Failure to take draconian action on perpetrators could have significant ramifications for rugby league
Rugby league has and always will be a collision sport built on courage, physicality and the innate will to overcome. The sport cannot and will not exist without its raw brutality, yet that inherent violence must be controlled to protect the game’s greatest asset: the players, and in particular its star players.
Former league boss Kevin Humphreys was the first to realise this in the 1980s. But his crusade against thuggery was not built on some intrinsic compassion for the player, rather on commercial sensibilities. The year-long suspensions and crackdown on high shots, gouging and other wanton violence was launched and then sustained to both ensure the game’s stars remained on the field and the spectacle held a wider appeal to a potential audience.
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