Rugby league started drawing a line on racial vilification long ago. The startling and raw testimony Leniu provided on Monday night showed how far there is to go.
Roosters prop Spencer Leniu insists he only knew at 6.30am the day after being accused of calling Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam a “monkey” that the term was racist.
Leniu’s fate wasn’t decided by the public, nor the media, nor the Indigenous players past and present who wanted the proverbial book thrown at him. To set an example. To draw a line in the sand. But as you watched Leniu humbly and candidly give his version of events on this night, in front of a room of lawyers, officials, his coach Trent Robinson and a dozen reporters, his remorse rung true — even if that conflicts with the panel’s decision.
It took great courage for Indigenous players to call out racism then, as it does now, but the manner in which Mam immediately made an on-field complaint that night, and the way his teammates, club and fellow Indigenous players have rallied around him, demonstrates a significant shift.The judiciary heard that, after tackling Broncos prop Payne Haas, Mam had said to his teammates, “Run it back at Spencer”.
NRL prosecutor Lachlan Gyles argued this was a “convenient excuse”. He claimed it was impossible for anyone in this country to not understand the racial implications of the term “monkey”, citing cricket’s 2008 Monkeygate scandal involving Andrew Symonds and other incidents.
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