Back in my young and wild days, I can remember waking up on the
odd occasion with a sore head, with some regrets about the night
before. But such is life, we are responsible for our actions, we
live and learn.

It seems to me that in this case, there is no shortage of women
wanting to live it up with footballers and sometimes when they do,
they shake their heads the next morning as I did and have some
regrets.

Why is it that the call is for men to act responsibly and ethically,
but not women?

What a footballer does in his own time, is his business, not the
business of the club or community, as long as he is not acting
illegaly.

If a man is married, that is between him and his wife, nobody
else.

If males are expected to act ethically and responsibly, why not
females who are doing the encouraging?

Once again it seems, we have double standards here.

Some interesting quotes...

"In the statements that were made to police, it says she encouraged players to come forward and then she said: 'Someone come forward. Hurry, come forward and have sex with me'. At which one player said he would, and she said no, 'Anyone but you'. And then she pointed to me again, which I declined."

Matthew Johns

"A woman involved in degrading group sex can still be traumatised whether she consents or not."

"t is unfair to expect men to bear full responsibility for sexual mores as the boundaries of acceptable practice are blurred. Young women are told they can act and dress any way they please, and it is men, alone, with their supposedly filthy, uncontrollable sexual desires, who must restrain themselves."

Miranda Devine

"If there is a young woman in Australia who does not now know that having sex with one or two men at once is not risky sexual behaviour she perhaps needs to go back and look at a bit more television,"

Pru Goward

'Most of the time the girl goes back willingly and consents to everything, but sometimes regrets it when she wakes up in the morning and says, 'I didn't want that to happen,' and that's when the problems start.'

Anonymous High profile NRL Player

IF that is the case (the 'Most of the time' is a worry man!), and this behaviour is considered 'degrading to women', why is it up to the men to protect a woman from her own desires and fantasies and actions? With aclohol involved and inhibitions down, we still expect all men (Not just 30yo married ones which would be fair enough) to be the voice of reason, thinking of the future self esteem and future feelings of the woman from her own choices.

I'd say considering the paternal 'if this was your daughter' tone of a lot of the opinion, nobody thinks it even possible young 19yos are interested in group sex, and if they are it's up to men to discourage them.

I'm sure it's in bad taste to not instinctively see the woman as a 'daughter figure', but is this paternal/chivalrous instinct still expected in these days of equality? Isn't patronising to women? Doesn't it deny an adult women's sexual independence and sense of responsibility for her actions? Are we still non-beleiving of the concept of a sexually assertive female?

See the only non disputed facts from both sides are...

1. A 19yo girl invited 2 footballers to have sex with her
2. During the act, other men decided to watch and join in (NOT the guy who is being crucified at the moment)
3. The woman didn't express that she was unhappy with events.

That's it. The rest is in dispute, to be coloured in by peoples prejudices.

What would we assume if a 19yo male had encouraged himself back to the home of a couple of 40yo women on a hen's night, had sex, and 3 other women had decided to join in?

What would we assume if a 19yo bi-curious guy had walked into a gay sauna, had sex with 2 or three guys, and a couple of other guys had hovered around and gotten involved? Where would responsibility lie then? And what if he was gay and not just bi-curious? I'm sure that would change a lot of people's opinions too.

Antiseptic,

'While I'm sure that Clare's life has not been as she might have dreamt it as a child, I'm equally sure that one incident wasn't the cause if she was, at 19, putting herself into these sorts of situations'
Interesting. So only a screwed up girl would do this?
'crocodile tears'
A bit harsh IMO. You're a hard man.

one under god,
Doesn't matter how much they earn. It's the working class game, and I'm not saying the hero is working class, I'm saying those who idolise him are. And the ABC wouldn't do such a job on Rugby Union or private school boys.

Foxy,
'The League must take responsibility for the behaviour of
its players'
WRONG! That's a big part of the problem!

husselbec quoted Matthew Johns,who has been in the media CONSISTANTLY saying he dosnt recall

yet here is a quote...[of no legal weight[but clearly from legal council..[now prostituted upon the public]..to wit read the quote quoted from<<..the statements that were made to police,>>

READ IN the CONFIDENTIAL statements..DECLARED by the accused parties [made to police,..no doudt under lawyer advisement]

<<''..it says''..>>>..note the retarded use by a braindead moron[refering to STATEMENT'SSSS...then inadvertanbtly refering to the''it''..[letter summerising his statement..from the lawyer...lol

anyhow back to the lawyer produced statement..[not legal testimony..[nor PERSONAL recollection,...thus..made under lawyer advisement...lol
<<''she encouraged players to come forward and then she said:'Someone come forward.>>..note the repition of come..forward TWICE,

these dumb pigskin brawlers cant even quote a simplistic lawyers statent correctly as written..lol

but the pre written lawyer statement goes on..<<..''Hurry,..come forward and have sex with me'.>>>..three come forwards[..wasnt the rapist creep a half back/hooker?..[was he playing the ball or the forwards]

<<At which one player..>>one un_named coward..[LIKELY A FORWARD...LOL

<<said he would,>>..AND SO THE LAWYERS SAY SOME FORWARD SAID..<<and she said no,'Anyone but you'.>>..LOL NO FORWARDS MAY COME FORWARD..LOL

<<And then she pointed to me again>>>..INTERESTING HOW IN THE LAST SECONDS OF THE STATEMENTS..[THAT NO DOUDT WILL BE REPLAYED ENDLESSLY ON THE FOOTY SHOW,..THE RECOLLECTION OF OTHERS..BECOMES THE PERSONAL...ME..LOL,..<<which I declined.>>

THAT SHOULD READ WHICH I REPORTEDLY[was told i]..DECLINED...lol

aint them lawyers doing the great hard yards..bringing forward the deceptions of the facts..[no doudt the rapist is not commning forward to make further statements..[its just a shame he fluffed his lines[again]...lol

gabby reveals again he is not slow at comming forward,either..defending yet again the indefensable..with deceptions he seeks so bad to believe in,...way to go joe,you should be more wary[...too much brain damage in your chosen sport..[sport]..lol

footballers are inherantly brain dead..[if not pre their'career'then well and truelly after..when yelling it as a commentator [[or simplt a blogger]..in their next..[post footy..lol..]..incarnation

Dear Houellebecq,

You didn't give my entire quote - and this
gave the wrong impression.

What I said was:

The League must take responsibility
of its players AND setting standards of what
is acceptable behaviour AND putting REAL penalties
in place WOULD go a long way towards solving
the current problem. If players were banned,
sacked or had their salaries slashed - they
might think twice before giving in to temptation.

One under god,

I really wish you would post more clearly, that had the potential to be quite funny.

I think I agree with the jist of what you are saying. I said the quotes were 'interesting'. I don't necessarily agree with them. All I'm doing is challenging people to look at their prejudices. Like your prejudice that anyone who plays rugby league is unintelligent.

As I said in my first post,

'Use your prejudice to the full in deciphering the stories available to create that crystal clear picture in your mind of what you KNOW happened!'

Love quoting me. Also, it's fun playing devil's advocate. Fitting now that I'm OLO's very own devil incarnate.

Foxy,

There is a word limit you know. Cant fill up my posts with your words. Good that you posted them twice for those without a scroll bar though.

I think players should take responsibility for themselves, and they aren't currently as their lives are managed for them. They're treated like children. I'm not in favour of employers being the guardians of moral behaviour for the populace. There's laws and police and Foxy for that!

Anyway as Anonymous player said...

"It's fine for David Gallop to come out and say you can't have group sex but the last thing blokes will be thinking about on a Friday night at the club is David Gallop,"

"It's like saying you can't be homosexual, or you can't have such-and-such sexual preferences. How can he tell us what we can do in our private lives? What if there's more women than guys, is that wrong, too?"

"We already have so many rules: we can't drink on these days, we can't go to these places, now we can't have group sex. About the only thing we can do these days is go to club functions, and just hang around other players. That's just isolating us more from the rest of the world"

I think rather than creating more rules, give players more freedom and responsibility, and encourage wives and girlfriends to social outings.