed,” Isaah Yeo said.
Martin didn’t shy away from the banter as his teammates walked past and gave it to him during the interview.
“It wasn’t as bad as I first thought,” he admitted.
“The first couple of days afterwards was pretty painful and I couldn’t really walk on it, but it just kept getting better and better.
“Four days out from the game, I said to the physios that I wanted to see if I could play this game. I got through most of the training through the week and was good to go.”
In his defence, the left ankle is still swollen and scans did show plenty of damage.
The good news is that he and some of his teammates will likely be given a week off in the run to the finals now the Panthers have secured the J. J. Giltinan Shield for the second time in three seasons.
“I tore the lateral ligaments, the ATFL and the CTFL and a bit of the deltoid,” he revealed.
“You don’t really need them, apparently, and you can just strap it up and get on with it. I could have (missed some weeks), but I didn’t really need to because I could get through it.
“It’s not too bad now. It’s still pretty fat and swollen. After the first few days it was huge and there was bruising all down the foot.
“The days after, I thought there was no way I could play on it. I was still on crutches and it was really painful, but it came good pretty quickly.”
PANTHERS SEAL MINOR PREMIERSHIP IN THRILLER
The J. J. Giltinan Shield is heading back to Penrith after Liam Martin brushed off two bombed tries to crash over with two minutes to go to lift the undermanned Panthers to a 26-22 win to seal the minor premiership.
The representative back-rower butchered two chances on Thursday night, first failing to ground a grubber, before he lost control of the Steeden when he’d done all the hard work.
But if at first you don’t succeed, Martin was taught to try and try again, and that’s exactly what he did just a week after he left BlueBet Stadium on crutches with an ankle injury.
“There was a bit of carry on from Marto last week,” Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said. “He was a constant threat every time he got the ball. It was good reward for his perseverance.”
Martin’s try came after Jaxson Paulo spilt a regulation kick that capped a horror night for the winger who bombed two golden opportunities to score and fumbled another pass that could have led to points.
“We’ll sit down and have a conversation,” Souths coach Jason Demetriou said. “Against the best teams, that’s the level you’ve got to get to. As a young bloke, you understand that every error has an impact.”
The win means the Panthers are eight points clear after they were held scoreless last week for the first time since 2015.
“It’s a tremendous three-year period for our club,” Cleary said.
The returning Dylan Edwards was outstanding at the back while the decision to start Api Koroisau from the bench proved to be a masterstroke with the State of Origin representative toying with South Sydney’s ruck defence.
There could be more good news with Blues five-eighth Jarome Luai expected to make an early return from a knee injury next week.
PHENOMENAL FULLBACK
Latrell Mitchell warned South Sydney’s rivals to look over their shoulders after last week’s win over Parramatta, and even though they lost on Thursday, their premiership chances appear a lot bigger in the rearview mirror than you’d think.
Mitchell’s form since he returned from an injury rehab stint in the States has been as good as anything we’ve seen in a two-month stretch, and he’s taken a South Sydney side that was flirting with the finals to a team that can go all the way.
The gun No.1 has a sense of timing that other players lack, and of course it was Mitchell who came up with the clutch kick from the sideline to put his side up 22-20 after he’d earlier missed two shots from touch.
But it was his penalty for not being square at marker that allowed Stephen Crichton to knock over the penalty goal before Martin’s try sealed the result.
There were fears he would miss the grand final rematch after he left training early on Monday with a groin complaint, but there were no signs of that in a dazzling first half that saw him have four line break assists, including a freakish flick pass to put Cody Walker over for a try.
It’s almost unfair that a man of his size has such soft hands to create space out wide for his speedsters, especially when there’s a guy like Alex Johnston out there who can turn half chances into four points.
But he didn’t have much of an impact after the break, and the Bunnies are now at long odds to finish in the top four.
MAGIC JOHNSTON
Alex Johnston is in seventh heaven after he scored for the seventh game in a row, something he’d never done before in his illustrious career.
The try-scoring machine had an absolute field day on the left edge with three line breaks in the first half and would have scored early on had Dylan Edwards not rushed back in time to deny what would have been a super chip and chase.
But you can’t keep Johnston down for long and he eventually got his 26th try of the season when some quick hands from Walker and Isaiah Tass put him into space down the shortside.
He then showed off his lightning speed off the mark to get on the outside to score with 11 minutes to go before Mitchell’s conversion put them ahead for the first time.
THURSDAY THROWBACK
The nightmares that had just started to go away for Rabbitohs fans are back after Stephen Crichton picked off a loose Damien Cook pass to open the scoring on Thursday night.
It brought back horrible memories for South Sydney supporters who are still trying to get over Crichton’s matchwinning intercept try from last year’s grand final when he latched onto a long ball from Cody Walker to score.
BUNKER CONFUSION
Rabbitohs fans were blowing up in the first half when Edwards sliced through to score from a scrum to make it 12-4.
The try would have been disallowed in years gone by because of a decoy runner colliding with Lachlan Ilias, but for the second week in a row, the Bunker showed some discretion and gave it the tick of approval.
It’s a fine line for the officials because people demand consistency but there are others who believe they should have the right to make judgment calls if they think contact wasn’t forceful enough to affect the defensive line.
“I give up trying to figure out what that rule is,” Demetriou said.
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