It's unreasonable to expect them to be perfect role models, it's reasonable to expect them to have enough professional pride that they won't get drunk and crash cars or assault police officers, which brings the whole game into disrepute
Whatever he's done brings Scott Moore into disrepute, not the game. I'm not saying whatever he's done, if anything, is okay, and it's a shame that he's potentially let himself down, but I accept people like him will do daft stuff. If he didn't, he wouldn't be the player he was/is. It's the ying and yang of aggressive hookers and prop forwards. Ryan Bailey seems to be a nasty piece of work, but if he wasn't, he'd have never donned a Super League jersey.
I'm happy to accept that some people have flaws, we all do, in some way, and an aggressive rugby player, whose aggression makes him a successful rugby player, may well have more flaws than most.
Of course it brings the game into disrepute, anything which gives the Union and Footy fans ammunition to say; "oh look, league players are up to their usual tricks..." is bringing the game into disrepute, especially as it's been widely reported in non-RL media.
I'm happy to accept players are flawed, I'm not happy to accept that as an excuse for illegal behaviour
Not prejudging re Scott Moore, but it really is hard to understand how/why players playing the game and being well paid for it , manage to self destruct and waste the talent they have been gifted. It happens in other sports, yes, even in RU , but the media usually seem less interested in their 'bad lads'.
On the basis that people could easily forget that rugby league exists if they follow only mainstream media, I'm not sure any publicity is particularly bad. I'm more bothered about the fact that a talented player is messing up his career.
I'm not quite sure when this desire started that the brutish, aggressive players who populate our forward packs behave like angels. Is it when the crowd roars when a punch up starts, or a hard hit renders someone semi-conscious? Then? No, didn't think so.
Stay fit, stay healthy, look after your careers, but don't lose that aggression, that slight bit of madness that makes you the player that you are.
Nobody is saying that players need to lose their agression but there's a difference between controlled aggression on the pitch, and uncontrolled agression off the pitch
Nobody is saying that players need to lose their agression but there's a difference between controlled aggression on the pitch, and uncontrolled agression off the pitch
I know, I get that, but my general point is that some players tread a very fine line, and it's only some, but that it's the fine line that they tread that makes them so good, so it has to be accepted that the flip side is that those who tread closest to it will sometimes cross it.
I'm not saying it's okay, but it's the nature of the beast.
It's unreasonable to expect them to be perfect role models, it's reasonable to expect them to have enough professional pride that they won't get drunk and crash cars or assault police officers, which brings the whole game into disrepute
Nobody is saying that players need to lose their agression but there's a difference between controlled aggression on the pitch, and uncontrolled agression off the pitch
Agree. the late John Burke a perfect example of this. John was as hard and aggressive on the pitch as any of them but that's where it stayed. RL players have tended to shoot themselves (and their clubs) in the foot in recent years but before the RU brigade start to gloat they need to sort out their eye gougers and biters!