CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
After a week of allowing moronic public debate around what is and isn’t racist, The NRL Judiciary has last night finally handed down an appropriate punishment for Sydney Rooster’s prop Spencer Leniu.
After feeding the vultures in Australia’s media 7 days worth of sensationalist headlines that did nothing but stoke racist hot buttons within the Australian public, Leniu was eventually handed an eight-game suspension following his Contrary Conduct charge at the NRL Judiciary.
Leniu entered a plea of guilty last Thursday afternoon after being referred to the judiciary following a racist incident that occurred in the 69th minute of the Roosters’ Round 1 match against the Brisbane Broncos.
As a result, Leniu will be unavailable until Round 10.
NSW rugby league stalwart Phil Gould echoes the sentiments of many in the game with his criticism that NRL Judiciary could have handled the Spencer Leniu incident much earlier.
“The thing that I’m disappointed in is this has dragged on far too long,” he said.
“It allows too many other people to be commenting, eight days this has happened, commenting for a whole week and having it in the papers. And that frustrates everyone within the game because this is a really inclusive game, our players for years and years have been getting educated on the multicultural nature of our game, the different heritages we have”
Aside from the hurt caused to the community by alllowing some of the dumbest people in Australia to comment on the racist vitriol, the NRL’s delay in officially punishing Leniu means that entire round of football was able to take place before the 9 match ban was officially instated.
This means Leniu will be returning to the field for round 10 against the Warriors, rather than Round 9 against the extremely fired up and heavily Indigenous Broncos side at Suncorp Stadium.
“Spewing” said former Brisbane Bronco and Indigenous NRL great, Gorden Tallis.
“These fired up Murris would have chopped him in half”
Former Brisbane Bronco turned heavyweight boxer, Justin Hodges, also agrees it’s a shame that the NRL spent a week farting around and missed the opportunity to see Spencer Leniu repent for his sins in The Cauldron.
“Forget the actual suspension, the greatest punishment would be for his next match back to be in Brisbane”
“The NRL needs to act fast and hard to avoid these kinds of blunders. Now we have to wait until finals to watch this bloody spectacle”
“Hopefully the Cowboys and the Rabbitohs can give him a few licks before then”
