Tonight, Brett Stewart, one of the best players in the game, was charged with sexual assault.
In just a few days he has gone from being the NRL’s chosen ‘face of the game’ to utter disgrace. His future is now in doubt.
The Stewart incident is just the latest in a long line of such incidents that have blighted the image of the game in recent years.
In every incident, alcohol has been a major factor. Every incident. And not just alcohol but an acceptance of binge drinking.
Rugby League is under considerable financial pressure from competition from other codes, from advertising and sponsorship dollars drying up in the recession and from the NSW Government’s poker machine taxes.
It needs this sort of PR nightmare like a hole in the head.
Yet, the boys on the boards and in the clubs refuse to do anything serious about it.
It is getting close to crunch time, if the Stewart fiasco doesn’t propel them into a “no-exceptions, no-excuses” ban on public drunkenness then nothing will.
2 Comments
Rugby League will be still going in another 100yrs,pray tell what code dont have drink problems,its just something about RL that upsets you jurnos,its like a weed it just keeps coming back.
And you lot cant handle the fact that it wont do what you want.
John Ryan: learn to spell and punctuate. Then you can show us your small one (brain).