When the NRL is involved, that’s when!
The ABC network’s flagship current affairs program ‘Four Corners’ broadcast last night, covered the endemic problem of gang rape (or rather ‘female abuse’ in ABC speak) in the Australian NRL. The one hour program was an absolute draw dropper for all the wrong reasons!
Now everyone knows that to address a problem you first have to admit that there is a problem. Alcoholics know this, drug addicts know this but it appears the NRL governing body, the NRL club owners and staff, the NRL players, the NRL television pundits and perhaps worst of all the ABC correspondent who put the program together, DO NOT KNOW THIS. Not once during the entire program did any one of the above acknowledge the full extent of the problem.
The story line and responses from the narrator and participants respectively would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so sickening.
The only time the word ‘rape’ was used was when it pertained to a homosexual rape incident and not surprisingly the NRL players involved were aghast and felt the full might of the law should fall upon the perpetrators. However the same set of players felt that ‘..if you treat them nice after a gang rape session, like get them a taxi home or talk to them for a few minutes..’ then the female victim has nothing to complain about????????
The aging and now retired NRL coach who freely admitted that gang rape was used as a form of ‘team bonding’ by the players in years gone by and says ‘…ooh, I don’t agree with it now, you can’t do that sort of thing today…’ by his very own words or lack of words has inferred THAT IT WAS OK in yester years!!!!!!!!
Another still working NRL coach had the temerity to draw parallels between his players going into a game each week ‘..and laying it on the line each tackle..’ and the Australian soldiers going into battle in Iraq ‘..and putting their life on the line each day..’. Try telling this to the bereft families of our national servicemen. The worst part about this is he actually believed the BS he was spouting!
The now retired NRL player working as a TV pundit on one of the weekly footy shows, shows his ‘humility’ by publicly apologising for a gang rape incident he was involved in 9 years ago. He was sorry for ‘…all the embarrassment caused to my family and friends and to the loyal NRL supporters..’. NO MENTION OF AN APPOLOGY to the victim of the rape, nor any enquiry as to her current well being!!!!!!!!!!!
His co-host on the footy show, after this ‘..very difficult apology..’ then slaps our ‘now retired NRL player working as a TV pundit’ on the back and says ‘Aah, good on yer mate’ . He may as well have been saying ‘good on yer for raping that woman’ because the inference that it was tough for him to publicly apologise to his wife and kids just beggars belief. Even the co-host does not see the reality of the situation.
Another NRL coach who came to the defence of a young player who admitted sexually assaulting a women whilst she slept in her college dormitory room said, ‘..I used to coach him when he was younger, and he’s a good kid. It must have been the alcohol…’. If this coach thinks that by passing the blame to an inanimate object like alcohol excuses the perpetrator of all responsibility, he should try telling the Jews that its not Hitler but rather the bullets that are to blame for the WWII genocide.
The only person to empathise with the victims and to show any level of understanding was the New Zealand police officer involved in investigating one of the gang rapes.
Last nights program did little to address the endemic problem of a bun, abuse, sexual abuse, pack rape, gang rape or whatever you wish to call it, but only vilified it. It was evident by the time the show concluded that the problem is not under control but worse still, that the authorities have no idea how to bring it under control.
The very strong message that the show did send out to our impressionable youngster keen on joining the game was ‘… come on in, enjoy uninhibited sex with whoever you want, wherever and whenever you want, with or without their consent AND THERE IS NOTHING THE LAW, THE AUTHORITIES, THE SPONSORS, THE CLUBS, YOUR PEER GROUP AND THE NRL COMMUNITY AT LARGE, IS GOING TO DO TO STOP YOU…’.
Perhaps we should just scrap the code alltogether…, we still have union and afl to entertain us?
Tags: National Rugby League, NRL, rape
The fallout from the show has begun!
First victim is the ‘now retired NRL player working as a TV pundit’ who got sacked yesterday from channel 9 – one down, hopefully many more to go.
Kevin Rudd has put his oar in and publicly agreed that nobody should be allowed to abuse another person, female or not. The immediate reaction by senior club and code officials has been a raft of press releases and announcements about new measures to counter the problem.
One NRL club owner announced wives and partners are to travel with the players on away games, something akin to what cricketers enjoy.
The NRL association has publicly said it will not tolerate this behavior- lets see if the clubs call their bluff on this one.
Come on media moguls, lets ‘strike whilst the iron is hot’ and ramp up the public debate until head roll. Sack all NRL players guilty of this barbaric practice, de-license clubs that won’t buckle under, remove sponsorship from the game at large, etc etc.
I think the entire lot are a bunch of selfish masturbating tossers and society would be better off without them. – just an opinion!