Tallis:
Players work hard enough as it is

Brisbane Broncos captain Gorden Tallis says those saying rugby league players have too much time on their hands and should get part-time jobs need to have a look at the weekly schedules of footballers.

Outlining his grueling schedule in Queensland?s Courier Mail newspaper this week, Tallis said the only full day off he had was Friday, and even that was a rarity.

Tallis made the comments after some media commentators attributed bad behaviour in the game to players having too much spare time. Federal Opposition leader Mark Latham also suggested players should look into getting part-time work.

?|I don't want to give the impression that I'm whingeing about my lot in life because I'm not,? Tallis said in his regular column for the newspaper.

?I regard myself as privileged to be playing a game I love and getting well paid for it and after what happened to me a couple of years ago I know just how lucky I am.

?But I reckon I might find it hard to squeeze a job in on that weekly schedule. As captain, I have a few promotional commitments the other players don't have but the bottom line is that every player in the top 25 at the Broncos, or any other club, has to be available to train whenever and wherever they're required.?

Tallis said he doubted that any boss would allow a player to take a few hours of work at short notice because he had to go to training.

?At the same time, I think there would be value in younger or fringe players having jobs although some of the guys who would fall into that category at the Broncos are doing uni or TAFE courses and they'd struggle to fit in training, lectures, study and work.?

Before the Super League war erupted and changed the financial face of the game, most players had part-time or full-time work to subsidise what they earned playing football.

Tallis says whether it be media commitments, training, playing the game or recovery sessions, there?s something to be done every day of the week, now that the game has become much like a professional business.

Meanwhile, Shane Webcke says his attitude was not in the right place in the first half of last weekend?s game with the Wests Tigers at Suncorp Stadium.

?There were no rhythm problems out there for me, the problem was thinking I can pass every time I run the ball. I don?t know what was going through my head,? Webcke said.

Webcke was dropped mid-way through the first half by coach Wayne Bennett after dropping the ball a handful of times.

?Once I got that out of the game I was fine. I think I managed to get through the entire second half without and error.

?It?s all attitude and mine wasn?t where it should have been when we started.?