When the NRL first announced its venture to Vegas, I doubt I was the only one who immediately thought of the potential off-field trouble players might find themselves in.
Let’s be honest, Vegas isn’t called “Sin City” for nothing, and with the way off-field incidents have been creeping up in recent seasons, it wasn’t unreasonable to expect some drama.
But for the most part, last year’s trip went smoothly.
This year, however, the headlines broke: a hotel altercation between Canberra Raiders teammates Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies.
Details emerged that the two had a physical altercation at the team hotel, requiring security to intervene.
But what eventually stood out wasn’t the incident itself—it was how the Raiders handled it.
Instead of keeping things vague or deflecting questions, coach Ricky Stuart was completely upfront with the media when questioned about it, explaining what had happened, naming the players involved, and expressing his disappointment.
Then, in a bold move, both Young and Smithies fronted the media themselves. They owned up to their actions, apologised, and shifted their focus back to the season opener.
This is rare in professional sport. Many clubs would have kept things behind closed doors, let speculation build, and dragged the issue out.
But by choosing honesty and accountability, the Raiders quickly put the matter to rest (at least until they return home).
And as a result, they weren’t distracted by the fallout. They got on with business and went on to dominate the Warriors 30-8.
This response isn’t just a good strategy for handling mistakes in sport—it’s also the way we should approach our spiritual lives.
At some point, we all sin. We all make mistakes. And when that happens, there’s always the temptation to avoid dealing with it properly.
Sometimes we make excuses, convincing ourselves that circumstances justified our actions.
Other times, we try to handle it on our own, as if we can fix our spiritual failures privately without involving God or the people we’ve hurt.
Or we do the opposite—we get so overwhelmed by guilt and shame that we convince ourselves we’re beyond redemption.
But the Catholic faith teaches us that sin isn’t meant to be ignored, nor is it meant to define us.
Instead, we are called to take ownership of our failures and turn to God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Christ gave us this sacrament so that we don’t have to carry our sins alone. When we acknowledge and confess our sins with sincerity, God forgives us and restores us to his grace.
But that mercy isn’t given so we can continue in sin without consequence—it’s meant to transform us.
That’s the difference between worldly sorrow and Godly repentance—one keeps us stuck in the past, while the other propels us forward toward who we are meant to be.
The Raiders showed us what that looks like.
For them, it meant looking ahead to the job of winning a footy game. For us, it’s the lifelong pursuit of holiness.
But the lesson is the same—when we fail, we don’t let it define us. We turn back to God, and by his grace, we keep moving forward.
As St John Climacus put it, to repent “is to see not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I might yet become.”
