Hey guys Matt asked me to put this post as an article on rleague and I changed it quite a bit. It's on their website as an article now. Here it is and let me know what you think. Cheers. And yes it is very long, I know.
http://www.rleague.com/db/article.php?id=33258
There can be no denying that in the past week or so the image and public perception of Rugby League has once again taken a battering. Quite often this sport is an easy target for the media. More often than not some of those involved in the game do themselves and the sport as a whole no favours and only have themselves to blame. Whether or not this is one such instance is open to debate.
Quite often cross sections of media and the public expect footballers to be superhuman, to be devoid of all of the idiosynchrasies, flaws and mistakes that every other person in every other society is prone to to at least some degree.
In some other instances players act like complete fools and think they are above society. They start believing in their own hype and buy into their inflated reputations.
Whether innocent or guilty the majority of the general public are always quick to judge and the media is always there to pounce based on instinct alone. This is all to be expected, it should not be expected however from the CEO of the NRL.
In such instances as this latest Four Corners exposay on issues with off field incidents involving women in Rugby League and the Cronulla incident in particular, a calming influence is needed from the leadership of the game of Rugby League. Someone to come in, steady the ship and get what may appear to some to be a train wreck back on track.
What isn't needed is for David Gallop to panic, overreact, bow to public pressure and to perpetuate a witch hunt created by investigative journalists with unnecessary, inflammatory comments. To make a messy situation much, much worse and add fuel to an already spreading fire.
Instead of simply acknowledging this story, talking about it briefly and making short statements along the lines of: "This incident was over seven years ago now. We would like to think that we would deal with any similar situation differently in the future", Gallop instead involves himself, and subsequently the game of Rugby League, in a prolonged press conference and many other statements and comments which only hurt the game even more.
At a time when he should be doing his best to deflect this type of attention away from the game and simply deal with things internally the best he and his colleagues can, Gallop once again personally judges people when impartiality and discretion from the NRL's CEO should be the better part of valour.
Comments questioning Johns' role at Channel 9 or "In Rugby League" and how he should come under more scrutiny are completly out of line when that kind of thing is out of Gallop's control and shouldn't be for him to comment.
There can be no denying Gallop has directly, or at the very least indirectly, played a major part in the standing down of Johns and the intensified media storm surrounding him.
Intimations by Gould on Thursday Night's Footy Show that he feared for John's "safety" following this ordeal are extremely worrying. Such concerns would arise due to the public pressure put on Johns and his family. This has clearly been exascerbated by Gallop with his typically inappropriate comments.
In the press conference Gallop harped on yet again about potential lost sponsors as a result of such off field dramas. Why mention this publicly? He may well have such fears about losing sponsors but what do you gain by making the NRL's business public and putting the very thought in the public's heads or even the sponsors heads?
Through his comments Gallop has potentially created a situation where sponsors will withdraw support from the game due to intensified public pressure perpetuated by Gallop himself. The game could lose valuable money it can't afford to not solely due to the situation itself but because of inept leadership.
Gallop also commented that: "Players who aren't prepared to change their attitudes have no place in the game."
Does this apply to administrators and C.E.O's also? Does this apply to the now Chief Operating Officer of the NRL Barry Pierce who was the Cronulla chairman at the time of the 2002 incident and didn't act at all? Does this apply to Gallop himself who still hasn't suspended or fined Anthony Cherrington for being found of physically assaulting his girlfriend?
If the administrators of the game aren't prepared to "change their attitudes" by not suspending Cherrington for his actions then what message is that sending to women, players, fans in general and the media? How can the C.E.O talk about the game getting "tough" on such things when it clearly isn't?
The glaring inconsistencies from this administration are mind boggling, staggering and monumental.
Such characteristics of Gallop's supposed leadership are hardly the reassuring and dependable counteraction the game needs to the many controversies it find itself engulfed in year after year.
Put simply: By grandstanding in his quest to "prove" that he is some great, defiant leader Gallop has yet again proven that in a tenure littered with gross failures and inconsistencies that he and his fellow administrators at the NRL have at least remained consistent in proving yet again how woefully inept, incapable, thoughtless and careless they are. Gallop is completely out of his element in this role and bereft of any foresight the game so desperately needs.
As preposterous as it sounds and as much as these incidents do cause the game short term harm, the game always survives such dramas time and time again. The crowds don't diminish and the ratings maintain their high numbers. Rugby League has survived much worse and will quite easily survive this. The leader of the game should be accutely aware of just how resilient Rugby League is and not scare the public into thinking that things are much worse than they are just to try and make a name for himself.
What the game won't survive and is hurt by is a complete lack of leadership from the top and this has been highlighted even further by Gallop's typically hysterical recent comments and inconsistencies across the board.
At a time when the great game of Rugby League needed a fire extinguisher to douse the spreading flames of inneundo, fears, panic and hysteria throughout the media and public, David Gallop has himself engaged in these emotions and once again added a tonne of fuel to the fire which is doing the code a great deal of harm.
