Scandals sideline sport

Clubs need to get serious about cleaning up players’ off-field antics.

Judy Green

Roll up, roll up. Come one, come all. The circus is in town.

The Australian Football League and National Rugby League are about to kick off against each other. But it’s not the big hits I’m bracing myself for. It’s the brain-numbing sideshow of meat-headed footballers and their sexist, racist and idiotic antics, which, I’m afraid have already begun.

I enjoy the acrobatics of the AFL and brute strength of Super 14 rugby strong men (the Super 14 rugby union season is already underway) but I long ago lost interest in NRL sporting identities.

I spent 10 great years playing rugby league in a league-dominated New South Wales country town, and loved Friday nights in front of the television, wearing my team colours. I was a merchandise-buying, flag-waving NRL fan.

But in the past five years I have turned to other codes because I am sick of the sexist, occasionally racist, inarticulate, abusive clowns that make headlines until September when the season finally finishes.

Before the circus rolled into town and the football season started I only had one wish.

I didn’t care if my teams made it to the finals. I just hoped the general public would not be subjected to the weary rehash of back-page sports scandals that seem to surface year after year.

So who is to blame? I’m taking the corporate approach and starting at the top. The club chief executives and boards need to spend less time worrying about poker machine licences and office politics and focus more on player behaviour.

After all, the ringmaster’s job is to keep the clowns in check.

The NRL last season pulled out all the stops to beat declining game attendance, and get ahead of the global financial crisis. This was not a player issue, this was a strategy implemented from the top of the clubs all the way down through the players in the various divisions, and into the fan base.

A successful campaign to reward clubs that reached 10,000 season-ticket sales has resulted in record levels for ticketed membership. But unless they get serious about the off-field antics of their players, a night with the boys may bring all this hard work tumbling down.

The clubs that are getting serious about membership need to ensure that their sporting heroes are the ones Australians want to watch, not the ones we turn away from in shame.

BRW

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