Welcome to the seedy underworld of amateur rugby league. Played on dimly lit grounds in the suburban fringes of Sydney and other regional areas of Australia, at its worst it is a place where men who should be locked up are able to carry out shocking acts of criminal violence with impunity.Like this incident by repeat offender, Manu Asoava, in a Group Six game in early May between the Camden Rams and Oakdale Workers.Watch as the ball is kicked upfield and 28-year-old Camden captain, Chris Browne, gives chase only for Asoava to launch himself like a human torpedo at Browne's legs.He hits him just above the ankle, causing a compound fracture and dislocation so bad the entire ankle bone can be seen protruding from his leg, as if the foot has almost been severed. Many, including veteran rugby league commentator, Ray Hadley have called it the most "disgraceful" thing they've ever seen on a football field. The injury was so bad the remainder of the game had to be cancelled.Browne, an Australian representative in mixed Oz-tag, will never play again. Asoava, a repeat offender who once bashed a touch judge official and has racked up an unbelievable 45 weeks worth of suspensions over five years, has finally been deregistered by the Country Rugby League association.That he managed to survive this long in the game, given his record, tells you all you need to know about park rugby league. It is an absolute shit show at times, played by some of the grubbiest, cowardly humans on the planet. It often descends into a place for settling old scores, ones that could have started on the field as easily as they could over a woman, or a bad business (or drug) deal, or a spilt beer at the pub. It is one of the few places you can run 20 meters and punch someone in the side of the head (or kick them or break their leg) and escape jail time.As I sit here writing this I'm massaging two titanium plates in my jaw courtesy of a dog shot from a Redfern All Blacks player when I was 19 - one of three occasions I was king hit while playing park rugby league in my late teens and early 20s (I was no angel but I drew the line at punching people in the side of the head when they weren't looking).More high profile incidents include former NSW state of origin player and veteran NRL first-grader, John Hopoate, famously being sent off and abused by up to 500 fans at a local rugby league game after he king hit Asquith player Joel Latham.He was later called in front of a code of conduct panel on an unrelated matter after abusing a referee at an under tens match. This followed a professional career in which he repeatedly inserted his fingers into rival players anuses (12 week suspension) and was suspended for a record 17-matches for a sickening high tackle on Tiger's prop, Keith Galloway, leading to his axing from the Manly Sea Eagles and eventual retirement from the NRL.Elsewhere, the Fifita brothers, Andrew and David, the Australian front-rower, were both handed six-match bans from the NRL plus a $AUD 30 000 fine for Andrew after they threatened to "smash" a 24-year-old referee at a Penrith amateur game in 2015.In 20 years of playing and watching park footy I've watched football fields descend into ethnic feuds on a sunny Sunday mid-morning; watched trainers run onto the field during brawls and kick players; heard rumours of metal plates being concealed beneath forearm strapping; and knew a player who had his jaw broken by a king hit from a fan who'd entered the field (the team was subsequently locked in their change rooms until police arrived).The occasional toe-to-toe fight is an inevitability in a sport as physical and aggressive as this. They are also mostly harmless. The shameless dog shots and melees that go down in park football, however, are a grubby mess that need to be sorted out.
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