JOEY ON EDGE - Watmough.

[Napper]

So in order to see him as a great footballer we have to be reminded of his drug taking? So for arguments sake is Chris Bailey a better player than Kieran Foran because he might be a better person off the field?

---

Maybe stick the Pope on one of the wings and problem solved.

 

[swoop]

I wonder if people's willingness to turn a blind eye to off field illegal activities extends to driving while drunk, touching up your missus when you have a skinful, and sexually assaulting women with your teammates. If you are the world's greatest player are you allowed to do those things as well in your spare time, as long as it doesn't affect your performance on the field of course ??

Some people here seem to think so.

 

[R3]

I 100% support and agree with you too napper. Joey is the greatest halfback the sport of rugby league has ever seen.
None of the recreational drugs he openly admits to partaking in on occasions throughout his playing career ever gave him any competitive edge or unfair advantage. His sporting achievements purely came down to his natural skills and unrelenting application.
Any personal feelings for which club he played for or which era he played in are hardly relevant to how someone can judge these achievements.
An AFL player like Ben Cousins or a Soccer player like Marradonna can still be recognized as excellent players in their chosen sports despite far worse and frequent usage, because it still never took away the fact that they were great players, and probably great people to the family and friends and fans like Joey.

 

[eagles2win]

Napper u r a [email protected] player ever!!!!!did fulton, gasnier, beetson and co take cocain all their carrer and dodge drug testers....did any of them get caught in England with drugs on them......
You probably want him to be a immortal....he i snot an immortals @rsehole, yet channel 9 love him...the same station that pissed his grubby brother off....
Everyone makes excuses for him....

I'm sorry but no. How do we know this? The immortals for the most part didnt have the drug agencies to worry about.

So we have to acknowledge Joey's drug taking but not Johnny Raper's nudity in public, Wally's drunken Shenanigans and I'm sure you could go through every other immortal and they'd have skeletons in the closet.

 

[Captain Moondog]

"So we have to acknowledge Joey's drug taking but not Johnny Raper's nudity in public, Wally's drunken Shenanigans and I'm sure you could go through every other immortal and they'd have skeletons in the closet." With Joey it seems more a case of Martians at the window. I'm sure we've all had enough of these immoral immortals.

 

[Shoe1]

In that case I nominate the panthers' Christian winger David Simmons as next immortal.

 

[Captain Moondog]

Kristian Wanka from the Broncos would also have to be in the mix.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

I have no problem acknowledging that Johns was a brilliant league player. One of the best ever.

There is a difference between recreational drug use and performance enhancing drug use. However, that difference is slightly blurred due to the lack of empirical research, for obvious reasons.

The fact that some drugs are legal and others are not is simply a political decision. There is no moral value inherent in any chemical substance.

For my part, the decision to leave the Knights premiership win intact, after the discovery of steroid use by several players (including man of the match O'Davis), remains a disgrace. The Knights were as guilty of cheating as Melbourne ever were.

But that is a different issue from the Johns issue. If he is at risk of deeply embarrassing the game he will never be made an immortal (at least while he's alive, ironically), and further incidents will see him progressively distanced from the game's officialdom.

Meanwhile he is a commodity that any club must deal with cautiously, because of the possibility of the club or some of their players being drawn into a damaging drama.

But for context, remember that anecdotal evidence suggests even league immortal Johny Raper was famous for his drinking marathons in a different era. An era where powerful clubs had significantly greater capacity to shield their valuable players from the front page, to the extent that scandalous behaviour was not always publicly exposed as scandal.

 

[Stevo]

I've taken ecstacy and cocaine and haven't felt like playing footy either time.

 

[bob dylan]

My two cents worth.

Andrew Johns was probably the best rugby league player I have seen in the past 30 years.

He is also drug taking waste of space.

I can tell you one thing if offered the choice to meet say Brent Kite or Andrew Johns I wouldnt have to think long, and my Manly bias would have nothing to do with the decision.

 

[Hamster Huey]

I wonder if people's willingness to turn a blind eye to off field illegal activities extends to driving while drunk, touching up your missus when you have a skinful, and sexually assaulting women with your teammates. If you are the world's greatest player are you allowed to do those things as well in your spare time, as long as it doesn't affect your performance on the field of course ??

Who knows what past greats of the game (including Immortals) got up to during their playing careers? Maybe a skeleton or two from those days for all we know.

The media interest in the off-field stuff these days didn't exist 30-50 years ago, and the blokes from those eras are extremely thankful they didn't have to face the same desperate hacks more interested in a off-field issues, than the on-field dramas.

Ask any of the available Immortals, Hall of Famer's or revered players from the past whether they consider less of Johns due to his drug issues, and they'll flat out tell you it is a non-issue for them and that he's one of the games greats.

 

[Haz88]

I Agree with you Napper - best 7 ever the halfbacks are doing now what he started THEN! he started it all and was the best.

His off field behaviour does not make him any less of a player , less of a role model etc etc yes a player no , dont know how people could argue against that he was a great PLAYER

Also how would Exctasy be a performance enhancer when the drug is known for deaths or making people very sick and the main reason is dehydration not sure how he would get through 80 minutes having taken a couple before the match but anywhoo, however he should of been punished for taking them yes as your are not allowed - wouldnt call it an enhancer tho?

 

[chris_niko]

It's a banned substance not performance enhancer. Marijuana and heroin are also banned. Would a smacked up racehorse be any good? Wake up to yourself and face that he was the greatest 7 in history.

Qft

 

[Wolfpack]

I've taken ecstacy and cocaine and haven't felt like playing footy either time.

^ Yo.

Not to mention that from the sounds of things he was rarely under the immediate effects of said drugs around game day (avoiding the drug tests & all that - why not wait to the after match party to get on it), so he would've been dealing with the hangover, which would be far worse.

All that aside, it's got nothing to do with his stature as a player (& as the best 7 ever to play the game). As stated previously, most, if not all of the older immortals would have some pretty serious skeletons in their closets. They're fooking meatheads for crying out loud, of course they would've done stupid things. Doesn't make one iota of difference to their standing as a player though.

 

[mike walker]

g'day all,just like to add a slightly different slant to the debate,a lot of players are cast as heroes for playing with painkilling injections allowing them to perform above what they could.I have the view that this is a performance enhancing substance,yet this is sanctioned as an act of courage by the player and no one seems to have a problem with this.A double standard perhaps,and from personal experience i know that many former high profile players including internationals have enjoyed taking recreational drugs,so lets not be too critical in our attacks on A Johns as there are plenty of others just as guilty,but haven't admitted to it.
cheers mike

 

[swoop]

A prime example of the inconstancy is that Brett was rubbed out of the game supposedly for being drunk but we all know the real reason and found to be innocent but still has to wear the stigma of the allegations. Yet here we have a bloke that admitted to drug taking over a numbers of years who is held up as the golden child of the NRL. Many knew and many turned a blind eye. F---ING JOKE.

I despise Johns, yes he was a great footballer but there are many who were caught and weren't given the same consideration and they rubbed out of the game.

 

[Frogz]

Cheers Swoop....close the thread...nothing else need be said

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Yep, as swoop said, he was a great footballer, spot on

 

[Frogz]

No wonder u like NRL on fox Kiwi....u in bed with a special little lamb called Johns

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

yeah you got it in one, good pickup