I hate the media!

[Kimlo]

Not sure why, but the forum is looking all f-ed up for me right now, hence the lack of proper quoting.

broncospwn wrote: "but to drag them, and their families through the mud again after 7 years, she already told the police 5 days after, but is brining it up after 7 years again that is the part that pisses me off, Johns would of had a very hard time with his wife 7 years ago, and now this agian, except this time his kids are old enough and will no doubt see this"

I've thought about the show a fair bit since my original post.

The fact that it was 7 years ago means nothing. If you murder someone 20 years ago, you can still be convicted today.
As many have already said, while what they did may not have been "illegal", it was morally wrong to let this happen to a 19 year old girl. A 19 year old girl surrounded in a room full of large, famous males is likely to be influenced by peer pressure.

It's probably taken her this long to dig up the courage to really speak about it. What we're seeing is a group of women standing up and finally saying "this is not right". It's taken far too many incidents to get to this stage, but we're here.

I feel really sorry for this girl. While watching the show, I think I was so disgusted by the Brisbane girl and her friends targeting footy players that it clouded my original judgement of the others to some extent.
This girl was 19. That's so young. I don't know many 19 year old girls, and that's because I think they're generally immature and not yet fully developed on a social or intellectual level.
I couldn't imagine "picking one up" without feeling as though I was taking advantage of her in some way. Matthew Johns was 30 at the time. That's disgusting.

Murder is another thing all together though, again if she was too scared to tell the truth at the time to the police, but now has the courage too, then by all means send them all to the courts and hopefully jail time.
Again, I can't agree more that it's morally wrong, pathetic and disgusting on all levels. I'm of the belief that sex before marriage is wrong, so to me group sex especially 20 guys on one female makes me want to vomit.
I hate Matthew Johns and already don't think much of him, this incident makes me think even less of them than what I did before.

I just feel sorry mainly for his wife and kids, his wife probably had a lot of very hard times about this, and to be reminded of it all again would be extremely hard for her, and more so the kids, when they go to school, they're going to cop it left right and centre.

Most of these footballers have beautiful wives/girlfriends yet still find the need to sleep with random's they don't know on a night out, it's a disgusting life they live and I wouldn't do the shit they do if I got paid.
The main thing that is annoying me though, is that this whole thing is being made out as a footballing thing, and that footballers are all bad people who have no respect for women, petro, hazem, hindmarsh, price, menzies, etc all are wonderful people and footballers with good morals.

The fact that players get caught out anything they do these days, and yet on average there's an incident every few weeks when there is 400 registered NRL players proves that it's a very small percentage of players that are dickheads, none the less though, it should be 0, especially when they are getting paid heaps and have a public profile, they should be a lot more careful with how they act, and in fact quit drinking and clubbing all together. I don't go clubbing, I don't drink, i'm not missing out on anything as far as i'm concerned, but when your on 6 figure contracts, giving up a few drinks shouldn't be hard, probably better for your fitness as a player anyway.

 

[schmix]

 

[OXY-351]

No charges laid = no care

 

[tryhard]

broncospwn you have no idea mate.
Do you possibly know what it would be like for this girl to talk at the time she went through this. Even 7 or 20yrs later it would be very hard for her. As you would have seen last night. The kid tried over the past years to take her life for goodness sake. She will never get over it. I even read some here saying she was probably drunk. FGS!!!! She was a kid very easily conned by a smooth talking guy and she fell for it. Maybe like "Hey when you finish work why not come up and watch TV for awhile cos I am bored". Talk about lines! Heard that one before? Yes it is common. Get it through your head that the girl is the victim here and I for one don't give a stuff if Johns or any of them lose their jobs or their marriage.
Johns was a married man with kids. Maybe some of the others were to. Why are people only condemning mainly the young guys here?
Players you have put up on your little pedestal of being players which such high morals?? Know that for a fact do you?

Gallop ad says "take the kids into league young. The younger the better" Well! Kids all have to be teenagers at some time no matter how much money or how much common sense is drummed into them. It is nature.

People here who also commented on good parenting. I would say most of these guys have had good parenting just as many of you have, yet run a muck at some time. It is life.

BTW channel 2 did a programme on this same thing plus drinking some time back and covered all codes. Also did a show on women who chase sports people.

 

[Kimlo]

Players you have put up on your little pedestal of being players which such high morals?? Know that for a fact do you?

A lot of people out there have made decisions or done things that they have regretted their whole lives and will never forget, but you make your own bed. Some people have done / do the exact same things all the time and some do it for a living, if they later regret it, it's their own fault. If anything they did was illegal, then by all means punish them to the full extent of the law, but If what happened wasn't illegal, then who are you to decide what is right and wrong? Some people find sex without marriage among the worst things a person can do, some find it completely normal, should they be punished because they did something which albeit the majority find wrong, is still a mater of opinion? Some girls lose their virginity before marriage and are scarred for life, and try to take their own life because they feel so degraded, but if it was consensual than should the guy involved be punished ? Both are in the wrong as far as I'm concerned, yet the media make out as though the girl is faultless and all the blame should be with the guys, it takes two to tango.
As for the players you're referring to, well some of them yes, I know for a fact. [icon_wink

 

[Major JW Hochstetter]

Apparently Nine/ACA just hung Johns out to dry.

Empty seat/last TV appearance on the Fatty Show on Thurs? Even his employer wants blood by the looks of it.

 

[TLCC]

broncospwn you have no idea! Not sure where you get your facts from, but just because someone isn't charged doesn't mean they are innocent. There might not be enough evidence or his word against hers, in this case, a whole team against hers, very hard to prove either way. Also just so you know, a certain player that you idolise is not as perfect as you believe!

 

[Nashy]

broncospwn you have no idea! Not sure where you get your facts from, but just because someone isn't charged doesn't mean they are innocent. There might not be enough evidence or his word against hers, in this case, a whole team against hers, very hard to prove either way. Also just so you know, a certain player that you idolise is not as perfect as you believe!

[icon_ee It's against his religion!

 

[Kimlo]

broncospwn you have no idea! Not sure where you get your facts from, but just because someone isn't charged doesn't mean they are innocent. There might not be enough evidence or his word against hers, in this case, a whole team against hers, very hard to prove either way. Also just so you know, a certain player that you idolise is not as perfect as you believe!

Yeah fair enough.

 

[Coxy]

Once again Chewbecca is relishing the ability to sink the boot into the game she supposedly is or was a fan of:

NRL boss David Gallop watched Monday night's Four Corners program with his teenage son.
He has privately admitted that it was the first time in his career as NRL chief executive that he squirmed and flinched as rugby league's shameful history of grubby sexual deeds was captured by one crying, distraught young woman whose life will never be the same.

The latest crisis enveloping rugby league is its biggest. It is much worse than Super League and anything else Gallop might like to list that has caused his hair to grey so prematurely over the seven years he has been at the helm. His sport, he will admit today, is deeply, deeply troubled and an embarrassment to those who are close to it.

The Four Corners story has done more than uncover two disgruntled women and their allegations of disgraceful behaviour by professional rugby league players. It may have finally caused the penny to drop to a rugby league media and fan base who for years have been happy to ignore, and even laugh at, the appalling antics of players.

Matthew Johns must now be sacked from his job as the host of the code's flagship program. Those who say this was seven years ago and should not be aired now need to have a look at the lifetime of damage Johns and his teammates have done to that young woman. More importantly, David Gallop and Nine boss David Gyngell must review the permanent harm Johns has done to the code.

I received dozens of emails from female league fans who cried throughout the New Zealand woman's interview on Monday night. They will never go to a league game again, let alone allow any of their sons to play the game.

Johns, Newcastle's Dane Tilse and the rest of them have done irreparable damage to rugby league. The cover-ups back then have led to more and more players believing that they, too, will escape punishment now. We saw the complacency on last Thursday night's Footy Show - a short apology to Johns' wife and family, nothing to the girl and a pat on the back from his co-host Paul Vautin, who drew what he thought was a line under it with a typically glib, "Let's get on with the show".

Roy Masters, the alleged doyen of league writers in this country, told Four Corners that rugby league players engaging in sex with one woman was like a form of bonding. Twenty years ago, Masters told me what he thought was a very funny story about four of his players having sex with one woman in the team's gym while he was the coach. The story turned the dubious quartet into legends in that club's unwritten history.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25 ... 46,00.html

Anyone else think she's bitter because no leaguies have every tried to bun her?

 

[OXY-351]

If Johns gets sacked over this, it will be the biggest joke. The police should now all the facts, and if they couldn't find enough evidence to charge anyone, I don't see why any of those onvolved should be facing further retribution 7 years down the track.

Why is is always assumed that the highest profile person involved is always in the wrong?

 

[Coxy]

Yeah, I don't disagree, especially since there's what, 10 other players (and managers) unnamed.

That said, there's absolutely no doubt the story has brought the game into disrepute, seriously damaging its already weak reputation, and so I can understand the NRL demanding action against Johns.

Unfair or not, their priority is protecting the game's interests, and this publicity is cancerous in the extreme.

 

[The Brizz]

I see both side's to sacking Johns now, because rightly or wrongly he brought the game into disrepute. It does seem all the blame is on him being the "star involved" and the incident was technically consensual whether she claims she didn't want it but said nothing is irrelevant. 7 Years is a long time and the players involved may not have done the same thing in the current media environment with so much scrutiny leveled on them. All I know is the game is getting slayed week after week by idiots and it doesn't help that journo's can dig up stories about former stars who host programs now about the code. A journalist (not the Wilson is much of one) will write what will get the biggest reaction and League, Sex and Alcohol are all hot buttons right now so these articles will keep coming and stories will be dug up until clubs and players realise they have to make changes on a scale beyond anything they have thought about so far ie.alcohol bans for the entire season.

 

[mrslong]

I'd like to see him sacked, because it sets a precedent that you're never gonna get away with bringing the game into disrepute. If he gets away with this what message does that send?

 

[lynx000]

My take on this is that if what the woman in the Tilse incident said is correct, not only should he have been sacked by his club (which by the way Newcastle did) and suspended for a period (which the NRL did) but he should have faced criminal charges for either assault or aggravated assault.

Re the NZ incident, this is where the line between legally correct and morally correct gets blurred. If it was consensual and she was not affected by alcohol to the extent that she could not give consent, then legally no offences have been committed. It comes down to your own view on the moralistic aspect. Personally, I think what they did was wrong (including her) but particularly the players given her age at the time.

As other people have said this is not only a rugby league problem but a societal problem. It does appear to be somewhat more prevalent in league, but I wonder if that is merely the result of the combination of several factors. Such as the drinking culture, the male ego (among fit, healthy young men) and the fact that the community does place these players on a pedestal that perhaps they should not be on.

It does seem to be the case that there are young women out there that are prepared to throw themselves as these players (for whatever reason). If I can cite two examples, one of my house mates at one stage was a young girl. My other house mate and I were sitting downstairs watching tv one night when she arrived home with a queensland player (the state of origin team were in camp in Brisbane). They disappeared upstairs to `watch the news on the tv in her bedroom). She was cold sober (she had driven them home from the City) and then after they had finished `watching the news' she had to drive him back to his hotel because he had to be back in by 11.00.

The other example involves a city with one team (not Brisbane) where the visiting teams used to regularly stay at one hotel. The security staff had a large collection of videos from the security cameras of events happening in and around the pool area after games involving local girls and members of the visiting teams. The visiting teams changed from week to week, month to month, but the girls were nearly always the same.

I worry about what messages this sends to players if these type of things are occurring, in light of the drinking culture and the male bonding culture. One part of the answer seems to me to be a very heavy education program for all young players with top ups for the older players emphasising their role, the behaviour expected of them, responsible consumption of alcohol and appropriate treatment of women. It will take time but eventually it will hopefully turn around.

 

[Major JW Hochstetter]

Another ironic piece from "Bourbon Beccy".

 

[Chumbason]

I don't like Mat Johns one bit, and when this all came about he should have been all over the media saying sorry, not to his family... he can do that at home, but to the girl in question.

BUT short of all that to me it's a huge media prize fight, they smell blood in the water, like with the broncos crap last year and now they are making it out as though she's a little princess and the big bad rapest rugby league players just jumped on her.

It sounds to me as though she knew what she was getting herself into and there's nothing to say that that isn't exactly what she was after, there are girls around that swing this way.

To come out after all this time and at a time when Johns is on top of the world and to only know his name, screams scam to me.

YES it's not good that this happened, nor is it good that either side allowed this to happen, but it happened and it still happens and be it wrong or right, the fact that so much time has gone by, the fact that she only names Johns and at this point in his career, AND that the cops have already looked into it... to some degree means it's a beat up to me.

Has anyone investigated her to the same extent that they are going into Johns? I doubt it, she could be short of cash and be looking for a pay out or just after the attention. She's happy to name Johns, how come we don't get to see her face and know her name? Oh that's right we have to protect the victim, but she did this willingly and further more what makes her or her freinds and family any more important than Johns or his freinds and family?

This whole thing stinks, and as I've said before I don't care for either of the johns boys and much less the media whore that is Mat Johns, but I think he's getting the rough end of the stick here.

 

[rissi_gurl]

I don't like Mat Johns one bit, and when this all came about he should have been all over the media saying sorry, not to his family... he can do that at home, but to the girl in question.

Thats what they said on ACA last night, he needs to man up an apologise to her... and I agree!