Chris Rattue: Exposure of sex scandal can only do good

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

My first experience of league group sex occurred in a mid-sized New Zealand city.

I had not been covering the sport for very long. A big game was in store.

In those days, teams and media often stayed in the same minus four-star accommodation.

As I was minding my own smalls and coloureds in the laundry, a player I had known for a mere few weeks came in to iron his shirt.

Talk quickly turned to group sex, as it does in these situations.

He kindly informed me that another player I hardly knew was, at that moment, hiding in a wardrobe watching another player I barely knew have sex with a woman none of us knew. Iron and shirt in hand, he didn't actively seek my consent for the telling of the story or its contents.

As this notoriously tough football gladiator delicately ironed his shirt, I wondered what this bloke would reveal to me if we actually knew each other moderately well.

I had enough trouble getting correct team lists from coaches - that's when I wasn't waiting outside the inner sanctum (grotty changing rooms) for scraps of information. Yet here I was, privy to these intimate dealings. This fella might flick me the game plan.

My tacit, unspoken approval for the wardrobe bizzo was mandatory. I put the soap in the machine and waited for my little world to go round and round.

With time to think about it, if the woman didn't know the bloke was in the wardrobe, she was being violated. Then again, she may have been proud of her romp, and delighted that it wasn't wasted on a few twisted wire coat hangers if and when her audience was revealed.

This story serves as an introduction to the topic of the scandal raised by an Australian television documentary that revisited what a Cronulla league team got up to in Christchurch seven years ago.

They got up to group sex, and it has left the woman involved traumatised.

The documentary has also led to an apology from the NRL boss David Gallop for the "appalling and unacceptable behaviour" of some NRL players towards women.

This apology should bring some comfort, hopefully, to those who have been wronged if only by dint of official acceptance that they were actually violated.

It is a necessary step from Gallop, deserving of applause. The players themselves need to break with bad traditions.

It is also apparently a good moment for the media - which is often accused of sensationalism - because the Four Corners television programme about the trauma suffered by women sexually involved with NRL players has led to Gallop's action.

I'm not sure if bad group sex is only a league specialty in the world of sport, but assume that it isn't.

It does appear, however, that sexual shenanigans of this sort are a one-way deal in the fame game because men are not known to flock around female entertainment stars to the same degree.

Presumably, hordes of eager young blokes realise they are not about to be ravaged by all of the Pussycat Dolls plus a couple of their sisters, so don't bother making that long bus trip to hang around a hotel lobby in Houston.

The fact is, stories involving a band like the Eagles are lurid and legendary, but it doesn't seem to happen with the Dixie Chicks that way. Likewise, women - and not just young ones - flock around famous league teams in extraordinary numbers and the Desmond Morris anthropology types might know a reason.

Women have every right to hunt down superstars, and the shagadelic stars can cavort as they wish, so long as it is legal.

But when you throw in all the factors - including alcohol - grey areas emerge. One, it must be imagined, is what constitutes consensual sex, as a woman faced with surprisingly insurmountable odds may not be strong enough to reveal her true feelings.

As to the morning after, it is also extraordinarily difficult to prove that sex wasn't consensual, especially when the witness list ratio is 10-to-one.

It is so difficult for a prosecutor. Those deemed innocent are not always innocent and those who escape court appearances should not always have done so.

It is unfair to demonise sports teams in general because not every player is tarred with the same brush. Faced with definite or potential non-consensual sexual situations, there will be those who do the right thing.

Exposure of the NRL's shame should make women increasingly aware of the risks, which might help keep a few of them safe.

However, the dodgy players certainly won't care for Gallop, an authoritarian figure.

Within their enclaves, these young men feel invincible.

The young women, flirting with fame, may well feel the same ... until they find out otherwise.

At least the issue is out of the closet.

* * *

Great news ... the Aussie NBL is battling on with seven teams. The Australasian basketball competition is struggling because of reduced backing and falling teams, but it is time for basketball to put its nose to the grindstone and keep the competition afloat.

Our Breakers have achieved so much it would have been a crying shame - a disaster - if they had been forced on to the sideline. Once competitions and teams go into hibernation, they are difficult to start up again. A competition without teams in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane is a bizarre deal, but surely at least one or two of those cities will come back on board again.

* * *

Cricketer Jesse Ryder is in trouble with alcohol again. The man clearly has an illness - even the World Health Organisation lists alcoholism as a primary disease.

Well-intentioned people will try to prop him up, but Ryder himself may only find the necessary desperation to discover the solution after he falls right down. This will likely take some time, or it might never happen. I wish Jesse Ryder well, whatever it takes.

* * *

Living through this hopeless malaise in Auckland rugby is heartbreaking. And now the latest version of the lame-duck Blues have cancelled a training run as part of their preparations against a resurgent if limited Crusaders. Blues coach Pat Lam is clearly lost for solutions, and is clutching at straws. If this was a battle-hardened Blues team you might understand it. But they are an unstable lineup that needs combinations.

The season's end can't come quick enough for Lam. He will have learnt plenty about the hearts and minds of his players. He needs to be savage in his assessment and virtually begin again. For starters, he can't afford to have leading players coming and going as he did with a rash of paternity leave this season. If Ali Williams wants to scoot off to America, chop him from the plans completely. Lam needs true warriors who are dedicated to the cause - not superstars who think they are above Super 14 duty. I fear on this score though - Lam made a fine recovery as an NPC coach after a bad first season but I'm not so sure he can do it again with this lot.

Skipping a practice will only reinforce their errant ways. Lam should have flogged them at training.

* * *

It would be nice to say something nice about the Kiwis. I can't. Their captain Benji Marshall dismissed the importance of last Friday night's test. This was no way to prepare for the big battle and his team got smashed by the individually brilliant Australians.

Contrary to Marshall's pre-match claims, the result does matter and the Kiwis have not done the game's cause or their world champion status proud. League luminaries cry - with some validation - that the early season test is unfair as it is always held in Australia. But Australia is hardly a foreign destination for our players, and a reason this test is played across the ditch is because our national league administration has been weak and unreliable. Auckland can't even fill a 25,000-seat stadium for a test. Like Sydney, it gets wiped.

But Australia and New Zealand do need to resolve this venue situation, and more tests must be held in this country. The enigmatic Marshall was a strange choice as captain by Steve Kearney - Roy Asotasi should have been returned to the job and Jeremy Smith was an excellent second option.