Does rugby league have a victim mentality?

The subject of this week’s blog is self-interest. In any form of organisation, sport or otherwise, there will always be self-interest. What is important is balancing that against the greater good. This tweet by rugby league historian, Tony Hannan certainly provoked a debate.

If you want to know why rugby league in this country has never been as strong as it ought to be, here you go. Everything is someone else's fault. Victim mentality https://t.co/l8VuFg5wmw

— Tony Hannan (@AJHannanEsq) March 1, 2020

The comments from Adam Pearson are staggering, or at least they should be. To hint that another professional club is cheating the salary cap, without a scrap of evidence in support of such an accusation, is unbecoming of the role of chairman at one of the sport’s premier clubs. In response, Catalans have shown an admirable amount of restriant.

A retort to Mr Pearson’s comments (and the games nay-sayers in general) is that we should get behind Super League and start being positive about it. We’ve got Gareth Widdop back, George Burgess, Manu Ma’u, James Maloney. Let’s promote that and let’s talk about it instead of the salary cap. We don’t break the salary cap in Super League anyway!

Those comments are not necessarily our views. They are in fact that paraphrased words of Adam Pearson, as told to the Yorkshire Post on 24 January 2020.

You couldn’t make it up, could you? Now, would it be cynical to suggest that Mr Pearson’s comments in the matchday programme were borne out of two poor results and convincing defeats to league rivals? I’m sure it couldn’t be!

You may have noted earlier that we said that Adam Pearson's comments should be staggering. The reason that we say that, is because we had some equally unbecoming comments from the chairman from the east side of Hull this week too.

In a social media question and answer session this week, Neil Hudgell said as follows:

NH - I don’t know about that, my focus is solely on looking after our own backyard. It does irritate me though all the hue and cry over Toronto & their travails. We have our own, but don’t seem to be cut the same slack. https://t.co/ySc7hNesl4

— Hull Kingston Rovers (@hullkrofficial) February 28, 2020

The 'hue and cry over Toronto and their trevails', it must be assumed, does not include that they do not receive central funding. Or that Toronto funded Hull KR's visit to Canada in 2018. Oh, and Mr Hudgell wasn't done there:

It seems to me that some would happily see an established club, with history and a decent fan base go to the dogs in favour of this weeks flavour of the month.

— Hull Kingston Rovers (@hullkrofficial) February 28, 2020

Tony Hannan suggested in his tweet that rugby league has a 'victim mentality'. Is it Toronto's fault that Hull KR sit next to bottom in the Super League this year? Or that they retained their top flight status in 2019 on points difference? Mr Hudgell's comments certainly add credence to the theory that the shortcomings of any given club seem to be attributed to an unrelated third party cause.

Let's dig a little deeper. When Hull KR were relegated via the Super 8 system in 2016, Neil Hudgell said as follows:



So no doubt Mr Hudgell would be delighted when the 'simple one up, one down' system was introduced?

Ah...perhaps not! Could it be that the perfect system, in Mr Hudgell's view, is the one that suits Hull KR at any given time? When Hull KR are not immediately in danger of finishing in last place, the Super 8 system is wrong, and bottom place should be relegated. When Hull KR are in danger of finishing in last place, then this system causes too much instability? The more you think about it, the more Tony Hannan's tweet starts to ring true. 

This blog is not meant to be an attack on the clubs of Hull. You could pick out many examples of other clubs with a 'victim mentality'. These just so happen to be the ones raised in the last seven days.

For example, you could look at Ian Watson's comments that his side were harshly treated by the match officials in their recent defeat to Huddersfield and that Kevin Brown "is not a...player who goes in head first". Judge for yourself!

Or you could raise an eyebrow that Richard Agar believed that James Child game decisions against Leeds in their 2019 victory against London (although there were in fact question marks over a forward pass in the build up to Leeds' winning try) because Agar criticised the same referee strongly in 2011.

Or you might question why St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus failed to air his view that "the perception of officiating impartiality was destroyed before kick off" in the 2019 Challenge Cup Final, until after St Helens lost that game.

The list will no doubt go on. When you start to look into Tony Hannan's view in more depth, the 'victim mentality' certainly does exist in rugby league and we should be better than that.

Whether it holds back the sport, we are not sure. Football, for one, has a far worse problem when it comes to the conduct of its players and staff, especially towards match officials. That does not seem to hold it back, although it is starting from a more advanced position.

In some ways, the effect on the sport is secondary. Rugby League is a sport built on respect, community pride and unity. Each comment borne out of self-interest weakens our core values and it is time that all of us remember that, next time we go to a match.

Addendum: Whilst it is easy to criticise, it is right to praise. Ian Watson's and Salford's statement in response to RFL imposed fine for critical comments of a match official was contrite and praiseworthy. It is easy to make a mistake, but harder to admit it. 

You can read the full statement here.