The blame game

At the conclusion of a long drinking session in early February, Matt Henjak, so badly king-hit a seated and defenceless teammate that he broke his jaw. Now, you and I might think that a fair punishment for that act - when judged against the background of his extremely troubled track record - would be to simply tear up his contract. You and I would say, wouldn't we, that the problem here, Matt, is that what you did was in character, not out of character, and the only way forward for us as a sporting institution, and you as a man, is for us to part company. Matt, you have no one to blame but yourself and for you it is game over.

All fair? Henjak's manager, Greg Keenan, didn't think so. Tell the folks where you think the blame lies, Greg, and don't hold back.

"The Western Force," he said, "are in a unique position where every player they contract comes from other states. That means that social supports a player would usually have in his home town aren't available, and as a result the responsibility to provide those supports rests with the Force."

See? Perfect, isn't it? It was the Western Force management wot dunnit, yer honour! It was they who got Henjak to Perth, away from his family, and therefore they who had to ensure that he didn't go around breaking other people's jaws!

Meanwhile, Henjak's uncle, the former league player and 2009 Brisbane Broncos coach Ivan Henjak, thought the responsibility lay with older players who established the heavy-drinking and high-jinks culture that his innocent nephew fell into. Enough already.

Although I know I risk being whipped with a wet lettuce by Mat Rogers for being an old fogey who just doesn't understand the mores of modern rugby, I still can't help but feel that the primary responsibility for the whole disaster lies with Henjak himself. And that it is precisely the kind of justifications offered by Keenan and Uncle Ivan that lie at the base of so many football atrocities.


2008: A BAD YEAR FOR …

Melbourne Storm. Won everything in sight bar the game that truly counted.

Geelong. Ditto.

Barry Hall. His reputation plummeted as quickly as Brent Staker did after Hall's punch. But what a punch!

Andrew Symonds. Had a decent year with the bat and ball, and a very ordinary year with everything else, including getting his teammates well offside.

Alan Lewis. Few thought they'd bought a ticket to the Alan Lewis Show when they went to November's Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong, but that's what they saw. The Irish ref took over.

Matthew Hayden. "Matt the Bat" faded before our eyes.

Greg Bird/Todd Carney. The NRL bad boys just couldn't keep out of trouble.

Craig Bellamy. The best rugby league coach around couldn't get the Storm or NSW home.

Nick D'Arcy. No sooner had he been selected for Australia's Olympic team than he attacked former Olympic swimmer Simon Cowley and everything went to hell - starting with Cowley's face.



WHAT THEY SAID - RUGBY SPECIAL
George Gregan's former Brumbies understudy, Patrick Phibbs, on life after George: "At training or in a game, if you mucked up a bit or did something bad, you got evil eyes from George. A few players are pleased they are not getting eyes anymore. It is a lot more relaxed, in a way, because we can try our own things now, whereas previously it was set in cement."

David Campese responds to George Gregan's assertions that he never would have made it in the professional era: "George is trying to sell a book, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. For example, my opinion is that Gregan will go down as being remembered for making one tackle and then living off it for the next 15 years."

Italy's rugby coach, Nick Mallett, after doing some research on Craig Gower: "I had a look through Wikipedia, and he's obviously had a very chequered past. He seemed to have been in a lot of trouble in rugby league, and his disciplinary record didn't look good at all. That didn't inspire much confidence."

Craig Gower in response: "[The Wikipedia entry] might not make for good reading, but that's all behind me. I'm dead keen to play Test rugby, and I am looking forward to letting Nick know just that."

Matt Henjak on having his rugby contract torn up: "Someone said to me the other day it's probably a bit like being a plumber, you spend four years doing your apprenticeship, then work for a couple more years to get better at it. Then, all of a sudden, someone tells you that you can't work as a plumber in Australia any more and you'll have to head overseas to find work." Matt, if an Australian plumber hit a seated workmate so badly that he broke his jaw, finding future employment would likely be the least of his problems. Think police, courts and the real possibility of receiving a zebra suntan.

Stirling Mortlock's pre-game response to Greg Martin's question as to what the Wallabies' approach to playing the French would be: "It'll be cohesion and combinations … and to play what's in front of us, or beside us, or what's behind us." Strange days, indeed.

Chris Latham explains his early motivation to take up serious rugby, which led to a 78-Test career: "I honestly went to play with Randwick [as a teenager] to get out of a country town to meet people to get out on the piss with and have a good time."

Springboks coach Peter De Villiers opens up: "Structure in rugby came from Australia, which doesn't have a lot of rugby talent … the more talent you have, the less structure there should be. We have a massive amount of talent in South Africa and I want to give them the freedom to express themselves. I want my players to be the best they can be on and off the field."

De Villiers again: "I was appointed to make rugby decisions. I promised to be honest and focus on rugby. We never said it was going to be a perfect world. If you look at the Bible, Joseph started out in the pit and ended up in the palace. There was a moerse lot of kak [excrement] in between."

French winger Alexis Palisson was asked if he had ever heard of - excuse, for once, the third person - Peter FitzSimons, who in the mid-'80s played at his Brive club. Palisson replied: "Pffft. I wasn't even born." Sigh.


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