Kerre Woodham: Women stand by their thugs

Another leaguie arrested for assault and another brainless bint standing by her man. Pin-up boy Greg Inglis has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend Sally Robinson after an incident at Robinson's Melbourne home.

It is unclear who reported the incident as Robinson doesn't want to press charges.

She told police the bruising to her face was a result of Botox injections.

When that explanation was treated with scepticism, she said Inglis was actually preventing her from self-harm.

Yeah. Right. What is it with these women?

The worst example is Katie Milligan, girlfriend of Greg Bird. Bird smashed a glass in Milligan's face, leaving her with permanent scarring around her eye, then tried to blame the attack on his flatmate.

Milligan refused to co-operate with police. She wrote an impassioned letter to the judge at Bird's sentencing, extolling Bird's virtues, claiming she had never been a battered wife, saying he was misunderstood and that she was standing by her man.

The judge was unmoved and Bird faces eight months in jail if his appeal is unsuccessful.

In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald this week, the wife of a former league player offered an insight into these women's minds.

Stressing that she herself had never been assaulted, Shireen Lolesi said that the girlfriends of league players are used to seeing their boys being physical on the field and that the men are trained to tackle and hit.

They are used to working things out physically and perhaps, because of this, the women are more accepting of violence.

Lolesi also said the young women were blinded by love and the lifestyle that comes with being the girlfriend of a league star.

They feel they can't possibly do any better and anything their man does will be forgiven and forgotten. It makes a certain kind of sick sense.

In this age of instant celebrity, where everyone wants their five minutes of fame, basking in the reflected glory of a famous young leaguie probably holds more appeal for some women than being the prettiest girl in Maroochydore working in the local Video Ezy.

If the price you have to pay for wearing designer clothes and being snapped by the paparazzi is the odd slap or punch, well, hell.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, after all.

I have no sympathy for the men who lose their contracts and their livelihoods as a result of domestic violence.

Most men would rather cut off their own hands than bash a woman, no matter the provocation.

But I'm fast losing sympathy with the airheads who choose to stand by their men, even after they've been knocked to the ground.

* www.kerrewoodham.com