Louisa Wall: Perhaps NRL governors need to get tough

The first week of the NRL season is upon us and what can we expect from the code and the boys this year?

I hope from the Warriors a sense of focus and determination that will ensure they get where they want to go. I've kept the faith, so let's hope they have too and that we will enjoy the ride to where they want to go.

From the code, I hope too for some focus and a determination to get rid of the off-the-field antics that have brought the game into disrepute in recent years.

First, a bouquet to the NRL. In January it appointed a new board member in the form of managing director of retail giant Harvey Norman - sponsor of the State of Origin series for the past six years - Katie Page.

Katie has the honour of being the first female board member in the history of league's administration and it seems she, as was reported in Australia's Sunday Telegraph, was disappointed by the sex scandals that engulfed league last year. It seems the problems continue.

From the Coffs Harbour affair - the Mark Gasnier mobile phone-based late-night call - to the latest Newcastle debacle when a dozen players went on a drunken rampage at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst the code has reached crisis point.

Page has replaced one of News Limited's three representatives on the board.

Harvey Norman had been re-thinking its continued involvement in the game. It chose not to pull the plug but to confront some of these issues from within in spite of its customers saying withdraw your sponsorship or we won't buy from you.

So, as an attempt by the NRL to include more women in the running of the game and to improve the code's image, Page has been granted access to this exclusive club. But is one woman enough?

From none to one is a start but to really address these issues you have to ensure that someone with a social as well as economic focus is there to maintain and develop the code for all participants.

Sport is a social institution and having these young men lose the plot off the field is just not acceptable in any society that wants to see their young people grow up to be positive contributors.

Alcohol, it seems, is at the heart of this issue and socially, codes and hierarchies have to decide what behaviour is acceptable. When the players and officials are in the public eye they are an extension of their employer. No one is bigger than the game itself.

Unless the players can moderate themselves, then rules such as no drinking in public will need to be created to enforce some discipline given the off-field antics.

Page might have to take such a purist stance to get the message across.

I do spare a thought for the parents of Dane Tilse, the Tigers players sacked over the latest incident, and the community from which he has come. They've invested time, resources and love throughout his participation in the sport and would have been obviously proud to date of his achievements as a player.

It must be heartbreaking to think that so suddenly all that hard work and effort can be erased. At the end of the day these kids have to take responsibility for their actions but always within the confines of a set of rules. The on-field rules are fairly well defined and we rely on the officials to administer them.

Maybe the sport's governors need to create a pseudo-Nanny State and ban the public consumption of grog when formally representing the NRL - for example after matches, in team gear, etc, for a while because some boys just haven't the personal discipline and commitment to the code to make these sensible decisions for themselves and/or the courage to challenge the behaviour of some of their peers.

Alcohol in itself is not the problem, but how, when and why it is used is.

It seems in other professional situations the board does determine what is acceptable or not and perhaps a change of culture has to be forced not coerced as has been the strategy to date via education programmes.

Let's go Katie, let's go. I await your impact with interest.

* Louisa Wall is a former New Zealand netball and rugby representative