NRL - Booze culture, your feelings?

old gregg

Without getting bogged down in specific cases that are pending over in Australia ... how do European players, supporters, coaches, sponsors, etc view the ongoing issue with booze related issues over in Australia within the NRL?

I know absolutely nothing about the UK setup and only a little bit about over here in Ireland but I just can't imagine how a professional Rugby organisation (either code) in this part of the world would have a situation whereby players are going out and getting pissed and into trouble on the same week as a major game. Am I being naive? As an Aussie abroad it just strikes me as unthinkable that a player would take their career, jersey, game, fans and even national pride so lightly.

How do folks feel about the drink culture within the NRL?

toomevara

old gregg wrote: »

Without getting bogged down in specific cases that are pending over in Australia ... how do European players, supporters, coaches, sponsors, etc view the ongoing issue with booze related issues over in Australia within the NRL?

I know absolutely nothing about the UK setup and only a little bit about over here in Ireland but I just can't imagine how a professional Rugby organisation (either code) in this part of the world would have a situation whereby players are going out and getting pissed and into trouble on the same week as a major game. Am I being naive? As an Aussie abroad it just strikes me as unthinkable that a player would take their career, jersey, game, fans and even national pride so lightly.

How do folks feel about the drink culture within the NRL?

Interesting thread, and one that is going to become increasingly relevant across both codes...One of the reasons given for Warrington's steep decline of late is the alleged hard drinking/hard partying team culture, flagged up by many fans on forums and in the rugby league press..Tony Smith the new manager has apparently read the team the riot act..and it may be paying off with their first decent perfomance in about 9 straight games coming last week...

I suppose from your perspective Gregg, your talking about the Jake Friend scenario? I tend to support a hardline stance on alcohol abuse in general and in sporting role models in particular, and I hope the new NRL policy is successful, but when you have the national team sponsored by a brewery well, its all a bit inconsistent isn't it?

I think we've got a hugely hypocritical attitude to alcohol in the sports of rugby league/union,(we're not alone in this) using drinks companies for sponsorship etc...promoting a massively positive image of alcohol consumption and associating it with sporting success. Look at a guy like Matt Stevens..banned from all contact with the sport of rugby union for his recreational use of cocaine, a drug which he freely admitted he's got a problem with, yet if he'd been getting pissed on a regular basis before every game...no official sanction would have been imposed or applied.

Generally I'd say that alcohol, and all that goes with it, is kryptonite to professional rugby league players and I'm all for phasing out overt association with the game i.e. sponsorship, and fostering a responsible attitude among players who need to be made aware of the responsibility they have as role models and the deleterious effect alcohol consumption will have on their career and fitness, not to mention well being....

old gregg

you've pretty much hit the nail on the old head there as far as I'd be concerned.

amacachi

I don't think there should be a need for an all-encompassing policy on alcohol or other recreational drug use. Teams should be able to sort it out themselves. Professional athletes goin gettin ****ed up constantly is going to affect their performance and surely the manager and coaches should be doing something about it, ya wouldn't get away with it working in an office.

toomevara

amacachi wrote: »

ya wouldn't get away with it working in an office.

You should see some of the derelicts I've worked with over the years....lol

amacachi

toomevara wrote: »

You should see some of the derelicts I've worked with over the years....lol

Yeah, as soon as I hit the Submit button I realised what I had said. :P

I think ya get my point though, you've got ~30 players with a manager who sees them almost daily, several coaches, physios etc. If they don't get the player to correct their behaviour they're not doing their job.

old gregg

I suppose it has to be driven by the club and it's culture. In the case of the NRL club Manly, a week before the start of the season and the club decides to hold a massive piss up for players, sponsors and fans and then wonders why when it all goes pear shaped for everyone.

amacachi

One big piss up shouldn't be a problem though, it's up to the players and the clubs after that to look after themselves.

The hypocrisy between drink and drugs is pathetic though. On the other hand drugs are illegal, so a distinction has to be made.

old gregg

the occasional piss up is fine and I'm sure there are plenty of clubs in most sports who see it as a social thing and a way for players to release stress off-field and all that good stuff. I think though that in the week leading up to the start of the season when a high profile club allows at least one player to reach a stage of drunkenness whereby they are a danger to themselves and others it says something about the club culture.

as a question to the folks who have an involvement/interest in UK footy, how does a major club like Leeds manage their player's off-field conduct?

couerdelion

I think you've got to look at the profile of the sports and the type of press invovled too.

A normal first team rugby league player in the UK getting drunk and falling asleep in the street wouldn't make front page headlines, and I think the same would apply to an Irish provincial RU player.

The NRL players have an exposure similar to the UK premiership their every move is watched.

toomevara

couerdelion wrote: »

The NRL players have an exposure similar to the UK premiership their every move is watched.

Spot on...NRL is a real pressure cooker, its a rugby culture unlike anything we've got here...I think also, particularly in rugby union circles, there's been a quiet complicity in the media in regards to players' drunken antics...

When its nice middle class lads apeing about ,its alright, but when its a bunch of working class lads somehow the standards applied and the tenor of the reporting change....

Thats starting to change a little though...