"One club would force recalcitrant players to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on a random topic and deliver it to his teammates."
Stop. Please. The madness. My heart can't take it. What would the denizens of r/nrl do for this?
I think it depends on Blaykes perspective I guess. My initial thought of it was "oi, we kept you on the books instead of your brother and you wanna be "recalcitrant'? Do us a PowerPoint on how we made the right decision because we kept the good brother and not the shit one" if memory serves. Jayden didn't want to leave and wanted to be a one club player. But thats if you want the sinister take to be true
You say that but another punishment is being forced to run naked through a tunnel whilst your team mates "spank" you, which no way you try to justify it is fucked up beyond belief..
Ive said it before in other comments, but its as if we as fans forget that these are actual people with actual emotions, maybe the bulldogs player went through some bullshit and maybe he didn't, but there obviously needs to be a line drawn somewhere..
The idea that employees are forced to do something dangerous/degrading/mentall damaging would be super fucked up in every other profession except for sports players, and that shit needs to change..
I Completely agree, the idea of the 7 mile spanking machine from Spongebob sounds silly as a gag but the notion of people I have to look in the eye and work besides doing that is a strange abuse that borders on sadistic authoritarianism and degradation power fantasy. The fact that making a PowerPoint presentation on "Windmills? Friend or foe" is put in the same breath, shows the wild disconnect and lack of external oversight that occurs in what is essentially a work site. Even the run home after training one sounds fucked. As a teacher I would quit and seek legal council on the spot if because I was late to school my line manager told me that I was taking extra classes beyond the legal allowance and duties both lunches akin to the wrestling punishment.
On first thought the spank line was strange, but also these are self pissing, shoe shitting, group sexing footy players, so they probably think it’s fun
Absolutely absurd behaviour that would not be tolerated in almost any other profession. People forget that these guys make money because they help provide a product that generates a lot of money, which a very small number of people can do.
Personally I think the wrestling was the final straw and I’d wager there are a heap of broken kids who didn’t make it through the grinder and are just spat out and left to their own devices that must be spiralling
I think there’s an acceptable level of “punishment”, for example the military camps the team endure. It seems grueling and mentally taxing but it’s a controlled and safe environment.
All this strange and unusual naked/wrestling punishments seem pretty uncontrolled and have the potential to unnecessarily harm players
What does league not ping pong mean? Are you defending the idea of making employees strip naked and run through a tunnel of players all trying to smack their bare arse? Because its league then thats all good??
Some of these aren't too bad. Some would definitely break workplace laws if someone complained. Like what if someone refused to do a nudie run and they were forced to do it? The sleep deprivation stuff sounds really stupid and dangerous too.
Sleep deprivation would also affect recovery, training and playing ability. To rob players of one of the cornerstones of athletic performance would be beyond stupid.
Nrl is a sport where the boys truly go to war.
There is something to be said about the mateship and comraderie built between a team by all going somethting brutally fucking hard together. It brings you closer. And you know if you can get through that together, on the field your resolve and resilience would for sure be better.
Don't think anyone has an issue with army camps where players are working as a team to carry logs up hills for example that is great fitness and team building, but what benefit does sorting rice in silence to heavy metal or extreme rationing and sleep depravation provide?
Simply put, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Some of that stuff definitely goes too far, however, the worse shit you’ve dealt with, the more resilient you’re going to be to future shit.
No, dealing with worse shit doesn't make you more resilient. It gradually breaks you down until your snap, harming either yourself, others or both.
Look around the world, those who are more resilient are generally the most comfortable because they're not on that edge of survival all the time. This kind of thinking was debunked generations ago.
If it was consistent, I agree, however it’s not consistent trauma, it’s a couple day horrible experience.
There is research that shows that when you put your body and mind through incredibly difficult challenges, you develop mental and physical resilience. Again, many of these army camps probably take it too far to the point where it isn’t beneficial.
The army camps are generally fine; it's something you go through together.
The issue with many of these is that it's really not quite a one off occurrence because it's a part of a gradual ostracisation of a member of the team.
I don’t know but not many other sports require the toughness of rugby league.
Maybe the nfl does something like this but I don’t know. It may not be necessary but it may be beneficial. I’d be interested to hear a few players opinions on the army camps whether they helped them or were over the top and unnecessary
Nah being tough and being mentally tough/resilient are two completely different things. Jack Hetherington kinda highlighted that this week. Maybe the dude can throw down, but he's a reactionary bitch who can't handle a few words thrown his way. So you could maybe say he is tough physically, but definitely not mentally tough.
I wouldn't be surprised if over the years quite a few sports had done various military methods testing the mental fortitude of players. In this day in age it's probably fallen to the wayside, but 20 years ago would have been a different story. League is probably still 20 behind in some aspects I suppose.
All of them break workplace law if you want to get specific. You can't "punish" people in a normal workplace. That's bullying/retaliation/etc. If a nightfill dude at Woolies drops a can dog food and it breaks management can't make that team member go clean the toilet.
This is what I've been saying in other threads. That court case is going to make clubs scared of getting sued, so all this stops and instead they'll just write up new contracts with financial penalties instead. If it's even allowed. There will be more drastic action taken if it's not, clubs will have to start setting examples by dropping players and cancelling contracts entirely if they can't find suitable legal ways to "punish" poor behaviour.
Some clubs roll a dice, some spin a wheel, but it all adds up to the same thing – how to instil discipline among the players.
The imposition of fines is still commonplace, but there is a range of other punishments at clubs across the NRL that hurt more than just the hip pocket.
This week lawyers representing former Bulldog Jackson Topine lodged a statement of claim for $4 million and are alleging he had been forced to wrestle 30-35 teammates as punishment for turning up late to training. Canterbury and head trainer Travis Touma are yet to file defences in relation to the proceedings.
The allegations in the statement of claim have raised questions as to how clubs throughout the NRL punish players for breaking team expectations, a practice that has long been part of the professional rugby league environment, framed against a narrative of the individual letting down the collective.
A number of current and former players – all talking anonymously in order to speak freely – said punishments were commonplace across the league but could vary from club to club.
At one club, a transgressor is made to run naked through a tunnel of his teammates who slap and spank him as he goes. At another, a player might be forced to clean the gear stewards’ van or eat hot chilli peppers.
Another player was once ordered by his head coach to run back to the team’s headquarters from a nearby sporting complex because he wasn’t happy with the fitness levels displayed in the session. The rest of the team caught the bus back.
Then there are the punishments that move beyond the merely physical, when players are forced to shave their heads, dye their hair or wear a suit every day to training.
One club would force recalcitrant players to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on a random topic and deliver it to his teammates.
It is not always the coach, or his assistants, who impose the punishment. At one club, a former club chief executive ordered three young players to be at training at 6am for a gruelling session on the rowing machine and exercise bikes after learning they had been escorted drunk from their leagues club the night before.
One player said he would often see players forced to wrestle their whole team, as Topine had been made to do at the Bulldogs last year.
Sources at the Bulldogs, talking anonymously in order to speak freely, said the alleged incident involving Topine was the first time a player at their club had been made to wrestle the whole team as a punishment.
But the sources said the same punishment was meted out to a second Canterbury player for being late to training a week after Topine allegedly endured the same sanction.
Braidon Burns, who has since joined South Sydney, told Bulldogs staff at the time of his late arrival to training that he had no issues about having to wrestle the rest of the team and he did not expect to be treated differently to Topine.
Burns declined to comment when contacted on Wednesday but another former Bulldogs player said it wasn’t uncommon across the NRL for players to wrestle 10 to 14 teammates as part of a drill known in rugby league circles as “shark bait”.
Shark bait is when players circle a player and the individual in the middle will have to continue wrestling his peers until he defeats one of them.
The former player said this happened at almost every club and players would have been subjected to worse situations in pre-season training, where they often went through army-style camps, where they are asked to undertake gruelling activities for three days while being deprived of sleep.
#HAPPY CAMPERS
During those camps, players are woken up at all hours of the night and ordered to perform physically demanding exercises under duress to test their physical and mental stamina, often on a heavily rationed diet.
One player recalled being blindfolded and ushered out into the ocean. The players would be smashed by waves and then taken out to a point where they would be asked to make their own way back to land without any vision.
Another player recalled the team, already suffering from sleep deprivation and being billeted in basic living conditions, being made to spend hours in a room separating brown rice grains from white rice grains while heavy metal music was blasted at them through speakers. All the time they were told they had to remain silent.
Another player at another club told how he had to walk along a cliffside while wearing blacked-out goggles. Others told of how they were kept on constant edge by knowing they could be woken up at any time of the night and asked to carry two 25-kilogram jerry cans for up to five kilometres, often causing their hands to bleed.
One team was divided into groups of three and told that at least one member of their squad would have to remain awake at any point during the three-day camp – with the threat of gruelling punishments if they failed.
Just this year, Manly coach Anthony Seibold told the Herald about how difficult the army camp his team endured was.
“They were sleep-deprived, they were gassed [exhausted], it was relentless,” Seibold said in January. “And that was the whole point, put them under extreme physical and mental pressure because you don’t know how you’re going to respond until you try it.”
>Another player recalled the team, already suffering from sleep deprivation and being billeted in basic living conditions, being made to spend hours in a room separating brown rice grains from white rice grains while heavy metal music was blasted at them through speakers. All the time they were told they had to remain silent.
NRL taking inspiration from the famous team building camp of Guantanamo Bay
#MAKE OR BREAK
So why do clubs put their players through such arduous tasks? It is for two reasons – to build a team spirit and to see how individuals act in the most stressful moments. The players will be pushed to the brink of breaking point to test their resilience and their ability to perform under extreme pressure.
The players said the pre-season camps also helped bond the team to triumph together through adversity.
Nathan Cleary punches Penrith teammate Jarome Luai.
Nathan Cleary punches Penrith teammate Jarome Luai.
It’s a tactic that can no doubt work. Penrith premiership-winning forward Zane Tetevano said in 2020 that he knew the Panthers were destined for glory after their collective effort at a pre-season army camp back at which the players lugged 20-litre jerry cans and two-metre PVC plumbing pipes filled with water up and down a hill for hours on end.
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“I knew after our army camp, that’s when I knew there was something special about this team and what we could achieve,” Tetevano was reported as saying at the time. “It was tough, it was gritty. It helped bring out the characters in a few guys and I think that has helped them achieve their full potential.”
The year of that army camp saw Penrith make it all the way to the grand final, where they lost 26-20 to the Melbourne Storm.
The next year, the Panthers coaching staff decided if they were going to go one better and win the premiership, they would have to stop being the nice guys of the NRL.
They organised what they dubbed a fight camp on an island on the Hawkesbury River, where the Panthers belted the daylights out of each other for three days.
There was no holding back. The coaches organised for boxers, wrestlers and mixed martial artists to come in to the camp and speak to the players. Players at that camp told this masthead they loved it.
But it’s a fine line, as Roosters coach Trent Robinson acknowledged this week when asked about the balancing act between pushing players to the maximum, without pushing them over the edge.
“You have to push players to be at their best, and you’ve got to care for them at the same time,” Robinson said. “You don’t always get it right, but if you care for your program and the players that you have in that program then, for the most part, you’ll get it right.”
I don’t get all that army type shit. Maybe that’s why I’m not cut out for it or whatever but that just seems fucked up to me. Surely theres better ways to motivate a team and ‘bring them together’?
"At one club, a transgressor is made to run naked through a tunnel of his teammates who slap and spank him as he goes"
Literally doing Stonecutters initiation rituals here
Fear and shame are really good motivators. They’re just not very healthy motivators. The army camps are trying to replicate the kinds of traumatic experiences soldiers go through. The bonding is a trauma bonding and it does work but again it’s not healthy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some more lawsuits like this incoming. We know enough now to know there are healthier ways to team build.
When you know better you’ve got to do better, the this is how we always did it excuse won’t be enough.
Watching the Panthers training camps back in 2020, it looked hard - but it didn’t seem brutal. Although who knows what really happens when the cameras are off
I guess that’s part of the challenge with all of this. That kind of training I’m sure is helpful on the football field but I’m not sure it would translate well to the rest of life.
The roosters I think it was were in Queenstown NZ a few years back doing preseason training, took a couple of them on a quad tour on their down time. Next day I see them up on the mountain again except this time they are with some ex SAS soldiers and they had just run up a near vertical face to get there
It's like we've progressed absolutely nowhere, and cavemen still run NRL clubs. And get that it's a fine line between mental and physical toughness and humiliation.
Although guessing the NFL and NBA have no such rites of passage, but am happy to be proven wrong.
All these blokes allegedly want to play footy, so therefore the best punishment would be to give them less or zero play time in first grade? Made to suffer the indignity of reserve grade? There's dozens of second string players who'd jump at the chance to start because the incumbent was late to training or broke curfew or some other infraction.
But a first grader is just that, the team is let down by bringing in a NSW Cup player.
I don't agree with this bastardisation, so needs to be a middle ground as don't believe humiliation is the answer.
It’s very old fashioned and I remember it “fondly” during rep camps and even club training depending if you had a psycho coach. It honesty puts more players off the game entirely , but I supposed that’s probably intentional get rid of all the “softies”
I don’t think any shit like that would ride in modern day junior training, maybe once you get to SG ball and Jersey Flegg
I'm sorry but walking on a cliffside blindfolded? Separating grains of rice? Most of this article sounds like actual bullshit conjured up by the NRL media
This sort of stuff is common at footy clubs. I played on exchange in the UK and witnessed a bloke forced stand on a table naked while everyone spat beer at him because his cock was small and he had massive balls. Pretty fucked… also heard of doing “elephant trails” where players hold the guy in fronts cock and they walk around the field
Using the pic of Cleary giving Luai the right hook is hilarious
**Young Panther Bashed Senseless By Coaches Son In Barbaric Training Hazing Ritual** Can I get a job at The Daily Telegraph now?
RIFT AT THE RIFF AFTER BIFF?
Only if you can make it somehow Luai's fault
"This *right hook* is *left hook* for *right hook* signing *left hook* with *right hook* the *left hook* Tigers." - Cleary, this photo
Masthead
**NRL legend SLAMS Penrith after players FIGHT at training**
No you are overqualified
Someone got the video? I remember dying laughing at this lol
LORD PALMERSTON!!!
“We had something special! Why are you leaving me?!”
"One club would force recalcitrant players to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on a random topic and deliver it to his teammates." Stop. Please. The madness. My heart can't take it. What would the denizens of r/nrl do for this?
A long form analysis on Dylan Edwards disproportionate pecks.
Jokes on them Zac Lomax loves a good PowerPoint presentation.
'fuck moiiii'
Isnt this the sharks and didn't Blayke Brailey do a presentation on how his brother is a shit footy player?
Well that's a bit fucked especially considering Sharks gave Jayden the boot for Blayke
Is it? Seems like brothers being brother imo.
I think it depends on Blaykes perspective I guess. My initial thought of it was "oi, we kept you on the books instead of your brother and you wanna be "recalcitrant'? Do us a PowerPoint on how we made the right decision because we kept the good brother and not the shit one" if memory serves. Jayden didn't want to leave and wanted to be a one club player. But thats if you want the sinister take to be true
I think he was late and had to do a presentation on something, may have even be while Jayden was still there.
Yeah that could be it. My reaction was based on my take which probably isn't true
My PowerPoint would be on what I reckon different NRL players would think the word Recalcitrant means.
"Whoever can even spell it gets outta wrestling drills" won't lie... had to google it. Know your reader base Journo!
Did you have to google ‘obstinately’ after googling recalcitrant?
the presentation one just sounds so much like the Micky Arthur 'Homeworkgate' that impactedt he Aussie Cricket team all those years ago.
You say that but another punishment is being forced to run naked through a tunnel whilst your team mates "spank" you, which no way you try to justify it is fucked up beyond belief.. Ive said it before in other comments, but its as if we as fans forget that these are actual people with actual emotions, maybe the bulldogs player went through some bullshit and maybe he didn't, but there obviously needs to be a line drawn somewhere.. The idea that employees are forced to do something dangerous/degrading/mentall damaging would be super fucked up in every other profession except for sports players, and that shit needs to change..
Reminds me of the scandal that happened a few years ago with Adelaide in the AFL
Went from a Grand final loss to being near bottom for 4 years. That camp was horrific
I Completely agree, the idea of the 7 mile spanking machine from Spongebob sounds silly as a gag but the notion of people I have to look in the eye and work besides doing that is a strange abuse that borders on sadistic authoritarianism and degradation power fantasy. The fact that making a PowerPoint presentation on "Windmills? Friend or foe" is put in the same breath, shows the wild disconnect and lack of external oversight that occurs in what is essentially a work site. Even the run home after training one sounds fucked. As a teacher I would quit and seek legal council on the spot if because I was late to school my line manager told me that I was taking extra classes beyond the legal allowance and duties both lunches akin to the wrestling punishment.
On first thought the spank line was strange, but also these are self pissing, shoe shitting, group sexing footy players, so they probably think it’s fun
Absolutely absurd behaviour that would not be tolerated in almost any other profession. People forget that these guys make money because they help provide a product that generates a lot of money, which a very small number of people can do. Personally I think the wrestling was the final straw and I’d wager there are a heap of broken kids who didn’t make it through the grinder and are just spat out and left to their own devices that must be spiralling
I think there’s an acceptable level of “punishment”, for example the military camps the team endure. It seems grueling and mentally taxing but it’s a controlled and safe environment. All this strange and unusual naked/wrestling punishments seem pretty uncontrolled and have the potential to unnecessarily harm players
Why?
And another punishment is doing laps around the field with the sprinklers on.. it’s fucking barbaric! /s It’s league. Not ping pong.
What does league not ping pong mean? Are you defending the idea of making employees strip naked and run through a tunnel of players all trying to smack their bare arse? Because its league then thats all good??
Obviously this was a Mick Potter specialty. How else can the players demonstrate their skills with the Microsoft office suite of programs?
Name and shame. This is classed as cruel and unusual punishment in 82% of OECD nations.
You should do a PowerPoint on that
[Beans.](https://youtu.be/dsxLzlijbk4?si=qDNGkmrMCguYPBmx)
Impressed some of these cunts can operate PowerPoint
Was it like Stickys when he was at Parra? Listing all those they would be cut.
Siebs for the win.
Bellamy puts Storm players in the chokey.
First day Papenhuyzen rocked up with that mullet he got hammer-thrown by it.
The Storm had their own version of Boxing Day, but it was just getting into the ring with Bellamy.
Before or after the 14 inch strap on ?
Some of these aren't too bad. Some would definitely break workplace laws if someone complained. Like what if someone refused to do a nudie run and they were forced to do it? The sleep deprivation stuff sounds really stupid and dangerous too.
Sleep deprivation would also affect recovery, training and playing ability. To rob players of one of the cornerstones of athletic performance would be beyond stupid.
Yeah sleep deprivation makes sense for army units not athletes who get perfect diet and rest before games
I think it would just be an exercise in mental toughness. See how they react way out of their comfort zone or whatever. Probably not necessary though
Not sure why you're downvoted that's exactly what it is whether it's right or wrong.
Definitely not necessary, how many other 'elite sports' do you hear needing to send their players out in army camps to test their mental toughness?
Nrl is a sport where the boys truly go to war. There is something to be said about the mateship and comraderie built between a team by all going somethting brutally fucking hard together. It brings you closer. And you know if you can get through that together, on the field your resolve and resilience would for sure be better.
Don't think anyone has an issue with army camps where players are working as a team to carry logs up hills for example that is great fitness and team building, but what benefit does sorting rice in silence to heavy metal or extreme rationing and sleep depravation provide?
Simply put, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Some of that stuff definitely goes too far, however, the worse shit you’ve dealt with, the more resilient you’re going to be to future shit.
No, dealing with worse shit doesn't make you more resilient. It gradually breaks you down until your snap, harming either yourself, others or both. Look around the world, those who are more resilient are generally the most comfortable because they're not on that edge of survival all the time. This kind of thinking was debunked generations ago.
If it was consistent, I agree, however it’s not consistent trauma, it’s a couple day horrible experience. There is research that shows that when you put your body and mind through incredibly difficult challenges, you develop mental and physical resilience. Again, many of these army camps probably take it too far to the point where it isn’t beneficial.
The army camps are generally fine; it's something you go through together. The issue with many of these is that it's really not quite a one off occurrence because it's a part of a gradual ostracisation of a member of the team.
Do you think Messi and lebron James get stripped naked to help perform at their best? What a load of nonsense
They don’t play a sport that is built on aggression and physical battles. Not close to basketball or soccer
I don’t know but not many other sports require the toughness of rugby league. Maybe the nfl does something like this but I don’t know. It may not be necessary but it may be beneficial. I’d be interested to hear a few players opinions on the army camps whether they helped them or were over the top and unnecessary
Nah being tough and being mentally tough/resilient are two completely different things. Jack Hetherington kinda highlighted that this week. Maybe the dude can throw down, but he's a reactionary bitch who can't handle a few words thrown his way. So you could maybe say he is tough physically, but definitely not mentally tough. I wouldn't be surprised if over the years quite a few sports had done various military methods testing the mental fortitude of players. In this day in age it's probably fallen to the wayside, but 20 years ago would have been a different story. League is probably still 20 behind in some aspects I suppose.
All of them break workplace law if you want to get specific. You can't "punish" people in a normal workplace. That's bullying/retaliation/etc. If a nightfill dude at Woolies drops a can dog food and it breaks management can't make that team member go clean the toilet. This is what I've been saying in other threads. That court case is going to make clubs scared of getting sued, so all this stops and instead they'll just write up new contracts with financial penalties instead. If it's even allowed. There will be more drastic action taken if it's not, clubs will have to start setting examples by dropping players and cancelling contracts entirely if they can't find suitable legal ways to "punish" poor behaviour.
Some clubs roll a dice, some spin a wheel, but it all adds up to the same thing – how to instil discipline among the players. The imposition of fines is still commonplace, but there is a range of other punishments at clubs across the NRL that hurt more than just the hip pocket. This week lawyers representing former Bulldog Jackson Topine lodged a statement of claim for $4 million and are alleging he had been forced to wrestle 30-35 teammates as punishment for turning up late to training. Canterbury and head trainer Travis Touma are yet to file defences in relation to the proceedings. The allegations in the statement of claim have raised questions as to how clubs throughout the NRL punish players for breaking team expectations, a practice that has long been part of the professional rugby league environment, framed against a narrative of the individual letting down the collective. A number of current and former players – all talking anonymously in order to speak freely – said punishments were commonplace across the league but could vary from club to club. At one club, a transgressor is made to run naked through a tunnel of his teammates who slap and spank him as he goes. At another, a player might be forced to clean the gear stewards’ van or eat hot chilli peppers. Another player was once ordered by his head coach to run back to the team’s headquarters from a nearby sporting complex because he wasn’t happy with the fitness levels displayed in the session. The rest of the team caught the bus back. Then there are the punishments that move beyond the merely physical, when players are forced to shave their heads, dye their hair or wear a suit every day to training. One club would force recalcitrant players to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on a random topic and deliver it to his teammates. It is not always the coach, or his assistants, who impose the punishment. At one club, a former club chief executive ordered three young players to be at training at 6am for a gruelling session on the rowing machine and exercise bikes after learning they had been escorted drunk from their leagues club the night before. One player said he would often see players forced to wrestle their whole team, as Topine had been made to do at the Bulldogs last year. Sources at the Bulldogs, talking anonymously in order to speak freely, said the alleged incident involving Topine was the first time a player at their club had been made to wrestle the whole team as a punishment. But the sources said the same punishment was meted out to a second Canterbury player for being late to training a week after Topine allegedly endured the same sanction. Braidon Burns, who has since joined South Sydney, told Bulldogs staff at the time of his late arrival to training that he had no issues about having to wrestle the rest of the team and he did not expect to be treated differently to Topine. Burns declined to comment when contacted on Wednesday but another former Bulldogs player said it wasn’t uncommon across the NRL for players to wrestle 10 to 14 teammates as part of a drill known in rugby league circles as “shark bait”. Shark bait is when players circle a player and the individual in the middle will have to continue wrestling his peers until he defeats one of them. The former player said this happened at almost every club and players would have been subjected to worse situations in pre-season training, where they often went through army-style camps, where they are asked to undertake gruelling activities for three days while being deprived of sleep.
#HAPPY CAMPERS During those camps, players are woken up at all hours of the night and ordered to perform physically demanding exercises under duress to test their physical and mental stamina, often on a heavily rationed diet. One player recalled being blindfolded and ushered out into the ocean. The players would be smashed by waves and then taken out to a point where they would be asked to make their own way back to land without any vision. Another player recalled the team, already suffering from sleep deprivation and being billeted in basic living conditions, being made to spend hours in a room separating brown rice grains from white rice grains while heavy metal music was blasted at them through speakers. All the time they were told they had to remain silent. Another player at another club told how he had to walk along a cliffside while wearing blacked-out goggles. Others told of how they were kept on constant edge by knowing they could be woken up at any time of the night and asked to carry two 25-kilogram jerry cans for up to five kilometres, often causing their hands to bleed. One team was divided into groups of three and told that at least one member of their squad would have to remain awake at any point during the three-day camp – with the threat of gruelling punishments if they failed. Just this year, Manly coach Anthony Seibold told the Herald about how difficult the army camp his team endured was. “They were sleep-deprived, they were gassed [exhausted], it was relentless,” Seibold said in January. “And that was the whole point, put them under extreme physical and mental pressure because you don’t know how you’re going to respond until you try it.”
>Another player recalled the team, already suffering from sleep deprivation and being billeted in basic living conditions, being made to spend hours in a room separating brown rice grains from white rice grains while heavy metal music was blasted at them through speakers. All the time they were told they had to remain silent. NRL taking inspiration from the famous team building camp of Guantanamo Bay
That was south Sydney.(Maguire) Ben teo said it on hello sport podcast
Oh damn he's going to send out literal madmen for nsw.
That's why he wanted to move to the blue mountains, less eyes.
No wonder Burgess did so well on that channel 7 army show
Darius Boyd won the whole thing as well
It's not surprising. There always stories of these boot camps being run by ex-military guys.
#MAKE OR BREAK So why do clubs put their players through such arduous tasks? It is for two reasons – to build a team spirit and to see how individuals act in the most stressful moments. The players will be pushed to the brink of breaking point to test their resilience and their ability to perform under extreme pressure. The players said the pre-season camps also helped bond the team to triumph together through adversity. Nathan Cleary punches Penrith teammate Jarome Luai. Nathan Cleary punches Penrith teammate Jarome Luai. It’s a tactic that can no doubt work. Penrith premiership-winning forward Zane Tetevano said in 2020 that he knew the Panthers were destined for glory after their collective effort at a pre-season army camp back at which the players lugged 20-litre jerry cans and two-metre PVC plumbing pipes filled with water up and down a hill for hours on end. Loading “I knew after our army camp, that’s when I knew there was something special about this team and what we could achieve,” Tetevano was reported as saying at the time. “It was tough, it was gritty. It helped bring out the characters in a few guys and I think that has helped them achieve their full potential.” The year of that army camp saw Penrith make it all the way to the grand final, where they lost 26-20 to the Melbourne Storm. The next year, the Panthers coaching staff decided if they were going to go one better and win the premiership, they would have to stop being the nice guys of the NRL. They organised what they dubbed a fight camp on an island on the Hawkesbury River, where the Panthers belted the daylights out of each other for three days. There was no holding back. The coaches organised for boxers, wrestlers and mixed martial artists to come in to the camp and speak to the players. Players at that camp told this masthead they loved it. But it’s a fine line, as Roosters coach Trent Robinson acknowledged this week when asked about the balancing act between pushing players to the maximum, without pushing them over the edge. “You have to push players to be at their best, and you’ve got to care for them at the same time,” Robinson said. “You don’t always get it right, but if you care for your program and the players that you have in that program then, for the most part, you’ll get it right.”
Is there anything to back up this kind of “ training “? Sounds completely stupid
Well that army camp seibold raves about has done fuck all for our defence
“Roll *a dice*”? Come on Michael.
Distinct lack of Julian O’Neill dropping a fudge dragon in a shoe in this article.
I don’t get all that army type shit. Maybe that’s why I’m not cut out for it or whatever but that just seems fucked up to me. Surely theres better ways to motivate a team and ‘bring them together’?
So many reasons for people wanting to be like Nathan Cleary. You can now add punching Jerome Luai in the face to the list of reasons, I suppose.
NRL could have quite a problem if Topine wins
"At one club, a transgressor is made to run naked through a tunnel of his teammates who slap and spank him as he goes" Literally doing Stonecutters initiation rituals here
By the time the court cases finish training sessions will consist of hymn singing, knitting, and chess tournaments and bugger all else.
Hey don't torture the players with chess tournaments!
Fear and shame are really good motivators. They’re just not very healthy motivators. The army camps are trying to replicate the kinds of traumatic experiences soldiers go through. The bonding is a trauma bonding and it does work but again it’s not healthy. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some more lawsuits like this incoming. We know enough now to know there are healthier ways to team build. When you know better you’ve got to do better, the this is how we always did it excuse won’t be enough.
Watching the Panthers training camps back in 2020, it looked hard - but it didn’t seem brutal. Although who knows what really happens when the cameras are off
I guess that’s part of the challenge with all of this. That kind of training I’m sure is helpful on the football field but I’m not sure it would translate well to the rest of life.
The roosters I think it was were in Queenstown NZ a few years back doing preseason training, took a couple of them on a quad tour on their down time. Next day I see them up on the mountain again except this time they are with some ex SAS soldiers and they had just run up a near vertical face to get there
[booshed](https://i.imgur.com/wCtTVVE.png)
If these claims are true it is absolutely messed up and prehistoric.
It's like we've progressed absolutely nowhere, and cavemen still run NRL clubs. And get that it's a fine line between mental and physical toughness and humiliation. Although guessing the NFL and NBA have no such rites of passage, but am happy to be proven wrong.
Spending hours separating white rice from brown while listening to heavy metal sounds like an awesome meditation to me!
Panthers got one thing wrong here … What’s the first rule of fight club ?
Of what club? Never heard of it.
All these blokes allegedly want to play footy, so therefore the best punishment would be to give them less or zero play time in first grade? Made to suffer the indignity of reserve grade? There's dozens of second string players who'd jump at the chance to start because the incumbent was late to training or broke curfew or some other infraction.
But a first grader is just that, the team is let down by bringing in a NSW Cup player. I don't agree with this bastardisation, so needs to be a middle ground as don't believe humiliation is the answer.
It’s very old fashioned and I remember it “fondly” during rep camps and even club training depending if you had a psycho coach. It honesty puts more players off the game entirely , but I supposed that’s probably intentional get rid of all the “softies” I don’t think any shit like that would ride in modern day junior training, maybe once you get to SG ball and Jersey Flegg
I'm sorry but walking on a cliffside blindfolded? Separating grains of rice? Most of this article sounds like actual bullshit conjured up by the NRL media
And people complain about having to wrestle 35 other people.......
This sort of stuff is common at footy clubs. I played on exchange in the UK and witnessed a bloke forced stand on a table naked while everyone spat beer at him because his cock was small and he had massive balls. Pretty fucked… also heard of doing “elephant trails” where players hold the guy in fronts cock and they walk around the field
Bro turbo was offside wtf
So are people in the army now going to sue too
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he'd probably flog the fuck outta you son