League reckons 'dark ages' club culture a thing of the past

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League reckons 'dark ages' club culture a thing of the past
Topic Started: Mar 12 2010, 02:59 AM (28 Views)
stacey	Mar 12 2010, 02:59 AM Post #1
Administrator Posts: 2,571 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: May 22, 2009	SIX years ago, with the Canterbury Bulldogs gang rape scandal still an open wound, rugby league players yawned and stared out the window at how-to-treat-women classes. Last season was marred by domestic violence and sexual assault charges, group sex confessions, drugs and drunkenness, violence and public defecation - yet there is marked improvement in player attitudes the NRL says this year. ''When we first started there was a lot of yawning and stretching arms and looking out the window,'' the executive director of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, Karen Willis, said. Ms Willis has been delivering the Playing by the Rules course - which gives players an ethical and legal run-down of sex and relationships with women - to NRL clubs since 2004. There was no denying club culture needed more work, she said. "We aren't going to change thousands of years of male behaviour with a couple of discussion sessions." The NRL has embarked on a wide-ranging re-education program to combat the misogyny tag that stuck in the wake of allegations of gang rape against the Bulldogs. The South Sydney under-20s captain Nathan Peats was one of 240 promising players who sat down to a behaviour training session during last year's rookie camps. In a fortnight his club will start a new ''Sex and Ethics'' course for young Rabbitohs. "[You learn] what to do if you're leaving a club and not do something stupid,'' Peats, 19, said. He had a dim view of senior players who made headlines through scandal. "Why would you jeopardise your career? When you've got kids looking up to you, you can't afford to." The view prevails that there is a sexist culture in rugby league, and the NRL is keen to change that. "I don't think you should ever presume that we're [from] the dark ages," said the education manager, Matt Francis. [rainbow]Link[/rainbow]



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