Blundering Bulldogs Expel Their Class Clown For All The Wrong Reasons

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday November 10, 2007

Andrew Webster

HAS Willie Mason headbutted a woman during a drunken rampage? Blown the bag at an RBT? Been pulled over by the police in downtown Belmore and had his car searched while sitting in the back seat without a shirt on?

No, Mason is leaving the Bulldogs because he skipped various functions and photo shoots, wore his personal sponsor's clothing when he shouldn't have and asked if he could step into the ring for a one-off boxing match. If this were school - and the parallels with the NRL are many - it would translate to him skipping assembly, failing to wear school uniform and trying to start a fight!-fight!-fight! in the playground at lunch. (Of course, you would always back the afro-headed kid from Toronto against the pimply kid from Year 10).

If this were the case, surely the appropriate course of action would be to make the Mason boy put his nose against a cross on the chalkboard and have him stay back late. You wouldn't expel him. He didn't belt a teacher. He didn't graffiti the toilet block. And there's that interschool rugby league tournament coming up . . .

The circumstances that have led to Mason's position becoming so untenable at Belmore are concerned with the same albatross that has hung from Mason's neck throughout his melodramatic career.

Perception. Mason is guilty of giving the club a bad look. In the end, his style negated his substance - in the eyes of chief executive Malcolm Noad and some board members, at least.

During the 2004 State of Origin campaign, Mason told NSW teammates he would cop the heat for the bonding session gone wrong in the lead-up to the first match.

When Blues coach Phil Gould asked him why he did that, Mason replied that his reputation had been trashed so much another headline was hardly going to hurt. Mason had done nothing more than break curfew and chatted to early morning commuters on a bus. Gould realised then what others still don't: that Mason is a man of integrity and principle, regardless of the cliche attached to him. He just needs direction. Sometimes it's hard to know which path to follow.

Mason's father died when he was 17 and since then his family has relied on his abundant football abilities to get by. He's a father-figure by necessity. He's been walking to the beat of his own drum for a decade because he's had to.

To this end, with a prized asset walking out the door, coach Steve Folkes and chief executive Noad have failed. They will argue that they did all they could to rein in their stubborn superstar, but fines and warnings are no way to take the edges off a rough diamond.

Coaches - the good ones - will tell you that it's as much about letting your key assets think they are running the asylum in their own heads.

During this year's Origin series, this hack asked Folkes what former Bulldogs patriarch Peter "Bullfrog" Moore would've thought of Mason. "He would've loved him," Folkes replied. "He would've clipped him over the ear a few times and told him to pull his head in. But he would've loved him."

Mason can't be absolved of all blame. Footy clubs require discipline. Examples must be set. Young players don't look up to senior players but mimic them. But it's unfair to say Mason thought he was "bigger than the club", as Noad has. Mason wasn't reprising the role of Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding jnr) in Jerry Maguire. He's no pay-cheque player.

And it's hard to imagine Willie allowing himself to air dry in the rooms after a match. What's certain is that he will not be at the Bulldogs and that's sad. He grew as a player and man over 11 seasons at "the family club". He won a premiership and became an international.

Perhaps the Bulldogs should also consider this: if Willie Mason was so divisive, such a bad influence on the young 'uns, so destructive to the fabric of the club, why did a dozen players front Wednesday night's board meeting marking his demise, dressed in the club's pin-stripe suit and tie, in support of their teammate?

Some might think they'll get some work done now the class clown has been sent from the room. But most will want him back, knowing his heart was always in the right place. And holy hell, it is going to be hard to win that interschool rugby league tournament without him.