Trent Robinson breaks his silence on Spencer Leniu ban hoping incident leads to societal change

Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson is adamant that Spencer Leniu is not a racist hopeful that the fallout from his eight match ban for calling Brisbane’s Ezra Mam “a monkey” can lead to a “changing point” for language in sport and society.

The Samoan international pleaded guilty to the slur made during the opening round game in Las Vegas but repeatedly told the judiciary panel on Monday night that it was not intended to be racial in nature and that it was a term he and others had used as banter.

Robinson said the club had accepted the ruling and that there was no point debating the sentence, even if other people did that both publicly and privately.

“When it comes to the incident, my point on is that if anybody feels that Spencer is racist (they are wrong),” he said.

“If we understand the definition of racism, it’s when you try to use your power to put someone down a class and degrade that person.

“If you think an immigrant who has parents from Samoa and New Zealand who lives in Mt Druitt is trying to put someone down through power then you’re way off the mark.

“He is not racist. His use of language was on trial. If anybody can stand atop their mountain and look down on people and judge them on the way that they talk in society, then a lot of people are doing that, and that’s where I have an issue.”

Mam provided a 12 paragraph statement to the judiciary outlining the emotional pain he and his family had experienced, while Leniu revealed at the hearing that it wasn’t until the following morning when an Indigenous woman explained to him the meaning of the term that he realised how offensive it was.

“It’s been a life-changing moment for him as well,” Robinson said of Leniu who was making his club debut.

“It’s been quite a humbling week for him.

“He’s been really respectful and honest the whole time, and at no point has he questioned the punishment or anything like that.

“It’s a time for him to move on and improve as well.”

The incident in Vegas was placed on report but wasn’t communicated to the Roosters, which is why Robinson concedes he got his words wrong when he said “he (Mam) obviously made the complaint but that doesn’t mean it’s right” in the post-match press conference.

“I should have handled that differently,” he said.

“But we didn’t have any comms of the incident, there was nothing in the stadium over there, there was no mic, and I went into that press conference unsure of what had happened on the field.

“I felt like people had already found him guilty, and I just wanted to say that there was a procedure, but the words that I used were wrong.”

That issue of assumed guilt has been a major talking point in rugby league over the past 10 days with a number of high-profile stars calling for Leniu to be banned for 12 matches before he’d had his day at the judiciary.

Robinson was measured when asked about whether that needed to change going forward given players and coaches aren’t supposed to give their views on hearings before they occur.

“This wasn’t a high tackle. This was very different,” he said.

“This had a big impact on society and all of society. What was on trial here wasn’t our game of sport, it was more language, and racism was on trial.

“I don’t have any problem with people talking out when it’s something that’s really strong for them. Obviously when it crossed the line into making judgements on what should happen from the NRL, that’s for the NRL to deal with.

“They’ll either do something about it, or they’ve allowed those rules to be pushed out and now we can all do very similar things when it comes to judgement before a hearing.”

Robinson wants this to lead to a societal shift away from using language that may not be intentionally hurtful, but has reached a point where it’s no longer acceptable to use in any context.

“This is a language issue. This is a common talk between people of often all ages, but from a very young age in sport, on the playground and right through to people in their 20s and 30s who use this language often,” he said, 24 hours after Manly’s Haumole Olakau’atu said he has repeatedly called “coconut” on the field.

“It’s not because they’re racist or trying to use power – it’s banter between guys. I’m not saying that this is right, but this is what’s on trial. We need to change the language with which we speak with each other.

“To call Spencer a racist is so far from the truth, but is that language right? You can never use that. But is that happening on a daily basis? It is.

“This needs to be a changing point for language and the way that people of the same class and the same community use this language, and that can’t happen.

“We had different language that we used 20 or 30 years ago that we wouldn’t even say now, and this needs to go there.”