6th Of October, 2016. Four days after the Sharks grand final win in the NRL. Ben Barba gave in to his old habits and decided to have some cocaine to celebrate their win. Little did he know, this decision would prove to be very costly for his career. Leading him be suspended from the NRL, and sent to Thailand for rehab. Though this player isn't the only player to have gone through something like this.
Rugby League. Our beloved code of sport we live and breathe on a day to day basis. Though all may seem perfect on field, off the field, the NRL has a dark side, involving poor choices made by players and club managers. Especially involving the use of illicit drugs.
The most common issue here? Cocaine. A white, powdery substance, which caused harsh penalties for players such as Jesse Bromwich, Ben Barba and Shaun Kenny Dowall.
It’s certainly valid to ask what the community has done to lead these striving young players down the wrong path and into a life filled with drugs and in some cases, criminal activities.
Peter Stirling, NRL Commentator, when asked on the issue of these recent allegations of drug use in the NRL was disgusted, “It is absolutely disgraceful” he said, “Players should be showing more responsibility and not f**king up like this!”
THE DARK SIDE OF THE NRL
soccer 04
With all the recent drugs allegations, it brings to attention the question. Shouldn’t more be done about this? Fines and game suspensions won’t teach a player anything, and as seen with Ben Barba. They are likely to go right back to the way they were before. Heavy penalties should be in place to stop this. Penalties such as being banned from the NRL all together. It’s abundantly clear that the rules we have in place at the moment are not effective and and incidents of these poor choices don’t show any sign of stopping.
The fact that these players are a huge role model and inspiration to thousands of children and adults across Australia makes their poor choices even more disgraceful. Children growing up supporting a sport where half the players are off doing cocaine and illicit drugs behind the media's back doesn’t teach them to well. How many children will grow up thinking that it's ok and “cool” to do cocaine and illegal drugs because of this? Surely, as a nation we need to rally together and make it clear that we do not want to see a “blind eye” turned to such behaviours and we wish to see harsher penalties in place, especially for second and subsequent offenders such as Ben Barba, Jesse Bromwich and Shaun Kenny Dowall.
By Fletcher Holdich