I don’t, for one moment, disagree with your sentiments about the dangers of playing rugby league, but I think we are starting to drift away from the main point - so where do we stop?
If we are talking risk associated with jobs; abalone divers don’t get paid $500k. Nor do abseilers, miners, police, firefighters and so on. They also don’t get fame and admiration, indeed read some of the comments on this very forum and you will see that police, who literally risk their lives everyday, are despised by some.
I don’t want you to misunderstand me either. I am not some high flying executive trying to defend the high-paid elites. I am just an average person (probably far less depending on who you ask), earning and average income. But I also understand there are things that most executives do, sacrifices that most have also had to make, that laypeople like me are either unaware of or might be unwilling to do (for example, spend months at a time away from their families). Most have worked their entire lives and put themselves through a mountain of education to get to where they are and for that, at least, I respect what they have achieved and understand why they are paid significantly more than me (obviously there will be some that have been given everything on a platter, but that’s another story).
I am also not a political apologist or advocate, I never involve myself in taking political sides as they’re all just as bad as each other. But I do feel that state and federal leaders, at this time, have had such tough jobs, so I do not envy them. When they are right, they’re wrong. And when they are wrong, they’re really fucking wrong.
All that aside, I think people in those lifesaving roles are the ones who should be put on the pedestal. They’re the ones that should be admired and paid handsomely, rather than being paid less than half of someone like Milford. When you consider that most people are happy to whinge about the cost of going to see their GP or getting surgery without stopping to consider what those people have had to do to become such a professional, there is a gross imbalance in what society thinks is a fair salary for sports people.
End rant - I will leave it at that.
