It’s gone from late night fights, to drunken behaviour to suggestive SMS messages bordering on stalking. But with this latest Kings Cross Shooting incident, NRL off-field behaviour has gone to a whole new level. Regardless of the part the NRL players played in this saga, they cannot be blamed for some lunatic firing a shot at them.

They certainly put themselves in a bad position, playing Russian Roulette in Kings Cross at 4am in the morning is dangerous for anyone, let alone high profile Rugby League stars. NRL clubs cannot watch over players 24 hours a day, but they certainly can put clauses in contracts to prevent players from getting themselves into a problem situation. For example; if a player is found drinking or in a ‘off-limits area’ at some stupid hour of the morning – then have a warning system and eventual contract severence option.

Rugby League supporters have sent us quite a few emails and the majority are not in support of the players. Most fans feel that the players have put themselves in dangerous territory and could have avoided the whole frightening situation. Here is an extract from an email we received here at NRL News:

I am writing this email to voice my opinion regarding the latest indiscretions of the league players during the weekend.  We are Folundations Members of The Titans and enjoy our game of Rugby League.
 
To hear once again that Gasnier, Mason and others were involved or if not directly involved, they were still in the wrong place and in the public eye is alarming.  These chaps have had chances before and to think they will represent our country or their state this year is laughable and embarrassing. 
 
It is my opinion that the League should take an extremely strong stand on this continuing, disgusting behaviour and place bans on any player who has broken the League’s code of conduct.  These chaps have had warnings in the past and their clubs still place them on pedestals and I do hope the NRL sends them a strong warning and not include them in any representative football for the season.  A fine of any amount of money has not worked (they have too much time on their hands and earn too much money).”

By Julie Wirth

It seems the NRL, players and the clubs all need to put some proceedures in place to prevent further bad headlines and a possible death after this latest situation. Players are not perfect and will make mistakes from time to time – but their huge profiles make them big targets in some situations and making the smallest mistake may get them into major trouble in the future.

If you’d like your say on the situation, feel free to email the team at NRL News at NRLfeedback@gmail.com or you can join our free NRL forums at www.nrlnews.com/forum and have your say to everyone.

By ricky

3 thoughts on “Fans remain angry at latest off-field incidents”
  1. Here we go again & the season hasn’t even started. The NRL & the clubs need to wake up to themselves & start getting tough with these players? Yes there should be a curfew & I think there should be a total alcohol ban during the footy season. These guys are supposed to be “role models” , what kind of example are they setting for our kids? I can appreciate young guys wanting to go out & have a good time, but as we’ve seen in the past alccohol doesn’t agree with some of these players? No offence but they are rugby league players who get bashed around the head week in week out, add a little alcohol & what do you get?

  2. Hey those guys just human, okay? Yeah they should have known better than go out to The Cross but they just, I suppose, wanna break loose before they’re shackled. Okay they earn big cash and they drive flashy cars and wear flashy clothes but there will be effing idiot out there that’s jealous of these young guys fame and wanna “take them out” by shooting at them. They should pull their heads in but, like the great Ned Kelly once said, such is life. It happens in NFL in America, AFL, soccer…take soccer in South America, if your team loses, they shoot you, if you screwed up in some big way, they shoot you. Lets hope that NRL doesn’t get that way, if it does, this fan will turn his doggy back on it and follow something else.

  3. I agree with the posted comments. We need stronger leadership on this code of conduct issue.

    Some players are just bad PR machines. Get rid of a couple and make examples of them. There are plenty of would be premium players in the side lines waiting to have a go at the top level.

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