In rugby league’s roaring ‘70s, players readied themselves for a big game with a jogged lap of the oval and a Rothmans in the car park. Back then, unconventional ‘warm-ups’ such as these were acceptable, just as these days rugby league fans accept unconditionally the need for the NRL to be fired up for a new season with controversy, melodrama, skullduggery and farce.
Already we have allegations of secret recordings of a conversation between NRL chief Andrew Abdo and players, two stars of the game wrestling in the streets of Canberra and being arrested on camera, and the players’ union threatening to strike if they don’t get a hike on the 22% pay rise already offered.
