Footbrawl hurts game

IN short, the ugly brawl that marred the Gold Coast’s A-grade rugby league grand final remains a sore point.

The Bulletin asked readers what they thought of the heavy punishments handed out to those involved and while 42 per cent said the bans were wide of the mark, there is no doubt the whole incident is a black eye on a sport just when we should be talking about the World Cup.

Acceptable bans or not, the truth is the unruly behaviour took the gloss off a contest which was meant to celebrate the efforts of two groups of grassroots players over a long season.

Instead we’re still talking about bad news.