SportNRL 2022
OPINION
The vax and figures show that NRL players refusing the jab are on borrowed time
Peter FitzSimons
Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and author
November 10, 2021 — 7.30pm
Gentlemen, thanks for coming.
And yes, I know this a pretty odd venue for a meeting – what, out in an open park and all, with me carefully standing upwind from you – but what else could I do?
Abdo bristles at suggestion NRL is 'soft' on anti-vaxxers
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo says the league isn't soft on anti-vaxxers, despite refusing to introduce mandatory vaccines.
Meet with you 25 still unvaxxed NRL players in a closed environment?
Do I look that crazy?
Oh, do calm down.
By taking that precaution I am doing no more than trying to look after my family and community – which includes those who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and would kill to be vaccinated, but can’t for medical reasons. I know you don’t feel any duty of care to them at all, but those of us who are jabbed certainly do.
Settle down, I said! We’ll get to all that.
I also know that many of you fancy that you know more than the entire medical establishment worldwide – you have, after all, watched a couple of YouTubes – and let’s not forget the story of what happened to your wife’s auntie’s best friend’s son!
But can we get real, here, and just talk – no bullshit?
The notion that you have “done your own research”, is nothing less than laughable. Do you bozos get what actually doing your own research means, FFS?! It means years, and sometimes decades of serious study, of testing hypotheses, of getting your findings into the public domain and having them peer-reviewed. And those people who have done their own research are not only all but unanimous – the vaccines work, and bar very rare exceptions are safe – but nearly two years into this pandemic, they have been proved correct!
What credibility do you really think your YouTubes and nutter anti-vax websites have against them?
I put it to you: zero. Hole-in-the-donut, and ... and I see that this logic has made no impression on you whatsoever.
Ok, let’s look at the nuts and bolts of it. You blokes be the nuts, and I will see if I can bolt through it.
Most of you seem to be holding out on the reckoning that the whole problem will go away, that somehow – because the NRL itself has been strangely soft on the whole issue, leaving the heavy lifting to the clubs – you can somehow manage to be on full freight and play next season.
Gentlemen, get this through your melons: That. Will. Not. Happen.
Do you get that health orders in both Victoria and Queensland that have just been announced make it clear that you won’t be able to play or train in Victoria or Queensland?
So all you players from the Storm, Broncos, Titans and Cowboys that are holding out, that means you’re ... done. Hand in your passes, you can’t even come to the stadium anymore.
Your clubs can’t keep you on the books, because they’d be breaking the law.
As those of you from other clubs in NSW and the ACT, the first problem you’ve got is that you won’t be able to accompany the rest of the team when they fly to play those teams, and for two reasons. First they won’t let you on the plane unvaxxed. And second, as above, neither Victoria or Queensland will let you play.
Are you starting to realise that playing opportunities are a little thin on the ground, yes?
So, my question to you: Got it, yet? Get with the program, or leave. You have no other alternative.
Yes, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, from the Storm. I see you have a question, the same one you posted on social media, showing a nurse speaking out against vaccinations.
“Front-line nurses speaking out,” you endorsed. “Ask the question, why are they willing to lose their job to not get the juice? What are they seeing that we don’t see?”
The answer, Nelson, is who knows?
But do you truly think this nurse is remotely representative of most nurses? Of course there is a tiny percentage of nurses who are against vaccines, just as there is an infinitesimal percentage of doctors who are against it.
The nutter websites inevitably put them front and centre and explain away the 99 per cent who are against them by saying they are all part of the conspiracy organised by Big Pharma, the New World Order and all the rest.
This is so embarrassing – I mean so extraordinarily infantile I can’t believe anyone but Craig Kelly and Alan Jones can take it seriously – that it even makes dumb footballers look smart. If you embrace that, it takes you to a whole new level of dumb.
Gentlemen, I conclude this meeting by saying: think about this again. Have a really good look at it.
The bottom line is this: you are on a damn good wicket right now, playing the game you love for big bucks. Yes, you can indeed continue to resist the jab. No-one will hold you down.
But you cannot do that while continuing to play, and have those big bucks continue.
No way around it. No exceptions. Get the jab, or get the cab to a new line of work.
Good luck.
OPINION
The vax and figures show that NRL players refusing the jab are on borrowed time
Peter FitzSimons
Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and author
November 10, 2021 — 7.30pm
Gentlemen, thanks for coming.
And yes, I know this a pretty odd venue for a meeting – what, out in an open park and all, with me carefully standing upwind from you – but what else could I do?
Abdo bristles at suggestion NRL is 'soft' on anti-vaxxers
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo says the league isn't soft on anti-vaxxers, despite refusing to introduce mandatory vaccines.
Meet with you 25 still unvaxxed NRL players in a closed environment?
Do I look that crazy?
Oh, do calm down.
By taking that precaution I am doing no more than trying to look after my family and community – which includes those who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and would kill to be vaccinated, but can’t for medical reasons. I know you don’t feel any duty of care to them at all, but those of us who are jabbed certainly do.
Settle down, I said! We’ll get to all that.
I also know that many of you fancy that you know more than the entire medical establishment worldwide – you have, after all, watched a couple of YouTubes – and let’s not forget the story of what happened to your wife’s auntie’s best friend’s son!
But can we get real, here, and just talk – no bullshit?
The notion that you have “done your own research”, is nothing less than laughable. Do you bozos get what actually doing your own research means, FFS?! It means years, and sometimes decades of serious study, of testing hypotheses, of getting your findings into the public domain and having them peer-reviewed. And those people who have done their own research are not only all but unanimous – the vaccines work, and bar very rare exceptions are safe – but nearly two years into this pandemic, they have been proved correct!
What credibility do you really think your YouTubes and nutter anti-vax websites have against them?
I put it to you: zero. Hole-in-the-donut, and ... and I see that this logic has made no impression on you whatsoever.
Ok, let’s look at the nuts and bolts of it. You blokes be the nuts, and I will see if I can bolt through it.
Most of you seem to be holding out on the reckoning that the whole problem will go away, that somehow – because the NRL itself has been strangely soft on the whole issue, leaving the heavy lifting to the clubs – you can somehow manage to be on full freight and play next season.
Gentlemen, get this through your melons: That. Will. Not. Happen.
Do you get that health orders in both Victoria and Queensland that have just been announced make it clear that you won’t be able to play or train in Victoria or Queensland?
So all you players from the Storm, Broncos, Titans and Cowboys that are holding out, that means you’re ... done. Hand in your passes, you can’t even come to the stadium anymore.
Your clubs can’t keep you on the books, because they’d be breaking the law.
As those of you from other clubs in NSW and the ACT, the first problem you’ve got is that you won’t be able to accompany the rest of the team when they fly to play those teams, and for two reasons. First they won’t let you on the plane unvaxxed. And second, as above, neither Victoria or Queensland will let you play.
Are you starting to realise that playing opportunities are a little thin on the ground, yes?
So, my question to you: Got it, yet? Get with the program, or leave. You have no other alternative.
Yes, Nelson Asofa-Solomona, from the Storm. I see you have a question, the same one you posted on social media, showing a nurse speaking out against vaccinations.
“Front-line nurses speaking out,” you endorsed. “Ask the question, why are they willing to lose their job to not get the juice? What are they seeing that we don’t see?”
The answer, Nelson, is who knows?
But do you truly think this nurse is remotely representative of most nurses? Of course there is a tiny percentage of nurses who are against vaccines, just as there is an infinitesimal percentage of doctors who are against it.
The nutter websites inevitably put them front and centre and explain away the 99 per cent who are against them by saying they are all part of the conspiracy organised by Big Pharma, the New World Order and all the rest.
This is so embarrassing – I mean so extraordinarily infantile I can’t believe anyone but Craig Kelly and Alan Jones can take it seriously – that it even makes dumb footballers look smart. If you embrace that, it takes you to a whole new level of dumb.
Gentlemen, I conclude this meeting by saying: think about this again. Have a really good look at it.
The bottom line is this: you are on a damn good wicket right now, playing the game you love for big bucks. Yes, you can indeed continue to resist the jab. No-one will hold you down.
But you cannot do that while continuing to play, and have those big bucks continue.
No way around it. No exceptions. Get the jab, or get the cab to a new line of work.
Good luck.
