So, after last night's Origin match I tuned in to The Phil Gould Show. For those who don't know Gould has a show on the digital edition of The Sydney Morning Herald. It's usually pretty good, Gould leaves a lot of his personal agenda out of it and analyses the game.
I believe Gould nailed it when it comes to the rule changes and sin-binning of four players. State of Origin is there as entertainment for the public. It is not there to be a role model for society.
Too often has the NRL bowed to pressure from minority groups. Origin should not be dictating to children what's right and wrong. That is the parents' job.
Following on from Game 1 there was a fight at a country school and the kids used Paul Gallen as an excuse. The principal approached Gallen to tell the kids it was the wrong thing to do and Gallen obliged. Full credit to him.
But in my view that is an issue with the school and those children's parents. Those kids should know that what Gallen did was wrong. That was a failing of the school and the parents, not rugby league.
So back on to Game 2. Yes what Merrin did was wrong. In the older days he probably would've been put on report and left at that.
Listening to the crowd and the people sitting around me at the pub, everyone loved seeing the biff being brought back.
As I said earlier, rugby league is entertainment, not a role model. That is an issue for the parents to deal with. You teach your kids the right thing and they won't be influenced by the fighting on ground.
I agreed with Mal Meninga. Meninga asked for a poll to be taken about the fight. The NRL is yet to respond, probably because a poll will show that the biff is enjoyed by the majority of rugby league fans.
The NRL have failed their long time supporters in banning the biff and making the game soft. They removed the shoulder charge which had been a part of the game for over 100 years.
It's time the NRL commission admitted their mistakes and stopped catering to part time fans in a bid to try and grab a new market as it's softening the reputation of the greatest game of all.
Now a final word from Reg Reagan:
Replies
I see nothing in the reactions of the NRL that indicate they understand the state of the game. Even a casual viewer like my Mrs was dumbfounded that four players were sent off. She got up and said "this is annoying me I off to shower". What response do we have from the NRL? The statement that the policy will continue. I don't know if its ignorance on their part or obstinance.
While we don't go to a NRL game hoping to see a fight, we do jump up and yell if one breaks out. SOO is different, or at least it used to be, we do watch SOO and hope for a fight, it's the brand that has been built: State Vs State, Mate Vs Mate. Even that arrogant "I'm never wrong" Bill Harrigan says SOO was refereed differently, that the whistle stayed out of the mouth, but now we have Daniel Anderson saying No, SOO should be refereed the same as NRL, in other words infuriatingly petty penalties, inconsistent interpretations, home ground advantages etc.
The NRL should ask all clubs to have a ballot of all its members, as the members are the most dedicated fans, stumping up their hard earned to support their club, all members should be asked if they support the shoulder charge ban and the new zero tolerance to punching.
Like the colon of politicians in Canberra, they would never give us that much power.
I sat down at my local pub here in Malta and watched with about 20 fellow Aussies (about 4 or 5 QLDers there so they were very quiet) and everyone loved the biff but were mystified when 4 were binned.
My grandparents who are Maltese and have come to Malta for a holiday were also there. Back when NSW were at their peak my grandma could name some of the players like Andrew Johns, Craig Wing and Anthony Minichello. And those were the only games she watched. She turned to me when the players were binned and said I liked a bit of the fighting but why were the players sent off?
Even as a grandmother she enjoyed a bit of the biff and was surprised, without even knowing the rules, that the players were sent to the bin.
I wish it wasn't a product, I wish it was a sport played by men.
Good blog super, i agree and it goes for the whole game, not just origin, we have bowed to the wrong groups and thus the game has been destroyed.
The best wat to destroy anything special is to listen to anybody outside the direct game.
Origin is a product not a role model (a descriptive claim).
Should origin be a role model (a prescriptive claim).
So Gould really has two quite different kinds of claim going on, a descriptive and a prescriptive claim. Any interest his discussion has clearly derives from the prescriptive claim that origin should not be thought of as a role model. And I can imagine lots of very good arguments for why origin should not be thought of as a role model (such as: why should a for-profit blood-sport be the place to look to for examples of goodness). Of course I can imagine good arguments for why it should be thought of as a role model (such as: it represents the pinnacle of the NRL and as such should set the kind of example we would hope to aspire to not just an example of our everyday failings).
But regardless of whether origin should or should not be a role model, IS it a role model? I don't think one can deny it is a role model. Evidence is everywhere, including the anecdote told of school kids fighting and saying Gallen did it in Origin so why can't they. And that's just life in our busily inter-connected digital age. It's fine to get all technologically-innocent and trot out the conservatives philosophy that morals begin and end at home, but in this day and age, our kids are deeply influenced by what they see outside of parental modes of guidance or school modes of guidance. Origin is not just any product. It's one of the biggest and most watched and most talked about sporting spectacles in the country. Of course is is going to be a force in the role model world. It's a competitor, and a fierce one at that, in terms of its influence.
So, to the extent Gould is saying Origin should not be a role model because it is not a role model just a product, well because he is wrong about that - it IS a role model in a descriptive sense - he therefore has little grounds to conclude that it should not be a role model. In other words, if in FACT Origin functions as a role model - hard to deny, really? - to claim that Origin SHOULD not function as a role model, one would surely have to address how to stop people being influenced by watching Origin. And on that score, good luck, Phil; the kids are imitating their heroes all the time.
Origin wasn't designed as a role model, nor were any sports for that matter. People choose to make them a role model. I was taught right and wrong by my parents not rugby league. I know that punching someone is wrong. You can't honestly say that kids getting in a schoolyard scrap should be laid squarely at the feet of Paul Gallen's punch.
Even if the kids claim they were imitating Gallen, it's not his fault that the kids don't know the difference between what you should and shouldn't do. On one hand we have Gallen representing his state and trying to win the first series in nearly 8 years in highly competitive environment. On the other we have a bunch of kids, most probably just grabbing each other with no punches being thrown, using Gallen as an excuse for doing the wrong thing, in a schoolyard with nothing on the line.
I have always said this and I will continue to. People who say that their kids are influenced by a game of rugby league need to have a closer look at themselves. Sure as a kid I enjoyed watching the game and playing backyard footy but that's where it stopped. I didn't try to punch people at school, nor was I ever influenced to act in a violent manner towards anyone due to what I saw on the footy field. And I grew up through the start of social media and the massive expansion of the internet.
People who blame rugby league for the children's misbehaviours need to stop laying the blame at what is essentially a form of entertainment and look at what they've taught their children. Sit their children down and explain that what you see on television is not necessarily the right thing to do.
Honestly if kids were so impressionable surely, with all the violence on tv they would've killed someone by now. They don't because they've been taught it's wrong to kill someone, in the same way it's wrong to punch someone.
Fighting in physical intense high pressure situations in a sporting competition is going to happen. It is ridiculous that the smarts of league feel that 4 players being binned is at all a good idea. What needs to happen is a change in the media, it should not be glorified and it should be taught to kids that it is not really in the spirit of the game. This whole situation has arisen because of the media using it as a tool to get people excited. Gallens response to what happened in origin 1 was also a reason as it was a ridiculous thing to say, it made him sound like he was going to take it to myles whether or not he deserved it on the night. Everyone loves a good scuffle which can be seen when watching it at the pub as it creates an adrenaline of excitement, all we need to do is stopp glorifying those that get into the biffs and it wouldn't be such a big deal.
Well said super, couldnt agree more.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next