LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
Five rounds back after the COVID-19 hiatus and the NRL has delivered over a month of on-field action as a side dish to the off-field action that takes place directly off-field.
Televised footage of Melbourne Storm captain Cameron Smith giving a pep talk to the homesick side he just trampled has lead many to ask why the fuck we have cameras in a change room anyway.
Change room cameras have been a staple of televised rugby league coverage since West Magpies started slapping each other in the face in an attempt to show the referees they were not afraid of the bribes they had accepted from the Manly Sea Eagles.
However, now that the change rooms are primarily cheek-slapping and smoking free, many NRL viewers are questioning why the cameras are there beyond providing the viewer with a coveted ‘suck shit’ moment when a brooding player solemnly counts away his ten in the bin.
“Best & Less got changing rooms, should we pop a coupla cameras in there then?” asked Instagram footy blogger @BigMitch88 in a video taken from the while driving 80kph through a school zone.
“They got cameras but no microphones, what’s the point in that? It should be all in or none in I reckon.”
The NRL states they are open to removing cameras from the change rooms, once the players stop being autonomous people with private lives worth exploiting for the promotion of the code.
