Why NRL crowd violence opens door for fan segregation

Rugby league used to ridicule soccer for the threatening behaviour of their fans – now the game is walking a similar path. BULLDOG’S BITE weighs in on the game’s growing problem.

Rugby league has long ridiculed soccer for the idiotic and often threatening behaviour of the code’s volatile, flare-throwing fans.

Violence and ethnic rivalries have held soccer back in Australia for 40 years.

Now, sadly, rugby league is starting to walk a similar path with its off-field crowd barbarity.

Could our once passive game be headed towards crowd segregation?

Three nasty fights have broken out in the opening three rounds of the NRL. Fans have been viciously punched as bloodthirsty onlookers yelled “fight, fight, fight”.

Shameful.

Souths and Roosters fans go at it at the 4 Pines Park in Round 2.

British, European and A-League soccer fans in Australia have been segregated for decades.

Our sport was always above such primitive conduct but if crowd violence at NRL games continues then rugby league fans face the ignominy of being herded into designated areas like cattle.

It hasn’t reached that stage but if louts continue to punch on inside grounds, in front of women and frightened children, crowd separation will have to be considered.

Australian fans are incredibly lucky that we can sit next to opposition supporters. Perhaps we take it for granted.

No child going to watch his heroes should see grown men, after downing 10 schooners, punching the crap out of each other.

Rugby league is evolving quickly.

And in Round 3, an ugly brawl erupted in the members area of Allianz Stadium during the Roosters-Rabbitohs match.

It seems like every game is now an event, every match played amid new-age pressure, passion and expectation. The players can handle it but it appears some fans can’t.

Remember the horrendous pitch invasion by fans when Melbourne Victory played Melbourne City in December 2022, when City goalkeeper Tom Glover was hit in the head with a metal bucket. The match was abandoned due to the violence.

“If rugby league thinks segregation can’t and won’t happen, they only need to look at soccer because there’s segregation in the A League,” former Socceroo Robbie Slater said.

“I’m a league fan but if you don’t stop it (fan fighting) then you will start losing fans. The NRL needs to nip it in the bud and hand out long-term bans, like soccer has done, for damaging the game’s image.

“Rugby league is on an amazing upward curve in respect to crowds. There has never been more interest in the game but I know first-hand through the A-League that sponsors will pull out if crowd violence continues.”

There has been a similar escalation in US fan fury.

A report last September exposed the “damaging rise of fan-related incidents, raising the unavoidable question: is it time for the NFL to consider fan segregation?”

In Queensland, unruly fans who enter the playing field to fight will incur an instant 12-month ban.

Referees were pelted with water bottles after a controversial Good Friday clash in 2015. Picture: AAP

There is no suggestion Canterbury and Souths fans will misbehave but the game on Friday will involve two desperate sides, and the Good Friday game has a violent history.

After a controversial finish to the Good Friday game in 2015, the referees were ushered off the field at full-time as Bulldogs fans threw bottles. A touch judge was floored.

Read this litany of violence from recent weeks.

• A dazed Manly fan was twice punched in the face in Las Vegas. A fellow spectator stepped between the pair to try to stop further punches being thrown.

• A Souths fan and Roosters supporter fought at Brookvale Oval in round 2, a week before their sides met at Allianz Stadium. Three onlookers had to separate them.

• A horrendous brawl erupted inside the members’ area at Allianz Stadium after the Souths-Roosters game in round 3.

A Manly fan was left bloodied after an unfortunate clash in the Round 1 Las Vegas opener.

Who can forget the savage fight among 12 fans at Magic Round in 2022? One man was coward-punched when fans wearing Parramatta, Souths, Newcastle and Cronulla jumpers were caught on video swinging wild punches. A shirtless and bloodied man was held before being placed in a headlock.

A fan was banned from Accor Stadium two years ago after being involved in a fight on Easter Monday when Parramatta played Wests Tigers. Three fans came to blows before security stepped in.

In July last year, a melee involving 20 fans erupted when Wellington Cowboys played Forbes Magpies. The referee ended the match early and police were called.

In September last year, police were called to a nasty crowd brawl during a grand final between Dora Creek Swampies and Waratah-Mayfield Cheetahs in Newcastle.

Play was stopped when around 70 fans threw punches and shouted obscenities at Lakeside Sporting Complex in Raymond Terrace.

At the Koori Knockout on NSW’s Central Coast last year, there were multiple brawls. NSW and Bulldogs star Josh Addo-Carr was knocked out.

It has to stop now or fans face being segregated because some want to get blotto and brawl.

BULLDOG’S BITES

MADGE BLEEDS BLUE

NSW coach Michael Maguire continues to meet with former Origin greats to ensure the entire state gets behind the Blues.

Bulldog’s Bite was sent this photo of Maguire having coffee with big Mark Geyer at a cafe in Jamisontown, near Penrith, on Tuesday morning.

Maguire confirmed the meeting was about this year’s Origin series.

The new Blues coach has met with a host of former NSW players, including Benny Elias and Steve Roach, and also plans to catch up with senior members of the NSW media.

No doubt the pair also discussed Geyer’s son Mavrik, who will debut for Penrith against the Sydney Roosters on Thursday night.

SPOTTED: NSW coach Michael Maguire meetings with Panthers great and former Blues enforcer Mark Geyer.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The NRL takes care of the food bill each year for players travelling interstate and overseas.

With the prices of meals soaring in team hotels, one CEO reckons the annual tucker bill for hungry players would come to around $1.4m.

Each meal costs about $40 a head and players are fed four times a day when away. Now that’s food for thought.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY

Australia’s greatest boxing trainer, Johnny Lewis, turned 80 over the weekend with friends and family gathering to celebrate at the Rose of Australia pub in Erskineville.

Among the guests were Bob McCarthy, Barry, Garth and Nat Wood, Ben Damon, Ella Boot, our very own Paul Kent, John Singleton, Les Mara, Steve Crawley, Bruce Hardin, Peter Kelly, Adam Watt, Gary Jubelin, Justin Rowsell and Peter Mitrevski senior and junior.

Lewis’ great mate, Jeff Fenech, was unable to attend while recovering from open heart surgery. Lewis visited Fenech in hospital on the morning of his party.

ROAD TRIP

Penrith will miss the comforts of home over the next six weeks.

Through a quirk of the draw and the club’s decision to take some home games to the country, Penrith won’t return to BlueBet Stadium until round 10.

That leaves the premiers to play games at Allianz Stadium, Brookvale, Bathurst, Townsville and Sydney Olympic Park – along with a bye – over the next six weeks.

Penrith next plays at home against Canterbury on May 10.

Originally published as Why NRL crowd violence opens door for fan segregation