Sunday, November 3, 2013

NRL 'Culture' - By Mary

This week at @LadiesWhoLeague, if you have been keeping up, you'll see that I've been writing a lot about women's involvement in NRL.

For the moment, this will be my last blog on the topic but I feel that I have left the most controversial issue till the end. This blog has certainly been the hardest one to write.

When I speak to many of my friends about why they have no interest in rugby league, there is a common answer - it is a game played by 'boofheads', with scandal after scandal filling the papers week after week. It seems that the image the NRL has is one which is discouraging many females from giving the game a go. In my opinion, that's a tremendous shame because rugby league is a fantastic sport with lots to offer.

The question then becomes, does the NRL have a culture problem?

My answer is, no.

As a code, rugby league is not perfect. For those of you who have read the blog throughout the year you will remember many stories about how NRL players should look to be role models, about boys behaving badly and about the way contracts are treated and valued by both players and coaches. There is certainly room for improvement and the NRL should always be striving to educate players and to work towards ensuring that we are not just creating excellent rugby league players, but excellent men.

While NRL is not perfect, I would argue that many of the issues facing rugby league are common to all sports. No sport is devoid of scandal and no sport is devoid of players that do silly things. This year, the ASADA scandal is certainly the one which has dominated sports headlines. While the NRL was in the spotlight, so was the AFL, in a very significant way.

The reality is that scandal sells newspapers. 

We need to get much better as a code and as fans at promoting the positive things that NRL does for the community and focusing on players who are truly excellent players, but role models for society and the community. 

I'll firstly focus on some of the tremendous initiatives the NRL has introduced over the past few years.  This year the 2013 NRL-RLPA Academic Team of the Year was announced. In connection with this, the NRL launched a new strategic partnership with the University of Western Sydney that will give players more opportunity to pursue further study once their footballing careers are over. This new partnership will be the most comprehensive professional athlete education program in Australia.

The aim of the Graduates of League program is to increase university entry, retention and completion rates of elity athletes. The program gives players one on one tuition, at least an hour a week, funded by the NRL, the player's club and the Rugby Leauge Players Association. 


The NRL-RLPA Academic Team of the year gives players the chance to ensure that they can continue to contribute to the community positively once they have finished playing NRL. It gives players the confidence to pursue further study and gives them the resources they need. 

For me, this program shows that we are a sport that  not only values players for the contribution that they can make on the field, but also is a sport which focuses on what players can do and contribute once they have left the game. 

Then we get to what I see as one of the jewel's of the NRL - the NRL One Community initiative. This program is the largest and most comprehensive community relations program in NRL sport. With tremendous initiatives like Women in League round, Rugby League Reads, the Ambassador Program and the Voice Against Violence it is clear that the NRL is serious about the role it can have in the community and using our rugby league superstars to initiate positive changes in the community. 

When I read stories about the Canterbury Bulldogs raising money for beyondblue, Centrebet Stadium establishing a make shift animal shelter for pets that have been evacuated from the Blue Mountains as a result of bush fires and the Raiders making a tremendous commitment to Pacific player education and welfare I am proud. I am proud of the sport which I love and proud of many of the players who participate to make our communities better.

As a code, we need to get better at celebrating the tremendous things that Rugby League can achieve, rather than focusing on the negativity and silliness of a few.

Next year, here at @LadiesWhoLeague we are going to make a tremendous effort to keep you all up to date with everything good about the NRL. We'll be writing about the One Community program and the players that are a part of it. We'll also focus more on some of the game's good guys - men like Michael Ennis, Ben Creagh, Tim Mannah and Ben Ross who are wonderful role models for the game and all heavily involved in the community.

We hope you'll help us and get involved by sharing our stories and in turn sharing your sport and the tremendous things it does for the community.

Love,

@LadiesWhoLeague

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