GUEST POST: Tim, an NRL fan, writes about the latest unbelievable scandal

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”