SOME NRL clubs may include a clause forbidding drinking alcohol or smoking throughout the season in future player contracts, but leading players have ridiculed the idea as unfeasible and argued such a ban would impinge upon their rights.
Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald has spoken to NRL chief executive David Gallop about introducing a prohibition clause in standard player contracts, but yesterday Gallop said the idea would not be imposed code-wide.
Instead, he suggested some clubs might want to adopt the strict policy as part of their code of conduct - which is attached to player contracts.
"Denis Fitzgerald spoke to me last week before the meeting in Canberra with Prime Minister [Kevin] Rudd and suggested such an idea, but I wouldn't see this ban being imposed by the league," Gallop said.
"But it could be looked at on an individual club basis - they already have a separate code of conduct for player behaviour."
The NRL agreed to provide high-profile players for the government's public relations campaign against binge drinking when it joined Rudd's sports summit on the issue last week. Gallop had stressed to the Federal politicians that the NRL was conducting intensive educational programs about binge drinking.
Already this season Parramatta's Jarryd Hayne, Weller Hauraki and Junior Paulo were involved in the Kings Cross shooting after a night of heavy drinking. Days later, fellow Eel Tim Smith was spotted drinking at 4am and Newcastle's Terence Seu Seu was sacked after admitting to drink-driving.
Fitzgerald said players had to look after their health and it was only a matter of time before bans on drinking and smoking were included in player contracts. He advocated that the bans be introduced throughout the code, rather than at individual clubs.
He said Parramatta were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on sports science to get the best out of their players, only for some to go out drinking until the early hours.
"We are spending all this money and we don't want players voluntarily smoking - I don't see a problem introducing that - but from our point of view we don't see other elite athletes [such as swimmers and rowers] indulging in alcohol," Fitzgerald said. "Banning alcohol is just a further evolution of our game."
Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens, who banned alcohol from the dressing rooms when he first started coaching Penrith in 1984, said imposing a total in-season alcohol ban would be a knee-jerk reaction.
"Players in the game have to take control of their own actions, it is an issue of personal responsibility and self-discipline," Sheens said.
Newcastle Knights star Danny Buderus said most players didn't smoke but added, "You can't take away the right to have a drink". He said society was grappling with the issue of binge drinking and most players were very conscious of not drinking to excess during the season.
"Ninety-five per cent of players know they can't afford to have too many drinks, it is just a few isolated cases," Buderus said.
South Sydney captain Roy Asotasi said many players would object to an alcohol ban.
"I can see where they are going, because as professional athletes there are issues of image, but it would be definitely a concern for many players. After a few games I like to have a couple of drinks myself, and to ban drinking throughout the whole season would be a tough ask," he said.
"What would they do, have someone run around trying to catch out players drinking or smoking? How they police it would be a problem, too."
¡ Warriors captain Steve Price will spend up to two months on the sidelines after scans revealed that he had suffered a significant tear to his left hamstring.
