The NRL has faced many problems over the last 3 years.  There have been players behaving badly, clubs behaving badly, salary cap problems, drugs and the list goes on.  The NRL response has been to punish the branches (clubs) and staff (mainly players).  This ignores the fact that all these problems, over multiple areas of the organisation, are occurring under the stewardship  of the NRL board  and CEO.  Due to the continuing recurrence of these problems should the focus of correction be redirected to NRL management 

You would have got a kick out of that Anna. Good of them to say g'day. I hope we extend Martin very soon...he is bavk on the market 1 November.  I'm really impressed with him... goal kicking, his play and he seems an impressive clubman.

Todd and Peter have my blessings to go and I wish them well in their future endeavours.

Crazy...Who put the benzodrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine also put the nembutals in Mr Rex's overalls....

What exactly do you want the NRL to do Sun?
These incidents are either illegal or immoral. With the illegal ones, they have a duty to act on them and report the to the police.
With the immoral ones, they have a choice as to how they want the game/product/commodity/business (or even sport) to look like in the face of the public.

In the past (and im talking 80's and 90's before the game professional) it was a sport first, past-time/hobby second and business product was a distant third. 
Ever since the game became a business first and daylight to sport, the expected behaviour has changed forever.

This is the part that young footballers just don't get  - and never will. It is also something the administrators need to grasp. 
You are dealing with young impressionable people here. Like it or not, they also want to be like other 16yo, 18yo or 23yo kids. 

The difference here is how it is reported and spoken about in the media. 
It happens in every organisation - it just doesn't make it to light.
Perhaps the moral compass needs to change?

I kinda liked Greenburg when he was our CEO, although I was starting to figure out how he operates (very politician-like)
Now I think he is one of those tossers who talks a lot and makes it look he is proactive and on top of things, when really he is just trying to look good and promote himself.

I bet if a position opened up in parliament, he'd be all over it like a fly on sheet.

This is the era of Moral Outrage because quite frankly some people are on social media 24/7 and don't have a real life.

For most moral questions the for question is :-

1) Was any one hurt or mentally stressed?

2) Did anyone suffer significant financial damage or damage to assets?

At a lower level of concern is:-

3)  Was any one offended?

People can get offended by all sorts of things and IMO provided 1) or 2) above didn't happen, most things they are offended by are not that important.

The Souths incident is category 1), the Dogs incident is category 3), those that chose to be offended were offended, by media coverage of something that they did not personally witness.  

So the question is what is the NRL role in the era of Moral Outrage?

If they are going to jump up and down and over react every-time someone is offended by something dumb a player does, then it is going to be a long haul.
Dumb things deserve to be punished and called out as being dumb, but when you over react you need to over react every-time.

Or people get offended by your inconsistency. And IMO inconsistency is genuinely offensive, as it demonstrates weakness and incompetence.   

All I can say is that no wonder Murdoch bagged and undermined Smith so much.

To get his lap dog into position so News could run the game again...no one bests Rupert. Greenberg is reactionary and does his master's bidding. The comparison between the silly but innocent Mad Monday antics and the Burgess Bros, Cronulla salary cap issues is stark.. but who gets the most condemnation and flak. 

So wrong.

There is no sense that our NRL heirachy run the game for the benefit of the fans, players or Clubs..it's all about Newscorp and Fox and heaven forbid when they take over Ch Nein.

The Murdoch media rarely have a good word to say about the game, on the contrary they seem to go out of their way to generate scandal and find fault. 

We could get at why but it seems a strong successfully NRL competition is the last thing they want, possibly because it would demand higher broadcast fees.

Outside of that I'm struggling to find a justification. I know they newspapers are low grade gossip mags so we can discount them.
But shows like NRL 360 who are preaching to the converted seem to find fault where-ever possible. That isn't helping ratings, on the contrary it was one of many reasons why I cancelled.

You blokes are conspiracy theory over-dosing here.

Occams razor will tell you the answer you're looking for because it's staring you right in the face.

What's the biggest economical change to the game, to sport wordwide, since the days of boys club, beer and ciggies and a chook raffle? I give you a clue, the first time League seen it in any world changing significant way was.. 1975... I believe, and it changed the financing of the sport seismically. Took it from semi-amateur to semi-professional and fully professional sport runs on today dependently. Take it away and you got a sport, or a club, that just can not compete.

And running hand in hand with that, is the biggest market that has opened up to sport wordwide, increasing massively especially in League over the past 30-40 odd years to the point plenty could argue it's the biggest market, or f***in damn close.

And even if it's not, it's that market that determines where a lot of money is spent and who spends it on what and so the people who came in in 1975 (and you should of guessed them by now) target them.

And that market don't like d.ck pics and nude ball handling (well maybe when they were younger they did, but when they're all grown up and it's their sons they're looking at for a sport to play, not so much.)

It's no conspiracy. Sponsors don't like controversy, especially as plenty of said controversy's turn out to be a turn-off and in some cases outright demeaning to women who are the market that's growing the strongest and fastest.

It's nothing conspiratorial, it's just business.

Zef compare the coverage on Fox, Nine and the ABC,

Compare the Tele and SMH.

If there is a scandal everyone covers it, but for sport most of the other media coverage focuses on sport. The Murdoch coverage focuses on scandal and outrage, of breaking or generating the story.

Of course sponsors don't like it and want their product to be boosted by associating with sport not diminished. Of course players and clubs need to lift their game. 

When something happens you need to report it, don't sweep it under the carpet, but there is no need to send reporters with cameras to spy on players and there is no need to try to keep the story running for weeks, just report it and move on. 

Weidler was the one who brought us up again, Weidler works for SMH.

HD I reckon it's just satisfying the cheap quick thrills impact on business.

It's a race to the gutter mentality that has pervaded all aspects of modern day life...cheaper to throw away than fix. Don"t think long them-we might be dead. Rupert runs some of his businesses into the ground. Robs from them and gives to other sectors. Same idealogy here with league I guess. Drag down the game, beat up crap to sell newspapers and advertising even if you have television rights. No long term vision and they think the cash cow will always keep giving. When that well runs dry Rupert will still have (OMG) cricket.

NRL360 was good. Now all the Newscorp hacks are on it and turned it into a rugby league gossip lifestyle show.

After this witch hunt of the Dogs, and leniency shown to Souths and Cronulla with the press and media coverage, I am not renewing my Foxtell. I held out still this year but no way I'm adding any money to the bottom line of anything to do with Newscorp with my hard earned. Over it.

Weilder is the exception to the rule on the SMH.

Dan I've got an NRL online pass direct from the NRL, I can view most games that are not on 9 on tablet.

What I don't get is regular coverage of lower grades, particularly reserve grade but the occasional game is available via Nine 9.

I've never been into the celebrity/gossip/outrage thing, what other consenting adults do in private is none of my business. And if they are not consenting, the law should sort that out. But I will always be sympathetic to a genuine victim. 

My interest in sport is in the on field stuff, so I expect sports journalists to mainly talk about sport. If I tuned into the gossip channel, then I want gossip. if I want politics, collusion, incompetence, backstabbing and corruption, I can watch Question Time 

Find myself agreeing with you yet again HD :)

I will use my pass too I guess but geez it gets harder and harder to have the required enthusiasm to bother watching games. The enjoyment is being sucked out of the game ...for me at least. 

More rubbish from DT today with news that Dogs use something other than swizzle sticks to mix drinks.

Newcorp trying to break the Club and no support from Todd or Beattie...only condenmation for us while tbis week its ok to do drugs, beat womem, expose yourself, not report complaints to Integrity Commission, cheat salary cap.

I thought the spine went well last night.
Frawley going off injured after 15mins was unfortunate & it's a shame that he had to finish his time at the club that way, but it was a good break from Cleeland that got a brilliant try, also Brown did a good kick for another try which made the difference in a close final score, so as Nancy said the result could've ended up differently if Frawley stayed on & had a shocker. Woolford being on the bench was handy to cover for Brown moving to the halves.
The middle forwards were strong & got a few tries & the kicking from Martin also proved the difference.
The edge defence is a worry though & they're lucky saints didn't wake up & start attacking until 10mins to go. If there was another 5mins they looked like they'd lose it.
Some saints guy tried to put a big hit on Eastwood, who just got up laughing with a what was that? look on his face. Not 2mins later Eastwood lined up one of the saints forwards with a response. I don't know who he got but I don't think he finished the match. 

Saw that BN ...Classic.

They look like the fg side. Need to find more attack and finishing of backline plays. Too forward orientated but you can get away with that in ISP I guess.

I've seen a few of the Newtown matches this year. We'll have to wait & see which Newtown side turns up next week. The one that can't tackle & attacks worse than desball, or the one that gives the opposition & touch up & piles on the points.

Canterbury don't have bad players on the edges, they just need to make up the numbers when they're under pressure. They got caught out a few times bunched up around the posts leaving an overlap out wide. Nearly cost them their season. It's ISP, so a lot of young guys still learning. It's not like there's many 80 minute performances & I think we were lucky to get 60 or 70 last match, which was just enough by the skin of their teeth.

True mate. If they get it together they can give it a shake.  Hoping to see Okunbor have a big game and go up a level for a chance next year.

#letitgo...

The good thing about Rugby League is that our Mad Monday debacle has already been forgotten 
and another atrocity has taken it's place ……..just the nature of the game . It never really seems to damage the code either . The non stop scandals just fuel the inferno that is RL . A brutal beautiful game !

I have enjoyed reading the ISP stuff thanks Nancy and AnnaV 

Hey Dman....


Do you remember our Mad Monday at Menai High many years ago???


The school got trashed late one night due to end of school year.... all the young culprits escaped........ except ONE

Dman!!!

I heard that the headmaster asked who paid for the renovations.

Dman apparently hid behind one of the school bubblers.....

Dman's band did a few fundraising gigs.

You didn't see Weidler's rehash article today?

Yep... I remember taking the fall and not naming names in spite of threats of having HSC withheld...