This is the moment when the NRL must say that enough is enough. They need to draw a line in the sand right here and make it clear to every single player that there is a point where you destroy your Rugby League career.
The Canberra Raiders have officially sacked Blake Ferguson. Ferguson does not care one little bit. he walked out on the club a couple of weeks ago. He refused to speak to anyone at the club. He refuse the clubs requests for meetings. He refused to front up to a final meeting to determine where both sides were to go from here.
Ferguson’s contempt from his club, the game and its fans was there for all to see in his bizarre appearance at an Anthony Mundine press opportunity. It showed the mindset that Ferguson has right now. He simply doesn’t give a fuck.
It was strange to see him sit there next to Anthony Mundine and saying nothing. To be blatantly used by a member of his own family to promote a fight. I don’t understand why any grown man would have allowed themselves to be used like that. Ferguson had no problem with it obviously. No ones every accused him of having good judgement I guess.
Blake Ferguson hasn’t got a big fan base at all in the game. This isn’t a bloke that has ever endeared himself to a supporter base. The two clubs he has played for he managed to burn his bridges at in terms of the supporter bases go. His disrespectful behaviour has been the overwhelming theme of his entire career.
You can love him or hate him….but all of this comes down to a really simple fact….
A player that is contracted to an NRL clubs simply decided he didn’t want to play for his current club anymore. So, not for the first time this season, he just decided not to show up for work.
The NRL can not allow this to happen again. There must be a very clear penalty that shows other players they can’t walk out on a club like this.
The NRL should not only de-register Blake Ferguson, they should ban him for two years.
Blake Ferguson has done to the Canberra Raiders exactly what Sonny Bill Williams did to the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2008. The only difference is that Ferguson didn’t leave the country. Hell, there even talk he is going to do boxing just as Sonny Bill Williams did!
It has to stop now.
If the NRL doesn’t ban Blake Ferguson from playing Rugby League it is showing that we have a weak administration. If they don’t ban Blake Ferguson we can expect this type of behaviour to become common place in the very near future.
Unfortunately for the Raiders and their fan-base, this isnt the first time this has happened in recent years. A player acts the c**t, is pulled into line over and over until the club has no choice but to act. The player is disciplined, comes back radiant in the Telegraph talking ‘last chances’ and ‘doin’ it for the boys’ etc and they end up at the Roosters. The Raiders have always been an underdog club. Even at their most successful in the ’80s, they were nowhere near the most financially succesful club in the league and yet success on the field made them glamorous. These days, they’ve been also-rans for so long, few even remember when they were a genuine threat for more than a few weeks at a time. But what might have happened if the team had names like Carney, Ferguson and Dugan week in and week out? In my opinion, we’d be looking at a side who would threaten every year. I won’t be surprised if this latest problem further retards the growth of the club’s fan-base and loses them plenty of opportunities to scoop up young talent. (That also might have something to do with the ACT being a c**t of a place to live).