RUGBY MUM: AN INSIDER’S TAKE ON GRASS ROOTS RUGBY LEAGUE CULTURE

Abstract

This thesis reports on a philosophically grounded, socio-cultural investigation into the behaviours of people supporting, influencing, and affected by their involvement in grass-roots Rugby League. A motivation to conduct the research was to understand the characteristics of the anti-social and often abusive behaviours that have been witnessed, to learn more about the problem in close quarters, in order to consider from a more informed stance potential ways to address it (or elements of it). Ethnography has provided the methodological means for the researcher to live alongside the issues as they have occurred, observing through the lens of a Rugby Mum. With full ethics approval, the research has been conducted overtly and covertly, from the touchline to the boardroom and onto social media.

Positionality of the researcher in the field, and in theory, as well as the means of reporting from data once collected, have been driving considerations in this research and thesis presentation. To the former, strong consideration is given to scoping the ontological, epistemological, and methodological stances to conduct this socio-cultural research. To the latter, there is a predominant emphasis upon storytelling throughout the thesis, using tactics drawn from creative non-fiction to report upon the data with impact and poignancy. Alongside and developing from refined field notes, the majority of data is elevated to short stories, vignettes, personal narrative, poems and a short play.

Captured within this thesis is how, during the course of this investigation, the researcher experienced a major shift in participant-observation modes, from being relatively covert in her fieldwork activities at the start of the research, towards becoming relatively overt towards the end. Her researcher role and interests became known as the investigation progressed and thus her mission being recognised by those who frequented the rugby league space. Significantly this shift was accompanied by a social traverse from being an accepted ‘insider’ as a rugby mum on the club circuit, to becoming a relative ‘outsider’ as Rugby Mum the Researcher. These ethical and social shifts have influenced how the
research has proceeded on the ground over the 6 years, but has also influenced the [selected] content and style of its presentation in this thesis, i.e. her duties to protect the innocent as well as ‘the guilty’.

In conclusion the research reveals the lived experience of becoming and being an ethnographic field researcher, with the incumbent honed skills of reporting honestly and sensitively her observations and inferences. The philosophical reflections of a Rugby Mum, with her interconnected roles and
responsibilities in life, show that the consequences of getting too close to the
chronic behavioural problems in grass roots Rugby League are high. What was
an unquestioned love of the game becoming an informed decision to walk
away… perhaps. What is learned is that the problems encountered and reported
upon in this thesis are extremely complex and cannot be dealt with by some
questionnaires or online survey about mental health, or Likert responses to
witnessing aggression on the touchline or in a game. With a wealth of knowledge
developed from this study, the Rugby Mum has ‘exited the field’, for now, but she
makes the recommendation that the potential antidotes to these problems in
Rugby League lay in education initiatives. Initiatives that must go all the way from
touchline to include those in the Boardroom.