Disastrous year for rugby league

Rugby league is a resilient beast, a sport which has triumphed from day one against the odds.

It thrived after its tumultuous and bitter breakaway from rugby union in 1908, continued through two world wars, came out battered and bruised but mostly intact after Super League and still holds court as the code of choice among footy fans on the east coast.

And while it will survive the atrocities of its centenary year, the old girl has lost a lot of appeal following the season from hell.

The code has reeled from one disaster to the next in 2008.

We've had a footballer shot at in a Kings Cross street, Benji Marshall lashing out a patron who took his photo at a nightclub, Sonny Bill Williams' desertion, Todd Carney urinating on a bar patron and the usual string of alcohol-related buffoonery.

Now, at a time when the focus should be on the finals and the impending departure of a player who epitomises everything good about the game in Steve Menzies, we are talking jail time for one of the NRL's leading names.

Greg Bird's day in court will come on October 8 when he faces assault charges after allegedly glassing girlfriend Katie Milligan.

The allegations are distressing in the extreme.

Milligan's wellbeing is the most important factor right now - as it should be.

But regardless of the fate awaiting Bird, rugby league is now being held at a new and frightening level of contempt by those who matter.

The alleged incident, naturally, has appalled women.

You can tick off another 10,000 kids brushing rugby league registration day in 2009.

But it's among males, the life blood of the game, where the most telling statements are being made.

Blokes have long been desensitised to the behaviour of footballers in public, even celebrating some of the antics with a smile and a mock shake of the head.

The stories no longer shock.

But Bird's did.

I am yet to speak to one male who has made light of the situation or offered anything but sympathy for Milligan.

Even Cronulla supporters, waiting desperately for that first premiership to arrive after 41 barren years, have backed the club in suspending their star player indefinitely.

Where in the past blokes have bitten the lip while mum calls the shots as to whether their boy plays league, the men are getting in first.

Many no longer see it as a sport they want their kid associated with.

Rugby league is no longer viewed as character building, more character destroying.

It's a harsh call for the majority of players who do the right thing, but that's the general perception whether the game wants to believe it or not.

The warning signs are clear: rugby league may have lasted 100 years, but it's not immortal.