Threats do Broncos no good
By Robert Craddock
October 21, 2008
AT WHAT point do the Broncos stop talking about waving a big stick and actually hit someone with it?
At what point do they say "stuff this ... there have been enough warnings ... sorry pal, you're gone."
And, by this, I mean not simply an expendable player like Neville Costigan, but a big name player like Peter Wallace or Sam Thaiday, or whoever. A player whose absence might hurt the club in the short term but allow it to grow long term.
Only when they do this will we know they are truly serious about upgrading their image. It's all right to say the next player to step out of line is going to cop it ... yet when do big-name players ever get pulled into line?
The Broncos have reached a fork in the road. A grubby culture is permeating the club.
They can either do what West Coast Eagles did in the early years of this decade and let things fester and, before you know it, you have a club out of control. Or they can shake the tree by making an example of someone.
Summoning the players to a "next time you're in big big trouble" meeting may create big headlines but instead of having that meeting half the way through the players' holidays, why was it not held before the side left?
Words are cheap. Actions are what matter.
The word is Brisbane will eventually fine three players involved in a recent after-dark indiscretion and Wallace may get the same fate.
But, as most professional sportsmen will tell you, fines are a waste of time.
They barely ever stop players from doing anything they don't want to.
Suspensions and sackings are different.
What really hurts a player is sitting on the sidelines watching his teammates when he is fully fit and available for selection.
Wallace's future at the Broncos is as safe as the club mascot, for he is the halfback they have been searching for since Allan Langer retired.
By signing him to a five-year deal they are planning to build a club on him.
And there's the problem.
With that security comes the knowledge that, unless he is caught setting the club on fire, he is virtually untouchable.
It is not the way things are supposed to be ... but it is the way they are.
Club officials were at pains on Monday to describe the Wallace incident as "minor". Really? We are not going to call it the crime of the century, but the bloke got arrested.
Have you ever tried to get arrested?
It's actually quite hard to do. Most security men will cut you a bit of slack and even the most petulant policeman will normally say, "c'mon mate ... just watch yourself".
Getting arrested at an Irish pub for being disorderly is an even more remarkable achievement. It's like being thrown out of a buffet breakfast for eating too much - it takes some doing.
I got an email on Monday from a mate who said: "I've been drinking with a pretty hard-drinking mob of blokes for 20 years and we have seen the sun come up and never been saints ... yet none of us have ever come close to being arrested for anything."
People are tiring of the constant excuses made for Broncos players.
Just because you are a big-name celebrity who likes to have a few drinks does not mean you have to fall victim to the curse of public misbehaviour.
Mark and Steve Waugh spent a collective 34 years touring for their country yet were not involved in one bar-room incident.
Nor, as far as we understand, was Shane Warne, despite being harangued at some stage by every gibbberer in the cricket playing world.
The Broncos can introduce as many 10-point plans as they like but the real shame is that there is no quality senior players around to set a decent example.
How chief executive Bruno Cullen must lament the club's decision not to make a decent offer to keep key role model Petero Civoniceva.
Some players only have to place themselves in the middle of a group and immediately the tone of behaviour lifts because other players don't want to make a goose of themselves in front of them.
Who is the player on the Broncos' books who currently fits this role?
It is interesting that Allan Langer is returning to be assistant coach next year because he was one player who managed to do something the current Broncos find impossible ... have a few beers yet stay out of trouble.
Langer knew how to enjoy himself and may look back at some of the pranks he and his mates did and think, "we wouldn't get away with that today".
But he never had the nasty, objectionable streak that some others have today.
He knew where the line was between boisterous and bad behaviour and managed to stay on the right side of it.
