Kerre Woodham: A league of its own

Years ago, I was out one night with a group of mates. We'd all driven in the Nissan Mobil street race in Wellington and we were having a catch-up in Auckland. One of the guys was a league player and he brought along two of his team mates.

They seemed nice people, in as much as you can get to know anyone during a dinner, and we were all having a fun night.

The three league boys had the option of having even more fun, however, when two well-dressed blondes approached them at the bar. "Hi" said the first one. "Do you boys want a f***?"

As opening gambits go, it was quite the conversational king hit. "No thanks, love" said one of the blokes. "We're having a beer."

"You're staying at the Centra, right?" said the blonde, not at all deterred. "We can go back there and wait."

"She's right, thanks, love" the league player replied.

The blondes lifted their chins, tossed their hair and, with a parting "Your loss!", they stalked off.

I was gobsmacked. The nuns used to call me a bold piece but I had nothing on these two. And yet the league boys were blase about the incident.

They told me it happened all the time and passed on a few war stories of groupies refusing to take no for an answer and making it absolutely clear that there was nothing special about them as blokes - they were just working their way through the team, one player at a time.

If you google Charmyne Palavi, you'll see what I mean. The divorced mother-of-three, who keeps herself in fake nails and peroxide by working as a spray tan artiste, shags league players. That's her thing and she makes no bones about it.

And hey - every girl needs a hobby. For some it's quilting; others, it's cooking. For Charmyne, it's all about bonking as many league boys as she can.

Charmyne appeared on the Australian documentary that explored the culture of group sex and alcohol abuse within the NRL - the documentary that looks to have effectively scuttled Matthew Johns' career. She said she'd been raped by a player once before but when you're the original good-time-had-by-all, rape seems to be considered an occupational hazard.

Certainly, it hasn't stopped her from trawling the parties and scooping up young league players in her driftnet of lust, judging from the Facebook photos.

The other young woman who featured prominently in the documentary, however, appears to have been permanently scarred from her night out with the boys.

Seven years ago, the former waitress was 19 when she went upstairs with Matthew Johns and another player to a hotel room. Whatever she thought she was letting herself in for, it is now clear that she didn't expect to be gang-banged.

Up to six players had sex with her, while the rest of the team, including the management, stopped by to watch.

Five days after the incident, she laid a complaint with police. Local police interviewed every member of the team and came to the conclusion the sex had been consensual.

The documentary makers presented the young woman as someone who had been horribly damaged by the encounter and her testimony was harrowing.

Johns is the only one to have been publicly named and shamed and it appears he's taking the can for every league player who's ever degraded a woman.

He's lost his television roles and he's become a pariah within the NRL. After trying to ride out the storm, he submitted himself to a gruelling interview, his wife by his side, where it was plain to see that his life, too, has been ruined.

If you get a chance, watch his interview with Channel 9's Tracy Grimshaw. She asks all the tough questions and he answers honestly and openly. It's plain to see that he truly believed that the girl was up for it.

It's hard to understand how any man could think a woman wants to be taken by six men, with others watching in the wings, and even harder to understand why a man would want to be a part of the process.

Apparently, it's a team bonding kind of a thing. I don't know.

Netballers don't need to be shagged by the same guy to build up a good rapport. It sounds more like a straight guy's way to have gay sex.

The CEO of the NRL has publicly apologised to the woman and has told players that if they are into group sex, they should find themselves another career.

I would have thought the public disgrace of Matty Johns would have been enough to turn any young player celibate, but no.

One player who spoke anonymously declared there were always women wanting to be the catalyst for a jolly good team bonding session and that the bosses were trying to take all the fun out of league with their restrictions on drinking and now their ban on group sex.

Anyone who watches the documentary and the follow-up interview with Johns and who sees the pain and the shame and the incomprehension about how it all turned so pear-shaped will find it difficult to see where the fun is in group sex.