NRL players and coaches have revealed the incredibly harsh ways stars are punished for breaking the rules after a football great said shock tactics are “standard procedure” across the league.
It comes after former Bulldogs player Jackson Topine launched $4 million legal action against the NRL club, alleging he was attacked by up to 35 teammates in what amounted to assault and battery during a severe sanction imposed in July of last year.
Topine, 27, claims he was subjected to “illegal physical punishment” when he was “confined” to a Sydney gym and forced to wrestle with 30 or 35 of his Bulldogs teammates in retaliation for arriving between eight and ten minutes late for a training session.
The practice is known as “shark baiting” and is widely used in NRL clubs.
ackson Topine (pictured right with girlfriend Holly Leppard) accused the Bulldogs of “assault and battery” and “deprivation of liberty.”
Topine, pictured attacking Broncos star Billy Walters, was allegedly forced to wrestle with up to 35 of his teammates as punishment for being late.
It is even used at junior level, with Palm Beach Currumbin (PBC) High coach Aaron Zimmerle previously revealing how North Queensland and Maroons star Tom Dearden excelled at it during his school years.
‘There’s a video I have of him doing the ‘shark bait’ at a wrestling session where everyone wrestles in a circle. That sums it up’ Zimmerle said in 2022.
‘Tom was getting more and more tired and the guys coming up to him were fresh. It seemed done.
‘In the next instant, Tom has somehow mustered the strength to knock him down and reverse the position. I thought, ‘how did he get out of that?’ He just has that ability to find something extra inside of him.
Current NRL players are punished by being forced to run naked through a row of teammates while being whipped by them, forced to eat hot chili peppers, shave their heads or dye their hair, stars told the Sydney Morning Herald.
news corporation revealed in 2017 that Melbourne also used shark baiting in training and that those who did not often did not train at the club. The bigger forwards would have to fight two players at a time.
A former coach has said Queensland Maroons State of Origin star Tom Dearden excelled at “shark bait” wrestling drills in high school.
Melbourne Storm were revealed to have used shark bait wrestling drills in 2017 when they won the NRL premiership.
Braidon Burns, now with South Sydney, is another Bulldogs player who faced a shark bait penalty but decided not to discuss it publicly when contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
However, a former Bulldogs player mentioned that fighting with multiple teammates, known as “shark bait” in the NRL, is quite common across teams.
The former player also said players often face tougher challenges during preseason training, including intense military-style camps that test their limits for three days without sleep.
The North Queensland Cowboys are based in the garrison town of Townsville and regularly participate in army training camps in the rainforests of far north Queensland.
Striker Coen Hess revealed in 2022 how exhausting these fields can be.
‘Army personnel specialize in jungle operations, so the weather was very humid and we alternated between physical and mental challenges. “We did that for what seemed like 10 hours, had a little break and did it all again,” he said.
‘Toddy (coach Todd Payten) reconnected us all mentally. He got us to enjoy hard work and solving problems together under pressure.’
The Manly Sea Eagles are a club that has held a recent training camp where players are pushed to their limits.
The grueling challenges presented at training camps are designed to push NRL players to levels of endurance they never thought possible.
Players are deprived of sleep, worked to exhaustion, and then forced to do it all over again.
The Manly Sea Eagles are another club putting their players through military boot camp, training coach Anthony Seibold described as “unforgiving”.
“They were sleep deprived, they were gassed (exhausted), it was relentless,” Seibold said in January.
“And that was the point, to put them under extreme physical and mental pressure because you don’t know how you’re going to respond until you try.”
The Panthers have also drawn on the experience of the Australian Defense Force to teach their players new levels of resilience.
“After our boot camp I knew there was something special about this team and what we could accomplish,” Panthers forward Zane Tetevano said at the time.
“It was hard, it was brave. “It helped bring out the characters of some of the guys and I think that has helped them reach their full potential.”
Not all punishments handed out at NRL clubs are physical.
Nudity and near-nudity are common in the NRL; Pictured are Manly Sea Eagles players Karl Lawnton and Ethan Bullemor enjoying time in the waves.
Nudity is common in the locker rooms of football games and also when it comes to punishing players.
Most football fans are familiar with the annual ‘nude run’ in which players who have failed to score a try all season must strip naked and do laps on the pitch while their teammates cheer them on.
During the season, some NRL clubs adopt American college football-style punishments, having players strip naked and run through a tunnel of their teammates, who slap and whip them as they go.
Some clubs, like the Bulldogs, have a wheel that determines punishment for offenses like being late to practice.
Others take a more cognitive approach, having players prepare PowerPoint presentations on random topics to really get them out of their comfort zone.
Braith Anasta played in the NRL, State of Origin and for his country and was surprised that a player spoke out against a standard punishment for lateness.
Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson said it was important to recognize when players also needed to be cared for.
Speaking on NRL 360 on Wednesday night, football great Braith Anasta was incredulous at Topine’s stance and said punishments are “standard procedure at all football clubs”.
‘It’s crazy. “I can’t understand it, this guy has come to training late, so when you train late you get harsh discipline,” he said.
“They teach you not to let your teammates down because if you move late in the game you’re costing your team.” This happens every day with every club and every player.
“They punish you for that, all the players know that if you are late for training they will punish you.” On this day the Bulldogs are wrestling, so the punishment was wrestling.
“If they were doing fitness, that would have been it, those are the standards that are set.”
And coach Trent Robinson said clubs weren’t just flogging their players relentlessly, it was a balancing act in which they also had to look after them.
“You have to push the players to do their best and, at the same time, you have to take care of them,” Robinson said.
“You don’t always get it right, but if you care about your program and the players you have in that program, for the most part, you’ll get it right.”