Breaking news: Man has fun at bucks party

K^2 says:

10:23am | 28/11/12

@Mahhrat - not really.  Society holds him in this position, personally I don’t - because at the end of the day he’s just a guy that chucks laps in some water.  Sure it takes dedication, hard work, etc etc, but so does success in anything.  Eamon is no more a role model than you personally impose on him.  There are people charged with disorderly conduct on a daily basis it really seems to be making a mountain out of a mole hill.  He’s a sportsman, he’s also a young man, and he’s also allowed to blow off steam like you or I would be, without everyone staring at him just waiting, waiting with baited breath, for him to stuff something up so they can cut him down like the tall poppy he is.

Woodsy says:

10:36am | 28/11/12

@K^2, couldn’t have said it better myself.

blair says:

10:42am | 28/11/12

K^2   Both comments are spot on.

Mahhrat says:

10:57am | 28/11/12

K^2, I actually agree with everything you say. Society does place some very unrealistic expectations on our highest achievers.

That’s kind of the point though.  We do.  We want our stars to be stars; perfect in every way.  That’s what we pay good money to see, that’s why we support the brands he promotes, that’s what makes him the huge money.

I reckon he should be free to unwind too; the problem is, you and I don’t appear to be in the majority.

marley says:

10:58am | 28/11/12

I’m of two minds about this.  Normally, I couldn’t care less if some bone-headed athlete does something stupid.  But this particular athlete has been doing his best to keep himself in the public eye through “nudist” ad campaigns for sugar, through reality cooking shows (if that’s not an oxymoron), and through an assortment of other TV contests and appearances.  He’s hardly in a position to complain if his efforts to market himself have drawn attention at an inconvenient moment.

The G says:

11:20am | 28/11/12

He isn’t a role model, he is a swimmer. It’s society that says he ‘should’ be a role model.

AFR says:

12:05pm | 28/11/12

May be moving off-topic slightly, but are these guys really on big money? Where do we draw the line in this regard? Is a football player on $50K per year held less accountable than one on a million?

Paul says:

12:27pm | 28/11/12

Rubbish - Being a sporting professional doesn’t mean you have to be a role model or conform to what the “fuddy-duddies” want you to be like.  Is this because of the sport he has chosen?

Anthony Mundine is famous but is hardly a role model, Cathy Freeman rocked the boat mixing politics with the Olympics… whats so special about swimming then? (Answer - Grannie watches it… which is no answer at all).

And don’t give that BS about “the dollars” either - Swimmers DO NOT MAKE MONEY persuing their sport.  They sacrifice their lives chasing a dream and drain their own wallets and that of their families in doing so.  If they get some sort of media career afterwards they are far from normal.

Sullivan is not damaging any sort of “brand” either… if anything he is “creating” one for himself (the larakin/wildboy/not PC but very Australian) and it is a brand that, like it or not,relates very well to young aussie males.

acotrel says:

01:30pm | 28/11/12

‘hooning around the streets of Gawler, South Australia on a ride-on motorised scooter that he “borrowed” from a local pensioner, John Guppy’

There is something fishy about this ?.

Mahhrat says:

01:39pm | 28/11/12

@Paul:

How many product lines does Eamon spruik using the fame he’s gathered from his profession?

That’s a lot of money.  Kierin Perkins is a multi-millionaire because the man sold an awful lot of milk (and is a shrewd businessman).

I think Gary Lyon makes something like $2 million a year hosting The Footy Show - that’s more per year than he made in his whole career playing AFL, if my sources are anywhere near accurate.

The sport itself isn’t what makes you wealthy (though at the elite levels of AFL, Cricket, Association Football and various others, it certainly can), it’s the fame that leads to the product selling.

You want to be the image of all those things, you have to be spotless. 

You’ve got to look at the whole situation.  Eamon isn’t a swimmer, he is a brand as well.  It’s the brand that’s tarnished, not just the swimming.

Paul says:

02:51pm | 28/11/12

“You want to be the image of all those things, you have to be spotless. “

Why?  Because you say so?

Ultimately this will be decided by the advertisers and _their_ customers (ie. not by the public at large).  So if Sullivan’s behaviour turns off one group, it may attract another.  Look at Kyle Sandilands or Alan Jones as examples.  They have a following - It’s not the majority of Australia but it doesn’t have to be.  Having the media brand you as the “bad boy of swimming” seems almost the actions of a genius (Although this assumes his continued stupidity is contrived… probably not but who knows).

Sullivan has a single Bronze medal for his individual effort.  There are more Olympians who have had better results that attract less advertising dollars.  Why?  Because they are boring, have no public profile and are therefore worthless to advertisers 3 years out of 4.  Just because you want him to conform to how you think he should act (ie. all pure and godlike) doesn’t mean that it is good business.

I get sick of this holier-than-thou attitude that some people have where they think that just because someone is in the public eye they can’t just be normal like the rest of us.

K^2 says:

04:09pm | 28/11/12

@Mahhrat - “That’s kind of the point though.  We do.  We want our stars to be stars; perfect in every way.”
Interesting analogy.  Let me expand on that analogy a bit though.

Stars as you put it, are just fixed luminous points, usually they are only visible when all else around you is dark (or darker in relation to the light it produces).  Near the end of its life, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter.

Really, stars are only luminous to us because of our perception. If we were on that star ourselves we wouldnt be shining as a point of light.  Also, stars are only visible when everything else around you is dark.

Peter says:

12:58pm | 28/11/12

Having been sentended to a year or so in Adelaide by a particularly cruel employer, I saw some sh**holes in the hinterland but could never bring myself to drive to Gawler. What would have been the point? Adelaide is bad enough. Adelaide without shops and an airport from which to make quick exit is another thing entirely.

Stuart says:

10:53am | 28/11/12

That’s right. We need to stamp out all the idiotic behaviour, not just that of the sportspeople who think they are above the rules!

Hammy says:

10:19am | 28/11/12

No different to the expectations placed on footballers.  Suck it up.

simonfromlakemba says:

10:37am | 28/11/12

Not to sure having an expectation not to steal an old codgers scooter is placing it too high, thought would be fairly common sense to me.

Swimmer or not still a fairly stupid thing to do.

Sickemrex says:

02:12pm | 28/11/12

Exactly. I don’t care whether you’re Joe Schmoe or Eamon Sullivan, if you have to spoil someone else’s day to “have fun”, you’re an inconsiderate dickhead.

Gordon says:

11:30am | 28/11/12

A few sherberts first might have made it easier!

iansand says:

12:08pm | 28/11/12

The problem was discovering that they cannot corner at top speed ( a gentle trotting pace).  The builders need to get a couple of Formula 1 engineers on board to sort out the suspensions.

Hammy says:

12:03pm | 28/11/12

Since when wasn’t it?  Modern times, my friend, modern times. RSI is the new media enemy.

AFR says:

12:08pm | 28/11/12

I’d say the opposite: if it was joe blow, we wouldn’t never have heard anything about it.

Flick says:

12:44pm | 28/11/12

I can see the sarcasm oozing out my screen!

Stuart says:

12:56pm | 28/11/12

There’s a novel idea - the police or licensing agency could actually get off their shinny backsides and ENFORCE some of the laws we have. There’s a proven strategy for crime prevention - doing something about the problem. As long as the people who ignore the rules know they will never get punished there is no incentive to actually do the right thing. We reap what we sow - no enforcement = more problems.

Stuart says:

01:01pm | 28/11/12

Agree that the shouldn’t be role models but they are. Anyone in the public arena is a potential role model by virtue of the fact that their behaviours are seen by, and potentially influence, many others. So he is a role model, whether we like it or not.

marley says:

01:58pm | 28/11/12

He did hurt a couple of people.  Buck’s party or not, that’s really pretty poor behaviour, I’d have thought.

Benjamin says:

02:45pm | 28/11/12

Marley,
I’d like to inform you that I believe you have no sense of humour. I haven’t got past the title.

marley says:

03:14pm | 28/11/12

@Benjamin - I’d like to inform you that you’re absolutely right.

(I liked the title too.  I just don’t like Olympic athletes behaving here as though they were still in the Olympic village waiting for their race to be called.)

Benjamin says:

12:57pm | 28/11/12

I disagree, I think there are way too many men having fun at bucks parties. We need a royal commision. Men having fun at bucks parties is unacceptable.

K^2 says:

03:00pm | 28/11/12

@Benjamin - not to mention that its mysoginistic!