{"id":374729,"date":"2024-03-10T23:18:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T00:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=374729"},"modified":"2024-03-11T01:03:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T01:03:35","slug":"gal-ridiculous-nrl-act-hung-mam-leniu-out-to-dry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=374729","title":{"rendered":"Gal: 'Ridiculous' NRL act hung Mam, Leniu out to dry"},"content":{"rendered":"

NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in tonight at 10pm (AEDT) following a bumper round one!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I honestly can't believe it's been eight days since Spencer Leniu's racist sledge<\/a> and the NRL<\/a> still hasn't put it to bed.<\/p>\n

The governing body needed to schedule the judiciary hearing last week<\/a>, before the rest of round one got underway on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

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It's absolutely ridiculous that the NRL has let the issue fester for more than a week.<\/p>\n

Now we have the rugby league rumour mill discussing what Broncos players may have been saying to Leniu during the same game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeffThis could have been nipped in the bud \ufefffive days ago.<\/p>\n

I feel sorry for Ezra Mam, who was on the receiving end of Leniu's "monkey" sledge.<\/p>\n

The young guy was devastated after the game and then had journalists asking him about it at the airport when the players flew home to Brisbane.<\/p>\n

I have no doubt the whole saga is weighing heavily on Mam, his family and his friends.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I feel for Leniu, too, who I think did the right thing last week by putting his hand up and apologising.<\/p>\n

He even offered to meet Mam and Mam's family face to face.\ufeff That offer was turned down, which of course Mam has every right to do, too.<\/p>\n

I have done nothing but rap the NRL for the Las Vegas experiment, which I think was fantastic and a credit to the game, but they've dropped the ball on this one.<\/p>\n

It's an ugly issue and to let it drag on for eight days is not good for the game, or for any of the individuals involved – especially Mam.<\/p>\n

Rather than the front and back page headlines being about Vegas and about the start of the season, the headlines have been dominated by one ugly incident.\ufeff<\/p>\n

T\ufeffhere's no doubt Leniu is going to cop a lengthy suspension at the judiciary on Monday night, but I doubt it's going to be anywhere near as long as some people think.<\/p>\n

\"Thurston<\/p>\n

There have been calls for him to miss more than half the NRL season.<\/p>\n

Half the season these days is 12 games on the sideline.<\/p>\n

Twelve games? I think some people need to think about this logically.<\/p>\n

There has actually been a precedent set not too long ago in relation to a player using a derogatory slur against an opponent.<\/p>\n

In 2022 Marcelo Montoya was rubbed out for four games for a homophobic remark towards Kyle Feldt.<\/p>\n

I know Leniu's comment is racial rather than homophobic, but I still think the NRL has set that precedent already and we can't just suddenly double or triple the punishment because of the media attention this incident has received.<\/p>\n

The difference in the cases is no one actually made a complaint about Montoya's comment, it was just picked up by an on-field microphone.<\/p>\n

Given an official complaint has been lodged against Leniu I'd say this penalty will be slightly tougher, but there's no need to go overboard.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Don't get me wrong, racism is never OK and it has no place in our game, or in society for that matter.<\/p>\n

But there's been a lot of emotion around this topic, understandably, and where there's emotion involved it can cloud peoples' judgement.<\/p>\n

I'd say the judiciary will hit Leniu with a five or six-week suspension on Monday night.<\/p>\n

The suspension has got to be long enough to act as a deterrent and send a message.<\/p>\n

But people are also entitled to a fair hearing in this country.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Roosters have seven games until they face the Broncos again in round nine.<\/p>\n

\ufeffIt honestly would not surprise me if Leniu gets seven weeks, making his return game against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine the reception he will get?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":372640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=374729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374733,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374729\/revisions\/374733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/372640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}