Questions have been raised over whether Spencer Leniu’s eight-game suspension for a racist slur towards Broncos pivot Ezra Mam was the right amount, with two journalists believing it was too harsh a sentence.
After a hearing at NRL headquarters on Monday night, the Roosters prop was given an eight-week suspension despite apologising to Mam unreservedly and admitting guilt.
Journalist Paul Kent believes that the emotional nature of the situation has gone against Leniu.
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“Common sense ideas around things, we lose all the reason to emotion, and we’ve done it in this case,” Kent said.
“You do back to the severest penalties in the NRL era, they are all violent offences. This isn’t that.
“No one is justifying what he did but I also think a little bit of perspective is lost in all this because people are so emotional about it.
“Four weeks sends a message. When has the game ever stood for it (racism)?”
The Daily Telegraph’s Dave Riccio chipped in, believing that the process from Vegas until Monday’s hearing was far too long.
“You can’t deny the platform which the incident occurred played a factor. Second to that, the length of the process is part of the problem… It shouldn’t have taken close to 10 days.”
Veteran journalist Brent Read felt eight weeks was fair on Monday, but his opinion changed the next day when speaking to Manly’s Haumole Olakau’atu.
Like Leniu, Olakau’atu is of Pacific Island descent.
In Monday’s hearing, Leniu was asked if he had heard of former Sydney Swans star Adam Goodes, who was called an ‘ape’ by a fan during a game against Collingwood.
Leniu said he hadn’t. Olakau’atu had also never heard of Goodes.
“I can see where he is coming from. I have been called everything on the field. It is just words to me. I have been called coconut many times in the NRL,” Olakau’atu told The Daily Telegraph.
Read said Olakau’atu’s words gave him a new perspective on the Leniu incident.
“My opinion has changed. I was listening to Spencer Leniu say he didn’t mean it in a racist way. I’d never heard of Adam Goodes, I don’t know who he is, and I thought how? How is this possible?” Read said on NRL 360.
“But I was speaking to Haumole Olakau’atu today and he said the same thing, and they’ve (Olakauatu and Leniu) have no relationship, they aren’t mates, but he said the same thing. He never heard of Adam Goodes. He doesn’t understand why this word is so offensive to the indigenous community.
“I sat there thinking eight weeks is about right. Today I’m thinking after listening to Haumole back up what Spencer said, I’m thinking mainly that it was pure ignorance from Spencer. I don’t think he meant to racially attack Ezra or knew the gravity of the word.
“They (judiciary) didn’t believe him.”
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Kent was of the opinion that the NRL’s willingness to be “politically correct” meant that no matter what Leniu said in his own defence on Monday wouldn’t have mattered at all.
“The NRL was under pressure right from the beginning to come down heavily. I honestly think Spencer Leniu was walking into eight weeks no matter what he said. No matter how good his defence was,” Kent said.
“There’s so much pressure on the NRL to be politically correct and to please the greater public and give the impression that they are a game that doesn’t stand for this when rugby league has always been at the forefront of fighting racism.”
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