Inglis bid to face up to bad behaviour horror

NRL champion Greg Inglis has come forward to admit the player misbehaviour scandal that enveloped rugby league over summer had been the “worst” the game had seen.

And Inglis — who battled his own personal issues over the off-season — offered to help mentor and educate young players in a desperate bid to end rugby league’s behavioural horrors.

“We need to put our foot down,” Inglis said.

Inglis was speaking ahead of next Thursday’s ARL Commission meeting that is expected to vote in favour of immediately standing down a player who has been charged with a serious offence.

A future Immortal, Inglis was stripped of the Kangaroos captaincy when given an 18month good behaviour bond over a drink-driving charge last October.

“Obviously player behaviour has probably been the worst it has [been],” Inglis said.

“I’ve had my incident there, I put my hand up and owned it. I can’t speak on behalf of the other players, but it needs to be definitely addressed.

“Whatever Todd [Greenberg] and the ARLC come up with, we have to respect. We have to remember we have this amazing game we play and we have to remember it’s not just us, we’re not bigger than the game, the club or the team. That’s the attitude players have to have.

“We shouldn’t be talking about this. It comes back to the individual players. I put my hand up for one of them. I think Gal [Paul Gallen] came out and said, ‘I’d like to teach these guys from my experience growing up’.

“As leaders in the game that’s what we need to do. We need to put our foot down and teach the younger generations coming through and help them learn from our mistakes.

“I think different clubs have different rules. The commission and Todd will address that next week. Whatever penalties they’ll hand down they’ll think is the right thing.”