What is it with Aussie players battering women?

Greg Bird
Greg Inglis

Not forgetting Willie Mason . (Sorry Stuart)

Perhaps the time it’s taking them to evolve is the reason they always spank us.

Latu plays for my club. I'll quite happily criticise his behaviour, along with any other idiot who brings the game into dispute. This issue goes beyond partisan support and frankly deserves a higher level of debate than the point scoring you attempt to reduce it to.

Good grief, Inglis is a super star, when will it end. Im sure the Melbourne (AFL) media will have a field day with this story.

It is very annoying to see a negative story be the only rugby league headline on sky sports today.

Huge waste. He was tipped to be the best EVER! This is a massive story and a massive disaster for the NRL if he is convicted. Frickin idiot!

Your quite right. I think Super league clubs should not be able to sign players from anywhere who have either committed an offence such as this and been found guilty or who have been banned by a previous club or league. It sends the wrong message to our young players. Any player who acts in this manner is not the kind of role model we want, no matter how good their playing ability on the field.

However, we have a lot of fans from Oz coming on here pointing out the defficences in the english game be it players, coaching, stadium standards, national sporting profile, the weather, etc, etc. So you've got to expect a little comeback when one of your own screws something up!!

The lack of respect shown by NRL players en masse towards women is really poor IMO. And no one can defend this stuff on the basis of a few players spoiling it for everyone else - there's virtually no club which hasn't had several players convicted of drink-related offences or acting the fool.

The culture of the sport here is a large part of the problem - with clubs and supporters for years having turned a blind eye to bad behaviour. And some of the problems start with the so-called 'experienced' players who should be setting an example.

At the Broncos we had Lockyer - club, state and Oz captain - getting thrown out of a pub absolutely legless and having a dig at a bouncer, and lying about his behaviour until the TV coverage shows its him. Then we get the usual 'sorry, won't happen again' tripe. We've also had Thaiday, Hodges, Hunt, Kenny and several others involved in distasteful episodes within the last year or so. How can you really have a go at a lad like Kenny when he can - rightly - point to Lockyer and wonder why he's being picked on.

Players just seem to have very little respect for anything - especially their own sport. Far too many seem to only care about money - hawking themseleves around to all and sundry including other sports come contract time regardless of the image that sends about the code to the fans and the wider public.

And you can't trot out the usual 'blame society' rubbish either. it wasn't true for football hooliganism in the past, and its not true of these guys today. It's buck passing that simply doesn't wash. AFL has a few issues off-field, but nothing like the frequency of the NRL, and RU's 'bad boys' are disproportionately ex-league players. Time for a root-and-branch rethink of the way the sport operates off-field IMO.

Real bad news story. Is this a full blown crisis for the NRL, see this timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... ssing.html

Real bad news story. Is this a full blown crisis for the NRL, see this timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... ssing.html

Maybe this time we'll be spared the black comedy of the Catholic Education Office threatening to withdraw their co-operation with the game due to what they consider to be the NRL's inadequate response as an institution to misconduct, partcularly of a sexual nature. The Catholic Education Office.

Oh, and on the telly last night before the Inglis story broke, an Aussie comic pointed out that an 'and finally... LOL' story about an tourist who went to the wrong room and got into bed with a couple would have been deemed a cause of outrage if an NRL player had been involved.

What Inglis has been accused of should not be tolerated. But has anyone got any stats to show there is a greater incidence of domestic violence or other criminal activity among the NRL playing roster than among the general population of men aged between 16 and 35?

Probably not but they aren't damaging the game, players stuffing up are. I think if you compared the number of people earning $250K+ a year with the "incidnet rates" of NRL players you would get an over representation stat.

Will be sad to see Inglis kicked out of the game, he is one of those very, very rare talents, but that is his doing. It is the foul smell that wafts over the game and lingers that I care about.

Fair points. But while comparing NRL players with $250k+ers (and that can't apply to all NRL players, surely?) might suggest they are over-represented, a comparison with young men of equivalent levels of education might tell a different story - and also suggest a possible long-term solution.

I think the NRL has two separate and serious problems here - how this is and how it looks. They should be aware of the media's angle, but if I were Gallop then I would hesitate before I accepted all their premises.