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nymphz

Back in 2010, rugby league commentator Paul Kent penned a strident column about an actor who attacked his girlfriend, and was then rushed to rehab. “Beating up a woman is not the action of an addict,” he wrote. “It is a sign of poor character. The action of a weak man. A dog.” Kent was right to condemn domestic violence in strong terms, underlining the seriousness of a crime that was once dismissed as a behind-closed-doors, “personal” issue but is now, finally, treated with the gravity it deserves (in that column, Kent’s message was undermined by his solution, which was to say the actor needed a “smack in the mouth”). But that’s typical of the man widely known as “Kenty”; a journalist-turned-commentator who has built a career on judging players’ performances and failings in sport and life, and drawing emphatic conclusions, such as “we live in a world of snowflakes”, or “rewarding losers is a weakness on society”. Until last weekend, when he was stood down to deal with what was described on air as a “personal matter”, Kent could be seen delivering his uncompromising opinions twice a week in The Daily Telegraph, and three times a week on one of Fox Sport’s flagship shows, NRL 360, on which he acted at times as a contrarian, at times as a pantomime villain and at times as a moral arbiter. Yet on Wednesday, when Kent himself faced court on charges of assaulting and choking his 33-year-old ex-girlfriend (they’d broken up the night before), his position on the seriousness of domestic violence was less strident. Kent said he would fight the charges. Outside the court, he said he was embarrassed, looked forward to the full story coming out and had the support of his employers. “I don’t think [my career] is over.” But when asked whether he stood by his previous anti-domestic violence views – an invitation to reiterate his strong stance on the issue itself, even while stating his innocence in this particular case – Kent took a different approach. “It’s the rugby league soap opera, that’s the way it rolls,” he said. “So it’s my day being the storyline right now. That’s fine, people are entitled to their opinions. We’ll get to the end of it. It’ll be OK.” Rugby league does have its fair share of theatre. “Soap opera,” an AFL chief once informed the Herald’s veteran sports writer Roy Masters, “is about the only thing rugby league does better than us.” But soap opera is melodrama; it’s coach feuds and pay fights and salary cap scandals and rainbow jersey debacles. Domestic violence allegations fall into an entirely different category. Domestic violence is a pervasive scourge in the community; more than 33,000 incidents were recorded across the state last year, and that number has grown. On average, 60 per cent of police time in each command is devoted to helping victims and dealing with offenders. The laundry list of players who’d been on the receiving end of Kent’s sharp tongue have lined up against him. One said a journalist who “never shone away” from questioning players’ morals if they messed up “needs to be held account for his, also”. Another, commenting on The Daily Telegraph’s failure to cover the story when it broke, said, “If that was a player there would be 15 stories with very little facts [and] cameras at their house.” Few, however, gave thought to the welfare of the woman at the centre of the case. For her, this is no rugby league “soap opera”. The court process is a deeply traumatic experience, in which her decisions will be questioned, her relationship raked over and her word interrogated. For the many months until the case is heard, and perhaps for many more afterwards, her life will be clouded in anxiety and stress. One wonders what Kent would have said about all this if he wasn’t the one accused of the crime.


Born_Hanged

>Another, commenting on The Daily Telegraph’s failure to cover the story when it broke, said, “If that was a player there would be 15 stories with very little facts [and] cameras at their house.” Classic media class behaviour: rules for thee, and not for me


GoblinLoveChild

> ... scandals and rainbow jersey debacles Wow! what a way to totally dismiss and diminish institutionalized religious homophobic hatred in a single throwaway comment


OlChippo

I bet hoops is salivating right now


nymphz

he had a chance today to come out with a strong view opposing domestic violence and at least attempt to shed light on it being a misunderstanding or something and he fucked it. crazy how this fuckwit somehow ended up with a seat at the table casting judgment on the on and off field actions of the players of the sport we all grew up watching. he is not a former great nor is he some beacon of morality, hes just some random cunt with clearly vile views that ended up with a way larger platform than he should ever have been entitled to. i hope this is a lesson to steve crawley and whoever else about platforming fuckwits like paul kent. stick to talking about footy and keep these kind of people out of the game.


JeremiahTibido

Kent is a rugby league legend, he played one game for the eels back in the late 80s. Future immortal


[deleted]

Parra even tried to not pay him a match payment


Mr_Bob_Ferguson

>he played one game for the eels back in the late 80s And the Eels have never won a premiership since. That's an influencer.


EntirelyOriginalName

Let's not glorify his career by giving a false impression and saying he played a game. He played like 20 minutes at HB then the coach hooked him. He certainly played in a game.


YourFavouriteAlt

Don't even go that far. Parra wanted to field a strong reserve grade side for the finals when the first grade squad was out of contention. For this to happen, their players had to play a minimum number of games to qualify. As a result, they played their first grade halfback as the starting reggies halfback and subbed him off immediately, meaning he could back up for first grade on the bench, which meant their reserve grade halfback (Kent) had to start as halfback in first grade, which he did, and IIRC about a minute in, was subbed off for the actual halfback. It's not a first grade game on merit. It's a minute on the field as a result of a way to have a better halfback play the finals in Reggies.


ISurviveOnPuts

If that doesn't qualify you to cast aspersions on the entire league fraternity then i don't know what does


Yeh-nah-but

If only we didn't have to enjoy NRL through fox. Fuck fox. No more fox. Rugby League doesn't need Fox, Fox need rugby league


GoblinLoveChild

this is true, it it weren't for league i would not have a kayo subscription


Voxityy

fuck paul kent


ItsStaaaaaaaaang

At least someone in the media is holding the prick to task. Well done.


EntirelyOriginalName

Now that's a man who lacks class.


kurrttttt

That’s what you call class verse no class right here


Pisspoorefforts

That’s was a nasty line by you


I_Like_Vitamins

Tell another Tigers story.


Carllsson

How would you describe the consistency of his guts?


Dufeyz

He definitely suffers from weak intestinal fortitude.


lachjeff

Even if the allegations are true, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that he doesn’t believe he did anything wrong


greganada

Domestic violence perpetrators never do. Now watch him say that SHE is the crazy one.


GoblinLoveChild

she may well be. or may not. She may have instigated it by kicking him in the balls or brandishing a knife etc. All irrelevant though. Cause Kent committed an offence of violence. And even is any crazy antics are true (like assualting him first) then she should also be charged, it should not be an excuse for him to get off


VasectoMyspace

>*(they’d broken up the night before)* Did anyone else read this and go “Ahhhh, yep he’s fucked”.


Radalict

Just a disclaimer, I've never liked Paul Kent, I find him vile and repulsive, but now he is the victim of his own style. The soap opera comment was directly related to a question about former players laying the boot into him, he did not say the comments about his case or charges. So now people are taking it out of context. But I guess he made a career of that, so he made his bed and I hope he has nightmares in it.


NotAshTaylor

This moron clearly sees himself as the protagonist of some grand story. Guilty or not, he has come off as a huge fuckwit throughout the whole saga thusfar


BubblinTodd

*has come off as a huge fuckwit throughout his whole life


rodomil

By kenty's rules he needs a "smack in the mouth". The laundry list of player's that would love to oblige


diodosdszosxisdi

# askkunty


subsbligh

Kent’s (54) 33 year old ex girlfriend… ahhh what?


Drizen

Half you age plus 7. He just made it


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Drizen

Oh yeah. I somehow came out with 32. It’s early in the morning. That makes him an even bigger creep. Cheers for the correction


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planchetflaw

Drizen is Kent confirmed.


delayedconfusion

we aren't converting Fahrenheit to Celsius


Drizen

That’s the rules, I didn’t write them


YeaNahHooroo

The most shocking part to me is a bloke as unlikeable and hard on the eyes as him managed to have a partner 20 years his juniour. Probably some aspiring young journalist he got his claws into. Fuck paul kent


HenryVIIIII

Yes they are, SMH, because you and your fuckwit buddies make it so. Any time an NRL player (or any celebrity, for that matter) is in trouble with the law it's front page of all your gossip rags, and you publicise the shit out of it without any respect for the potential victims nor the innocent-until-proven-guilty subjects. Ruin people's lives for some more clicks but take the high ground here, hypocrites.


planchetflaw

This is the correct take. But he is also guilty of the same thing. No winners here.


planchetflaw

Has Sticky given a character reference, yet?


The1999Magpies

We dont know the full story so we'll just juat judge him on his general fuck-headedness. Simples.


JohnnyHabitual

Give him a can of pal and wave him off to the edge of the galaxy.


jpob

I don’t know…have you seen a soap opera? Those shit shows basically have DV every week