Hugh - thanks for the amendment. The guy is most likely one and the same. Not sure a judiciary suspension counts as 'stood down'.
Perhaps Cattledog can clarify.
Well you see Jujah there's punitive justice & restorative justice. Any good club has a combination of both when dealing with player ill discipline and creating a positive community. Below is what we did using this player as a vehicle for change.
The first rule of club discipline is to create a culture where the members own perceived fear of the possible consequences is a powerful tool in avoiding ever actually having to use them!
In this regards I make no apologies in creating a perception in our club and wider community that this player had been executed. Rest assured it was a means to an end.
Punitively - He had committed a grave offence and needed to be punished. We also had to be seen to be strongly addressing the concerns of the SRU (and wider community) in regards to ill discipline.
In colloquial terms he needed to be "flogged in very public way" to send a message to others in our community not to engage in this type of behaviour. Thus in response to the players red cards we told him & everyone else "He's gone" and banned him down from training & involvement in the club. Thus Clear & swift punitive justice.
I believe that this strong message sent to the rest of the playing group had the right effect as evidenced by the positive stories out of Easts, warringah, norths, etc. in regards to our attitude.
However, from a position of restorative justice we knew that at some stage we would need to address the issue of forgiveness & whether we would let this "18 yr old" player resume playing once his suspension had been served.
So nearing the end of his suspension & ban we formed a group of coaches & players discussed the matter and took a vote. Before the final vote the player was spoken to and asked why he thought he should return to the club. The player spook very sincerely about his desire to play again and once again apologized for his actions.
No the final vote was not unanimous (and I won't tell you how I voted) but the decision was made to let the player resume playing on the strict understanding that this was his last chance. The player was very grateful and felt that he had been given chance to redeem himself.
So there's the whole story - An outright lie, a white lie, or a means to an end (i'll let you decide).
However, I would add that we would look like a right pack of wankers if we knelt down for prayer at the end of each game and then didn't practice a little bit of forgiveness at other times!
Cheers
Dogman
