Barba’s meltdown no surprise
The Cowboys did lots of checking before they signed Ben Barba. They were wary. They got written references about his time at St Helens. Barba was playing in England because a post-2016 grand final bender resulted in a positive test for cocaine. Barba got a glowing recommendation from the UK and the Cowboys signed him.
Until Australia Day he was squeaky clean. Training well. Low skin folds. Hardly a drink. But not long after the sun went down in a dark area of a casino in Townsville, the Barba too many know came out. He allegedly assaulted his partner, Ainslie Currie.
Two Cowboys players, TeMaire Martin and Justin ONeill, were in the vicinity. I’ve been told they tried to help to calm the situation. The club is angry that it’s been suggested they stood by and did nothing. A Cowboys insider told me they were stunned by Barba’s ‘‘five minutes of madness’’.
They shouldn’t have been. Barba’s reputation in league circles is questionable, at best. It all stems back to an incident in 2013 and a photo of his partner with a bloody face. Currie denied rumours Barba had assaulted her after photos of her with facial injuries were published. She even hired a lawyer and told then Bulldogs boss Todd Greenberg she wanted nothing to do with the matter.
Greenberg, now the NRL chief, took no action against Barba. Greenberg was accused of a cover-up and it earned the administrator the nickname ‘‘Teflon Todd’’. It’s been the biggest stain on his name.
I’ve been told no one was willing to make a complaint at the time and Greenberg was powerless to act. Greenberg organised for me to speak with Currie in 2013. She told me she had no problem with Barba.
It took me a long time to trust and respect Greenberg after the Barba incident.
When he got the NRL top job, part of that process was an integrity unit investigation into that incident in 2013. He was cleared and my stance on him softened as a result.
My view is he is a good leader of the game and I accept his word, but many in the game still don’t. I’ve been inundated with calls from Greenberg haters from the minute I broke the story about Barba on Friday.
Barba has pushed Greenberg into the spotlight as the game’s summer of shame rolls on. The NRL boss has been dragged down to the level of a player who has done the wrong thing. He doesn’t want sympathy. He has a thick skin. The only people worth thinking about or feeling for are Currie and Barba’s kids. His violent nature towards his partner is now on film.