GUEST POST: Tim, an NRL fan, writes about the latest unbelievable scandal
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Just when you thought you could no longer be shocked by anything the players did, along comes Nate Myles, the Roosters and Origin player who was found naked and 'disoriented' in a hotel after defecating in the corridor and trying to get into the room of an unsuspecting family at 4am.
My initial instinct was to write about it but hey, you all know how I feel. For a change, why not hear from an NRL fan. Someone who has played the game himself. Tim will be known to many of the Mamamia regulars.
TIM WRITES…….
Today it was a high profile State of Origin player, nude and disorientated in a hotel corridor…..
At this stage I will point out that being a great fan of rugby league and following the Sea Eagles, I was looking forward to this morning’s news bulletin so that I could watch the highlights of Manly’s great victory over the Bulldogs last night. But, for the latest on the NRL I didn’t have to wait for the sports report.
All sports have their scandals, but we certainly seem to hear more about the league boys. The AFL has had its share of sexual assault claims, the ARU has had drug scandals and abuse allegations, even a Sydney FC player was accused of rape a couple of months ago.
I used to argue that it wasn’t fair that the media always jumped on the NRL players’ backs and that for some reason the media had it in for rugby league, but, of course the media will go where the public interest lies and that currently seems to be in the rugby league culture- a phenomenon that is horrifying and fascinating at the same time.
First Brett Stewart: No one knows for sure what really happened there. Then Matt Johns: We have a fair idea but the moral judgement of the individual is bound to vary across the sporting and non-sporting landscapes of Australia. Then you have Greg Bird: Disgraceful and inexcusable by anyone’s standards. Glassing your girlfriend and blaming it on your mate is a pretty cut and dry act.
Now, there’s the Roosters. Two players accused of punching a woman in a nightclub, just days after their drunken coach was found mistakenly trying to enter someone else’s room at all hours of the morning in a hotel…and finally poor old Nate. Locks himself out of his room in the nude while on his way to the toilet. Needs to go so bad he just does it right there in the corridor. Found by a family on their way to checking out.
These antics, while hilarious if acted out by a fumbling, downtrodden Ben Stiller character in a ‘Meet the family’ type affair, are not likely to be viewed in a light-hearted way by residents of modern Australia.
Similarly, they make a fool out of people like me who sit there in conversations with average Australians – and on this website - defending the top players in a sport that I still love.
No apparent solution to these incidents presents itself and that’s why I feel sorry for David Gallop. It’s a shame that the Dog Whisperer has been and gone, otherwise he could have intervened: “Misstor Gallop…Nate needs to onderstand dat you are dee leader of dee pack”
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An open letter to the NRL
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“Rugby league culture has been exposed this week as the big, festering boil it is…”
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Matthew Johns & more appalling stories about NRL group sex. Thank you Four Corners for an outstanding report.
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Here’s an idea for footy players this weekend: stay home!
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A post about rugby league. Made more palatable by this accompanying picture.
Geez take a week off sick, and look what I’ve missed !!!
Gig – as usual good points …
I have been really interested in this PR nightmare, and have been a bit of a NRL defender for a while now, not really for any other reason than I have been DYING to see if Gallop could turn this around – thinking SURELY something’s got to give.
My biggest disappointment to date, which calls for my immediate retreat, was watching the press conference and seeing Mal Meninga making a joke of this situation – this culture will never change.
Changing the public perception of NRL could have been a PR Dynamo’s Wet Dream – why has noone tried to save this sinking ship – Gallop has failed.
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We look at the consequences instead of looking at the cause, binge drinking is the cause of all this problems, education is the answer, Gigdiary you made a great point, love to all ooxx
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Reading these comments, I’ve realised how much I long for the days of responsible footy… when players like Darren Locker & Alan Tongue were on the front page for praise reasons rather than the kids who have been worshipped by their coach since they picked up a footy getting themselves into trouble… It’s not all younger players getting into trouble [you don't see the pea boys in headlines], but they seem to think they’re invincible… Alcohol does play a large part in this, but it can’t be blamed for all the problems… I do have a part of my that feels sorry for Nate Miles as for now he will forever be known as the dude who crapped in a hotel hallway… It’s ingrained in my upbringing to play the benefit of the doubt rule – I don’t know how drunk you’d have to be to do that, but some reports I’ve heard have mentioned a stomach bug or something – doesn’t make it any nicer, but the whole story needs to be looked at…
Yes, players who are misbehaved should be fined & the clubs should deal strongly with it, but fans also need to know where to draw the line… I worked for a large financial organisation & saw many executives get trashed & do stupid things that should’ve seen HR action but never did… Doesn’t make it ok, but shouldn’t there be a standard no matter who you’re employeed by?
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Here’s a novel idea. Rather than ban these badly behaved, highly paid imbeciles from playing the sport they say they love, why not take them back in time to when this sort of behaviour sorted itself out before it became public knowledge. Back to the time when the game had heroes and also a semblance of dignity. The players were still the biffo men you wouldn’t want to get offside of in a dark alley, but in the public’s estimation they were men. This can’t be said of many of todays fumbling parade of fools masquerading not only as role models, but also grown men.
Back in those days, footballers, as well as playing major league football, I’m thinking Artie Beetson, Bob Fulton and Norm Provan, held down day jobs, because football didn’t pay enough to raise a family on. These men worked hard at both the game and their regular job. Today’s pampered princes are dragged from the obscurity of a bad upbringing, receive a meagre education and are thrust into the limelight on a wage that would stagger most working adults.
And the NRL wonders why there is a problem. It is of their own making. They are creating gladiators for the arena and ignoring all other aspects of the person’s development. Is it any wonder these men/boys/machines can’t handle alcohol, have no respect for women, and now, laughably, can’t even control their bowels.
Job well done, NRL. No pun intended. You are a money centric organisation. These young men are cannon fodder in your battle for the dollar. You need to be responsible for more than merely signing their pay cheques.
And now the novel idea. Why not, if these young men love the game so much, have them emulate their heroes of yesteryear. Receive a nominal allowance for playing a game once a week, and then go out and get a job for the rest of the week. Of course they’ll never make as much as their current contracts slavish on them, but it might help them to adjust to the real world of responsibility, teach them respect for others, including women and hopefully, they may even learn some toilet training.
At the end of their short career, they could be pensioned off handsomely, if their performance and behaviour have both been exemplary and in compliance with general community standards.
Something that at the moment is sadly lacking.
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That mental image of David Gallop sitting on the edge of his bed in the dark – probably with his head in his hands – is all too vivid. Poor Bloke. He’s probably hanging out for the end of his contract so he can get the hell out of the whole sorry mess.
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Just read one of Will Anderson’s “tweets”, I like it.
“NRL player Nate Myles defecates in hall. The only solution is to rub his nose in it, otherwise he will never learn…”
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Am with you on this Mia, revolting, revolting, revolting boy.
Oh, and would love the archives to be by month.
cheers
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Posted by: Daisy | Tuesday, July 07, 2009 at 08:48 PM
Hah, love it!
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It sounds like there are a few NRL teams running the risk of permanent bans from certain hotels. Do the players even think about this when they decide to have “just a couple” of drinks? The particular hotel featured in this incident is the highest star rating hotel in the area, next the NRL players are going to end up staying in caravan parks because at least when they forget their doorkeys they can defecate on the grass rather than carpet.
Actually I wonder just as much about the responsible service of alcohol policy when it comes to NRL players. Often when these incidents are publicised the bars/clubs where they have been drinking come forward and say “But they weren’t pissed when they left here”, then show footage like we saw this time of Nate giving the manager a big hug on the way out. I don’t know about most guys but it isn’t something I usually associate with sober footy players unless they’ve just won or lost a big game.
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Oh Mia, your reply about sending a bunch of flowers to the guy who crapped in a hotel corridor is HILARIOUS. Laughing out loud at my computer like a lunatic…
I think it’s great that you’ve featured Tim as a guest writer – as you say, this is well trodden ground for you (though I’m definitely on the same page with the NRL stuff) so it’s nice to hear a different point of view. Especially since Tim clearly has NRL cred, and I know from personal experience that fanatics (somewhat understandably) get a bit antsy when someone who doesn’t even know what a ‘try’ is starts slagging off their code. Not that that tends to stop me having a loud opinion.
Really loving all the new features on MM – Group Therapy, Guest Posts, Best and Worst – keep it up. You’ve got a great thing going on here.
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Whether you look at the game on-the field, in the boardrooms, or in the commentary box, role-models are thin on the ground.
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Thank you Mia, love 00xx
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And here I am, I haven’t comment before because, I think that it is so embarassing, and I do not want to add more petrol to the fire, love to all ooxx
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It seems that most NRL players are not intelligent enough to grasp the concept of staying in control and out of trouble. Not really rocket science in my opinion, but seemingly an insurmountable task to many of them. The only answer I can come up with is to get right down to specifics in either their contract or in club policies. No drinking during the season rules. Or some sort of serious salary penalties for underperforming. I mean, these guys can’t possibly be performing on the field to the best of their capabilities if they are still feeling the effects of the ‘team bonding session’ the night or the weekend before. Do you think someone like Lance Armstrong cracks open one too many coldies in the lead up to the Tour de France? Or that Roger Federer or Andy Roddick were prancing around the hallways in the nick in the days before the Wimbledon final? To these professional athletes, performance is everything. Maybe the only way to get through to NRL players is to get them in the hip pocket and have a zero tolerance policy. One strike and you’re out. Just like the rest of us who sign a work contract and then are obligated to uphold it.
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This guy is a major loser. How drunk must he have been to poo on the floor of a hotel?
It’s such a no-brainer on the scale of gross, that I’m not even going to reply to the defenders.
MAYBE players should stop getting pissed all the time? MAYBE then they wouldn’t lose control of their bowels? Just a thought.
And Tim, get a blog dude. x NJ
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Thanks Rowe. We’re cool. I think everyone needs a big dose of WollyWally love.
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Given that Roosters people seem to have a little trouble with locking themselves out of hotel rooms lately, I’d like to suggest that the club issues Roosters team pyjamas that must be worn when staying in hotels so they can easily be identified in case of emergency. (And avoid any more unfortunate nude lockouts
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I don’t think anyone is attacking the NRL and the NRL players for the sake of it. There must be some action to get a reaction. In this case, Nate’s action is something that shouldn’t be tolerated. As others have said, this behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated by any high profile company. Like it or not, what a player or employee does outside of work reflects on the employer.
Agree with Betty Boo’s mother: pooing in a hallway is not OK; and football players are not exempt from common decency. The fact that Nate is a footballer has nothing to do with the fact that what he has done is disgusting.
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