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Exorcising the devil in the Saints

Julie Tullberg

by Julie Tullberg

03 Feb 05:50am

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Filed under: Afl, Football, Scandal, Sport, St Kilda

29 comments

St Kilda, you’ve done it again. After escaping to New Zealand to train in peace after the shocking, dragged-out nude photo-schoolgirl scandal, a group of Saints have disgraced themselves.


Alcohol, drugs and late nights are often on the agenda of young people wanting to have fun. It acts as a form of escapism, as the youths unwittingly rebel against strict team rules, in the case of the four St Kilda bad boys. They’ve been like naughty boys on school camp, rather than a bunch of committed, professional athletes.

What was Zac Dawson thinking? After being caught in an embarrassing photo with a fully naked Nick Reiwoldt (Dawson’s skipper, mind you), Dawson, 24, got up to strife with three younger players - Rhys Stanley, Jack Steven and Paul Cahill. The players have been disciplined, including a six-week ban and a hefty fine each - but they have dented their reputations.

After the St Kilda schoolgirl fiasco broke last year, I warned the AFL community of potential hazards, as players fall for the trappings of a privileged like, including hard partying. Alcohol, drugs and girls – a potent mix that is potentially career-ending.

AFL players have been humiliated through the press, mostly because they make terrible decisions. Call it karma. Call it “what goes around comes around”. Were the players asking for it? Yes. They were naughty. Devilish.

All these issues have an over-riding theme - human weakness.  For the players to change this behaviour, they need to identify their weaknesses. The four Saints will undergo counselling.

Will the Saints’ disciplinary action help these footballers? The players in strife need to work at turning their weaknesses into their strengths. Can the players stay off alcohol? Can they entertain people in the community rather than entertaining themselves?

People will often fail before they succeed. They will make bad decisions which impacts on their lives. But the question is: can these players overcome these issues and fire up on the footy field? Will it fuel them into positive action?

St Kilda has acted the best way it knows how in managing off-field incidents. But are the club’s actions really working? Will the embarrassing events of the past year fire up the club and lead them to another Grand Final berth?

The players under scrutiny will be tested in difficult situations this year, particularly with the inevitable sledging from opponents and footy fans. The pressure-cooker world of AFL will test their character in extreme situations. Are they up for the fight?

Most commented

29 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • S.L says:

      06:30am | 03/02/11

      Too much money, time, publicity and adulation from the sports media and a severe lack of grey matter affects many profesional sportsman, not just AFL or NRL knuckledraggers when mixing with us mere mortals in the general public. What’s the solution? Well if commentators stop kissing their backsides and their clubs stop sweeping indescretions under the table that might be a start.

      Reply

    • Kerryn says:

      07:17am | 03/02/11

      As far as I am concerned, all involved are over 18, therefore all involved are adults and should start acting like it.  I’m a 22 year old with Aspergers for pete’s sake, and I act with more professionalism than these guys do!  How hard is it to follow a few rules and leave the booze go for a few days (I haven’t had alcohol in years!).

      Saints, Fev, and any other player who thinks he’s “all that” - you’re still expected to behave like an adult, just like the rest of us, so get over yourself and THINK before you ACT.  If I’d done something like this at work, I’d be toast before the news hit the headline - and I’m only desktop support!

      Reply

    • Tim the Toolman says:

      08:26am | 03/02/11

      I used to think Fevola was an idiot…now I’m not so sure.  There are so many restrictions and so much focus on them, that if they’re going to be nationally roasted every time they so much as cross the road when the red man is flashing, they may as well go all out and really have fun.  The shorter the leash, the more the dog struggles.

      Reply

    • Rob says:

      08:35am | 03/02/11

      Although scandals still happen, i had the opportunity last year to have a look at some of the sports programs operating in American universities.

      In many major sports, these are the training grounds for future major league players.

      There are a couple of observations that really show a contrast with what “we” do with our up-and-coming sporting stars:

      In a College environment, talented players spend most of there time with other young players, and with a full complement of coaches and staff who are committed to them being excellent players, but also spending the rest of their time profitably in study, etc (if grades fall, scholarship players can and are cut from teams).

      There is an emphasis on preparing students for life, through developing leadership skills, that include learning to take personal responsibility for actions; to develop team work skills; and to look out for your team mates.

      In AFL, what we do is completely different:

      We identify a 16 or 17 year old kid from the country; draft him to a team in a capital city (often interstate); put him in an environment with very well paid, older players who teach him about nightclubs, and how to get free passes and complementary drink cards and the great opportunity that presents to pick-up.

      We train them to believe their own publicity and to behave like self-indulgent kids.

      It seems incongruous that we are then disappointed when they don’t behave like mature, responsible citizens, exercising sound judgement and personal discipline.

      Reply

    • Grow up says:

      09:27am | 03/02/11

      The Saints have serious issues.
      They think they are hot.
      They think they are superior.
      They think they are god’s gift.
      They think they can get away with anything.
      They are arrogrant and cocky.
      Grow up.

      Reply

    • Steve M says:

      03:08pm | 03/02/11

      lol. Dig, you arent suggesting Grow up should grow up are you?

    • Ego driven says:

      09:34am | 03/02/11

      Jocks, meatheads. Are they better than that? Do they have a brain. Simple advice guys - stay away from the booze and attention-seeking predators. Let you parents boost your egos.

      Reply

    • Justin says:

      09:34am | 03/02/11

      I wrote this in the comments on Ant Sharwood’s piece about the Me Me Me in sport the other day:

      If you make it to the elite level of a sport, chances are you were light-years ahead of your schoolmates in the sport at school & were fawned upon by fellow students, teachers & coaches. You did a few things wrong at school & were allowed to get away with it - you were deemed too important for school pride to be severely punished. Just make sure you turn up Thursday arvo or Saturday morning & you’ll be sweet. I saw this at school with a now former NRL player.

      You would’ve made junior rep teams &, again, you would’ve been better than your team mates, so you would’ve been given more slack.

      Then, you get picked up by a club & who are you surrounded by? Older blokes who all trod the same path. The senior players when they arrived took them out for big nights & showed them what they could get away with, so now they’re showing you. You’ve effectively been surrounded by other guys who have never left the circle - these are groups of guys in their late teens & twenties that are effectively in the same pattern as they have been since 14-15. They haven’t grown up, but now they have the ways & means to access all sorts of vices.

      If you were a 15 yr old bloke & had a stack of cash, a perfect fake ID, all the adulation in the world & had girls throwing themselves at you, what would you do? And would you record it on your phone? At 15 that probably seems like a good idea as you can then back up your bragging with your mates.

      And that’s what they do, because they’re effectively cashed up, horny teenagers.

      Reply

    • Real man says:

      09:59am | 03/02/11

      They just embarrass themselves. Real men are those who save lives, help the world, invent stuff like Facebook. The Saints are embarrassing.

    • AdamC says:

      12:38pm | 03/02/11

      Justin, I totally agree that professional sportsmen live in a sort of extended adolescence, except with lots of cash and willing sex partners.

      However, I see the St Kilda issues as being primarily a management failure. Why have club officials not prevented an unacceptable culture to develop? It doesn’t bode well - on-field performance is a lagging indicator of poor culture.

    • Justin says:

      01:47pm | 03/02/11

      I totally agree that it’s a management failure, but they’re up against a lot of ingrained conditioning.

      I think that the way it needs to be addressed is money. The sponsors pay the bills & club management need to say to the players, “these guys pay the bills & they want you to act a certain way at all times. If you don’t, you’re gone.” With the AFL, it would be easy to centralize the de-registration so that they can’t go elsewhere. Harder in League or Union (or Soccer) as there are alternatives both locally or overseas for players.

      Most workplaces have changed dramatically because of female employees as equals. That simply can’t happen in most elite sporting clubs, so you need a plan B. Hold their cash hostage. Don’t threaten small amounts, threaten the lot & future amounts too.

    • Devil inside says:

      09:40am | 03/02/11

      Isn’t that normal for a football club? Drinks, more drinks? Social drug taking? Trying to look tough in front of their mates? Go Saints. Remember what Michael Hutchence said .... Devil Inside

      Here come the man
      With the look in his eye
      Fed on nothing
      But full of pride
      Look at them go
      Look at them kick
      Makes you wonder how the other half live

      The devil inside
      The devil inside
      Every single one of us the devil inside

      Reply

    • Ian says:

      10:03am | 03/02/11

      So does this mean these Saints are like anyone else, with the devil inside?

    • MarK says:

      11:31am | 03/02/11

      It is like West Coast all over again.

      Lyons should just institute the no dickhead rule. Works pretty good as a filter for Sydney

      Reply

    • Tim says:

      11:48am | 03/02/11

      Who really cares that a few young men took a sleeping tablet(s) with some alcohol?
      The AFL lets their players test positive to recreational drugs three times before kicking them out. How is this a big issue?
      I couldn’t care less if a footy player (or anyone else for that matter) wants to take drugs for fun as long as the drugs aren’t performance enhancing and the person doesn’t adversely affect someone else while on them.
      Surely there are bigger issues in sport to deal with than this.

      Reply

    • horseboy says:

      12:49pm | 03/02/11

      Honestly get some friggin perspective.  They haven’t hurt anyone.  They went out and had a few drinks, just like 95% of people under the age of 25 do.  What they did may not have been professional but that is why the club has dealt with it - it’s NOT that exciting.

      Reply

    • Clancy of Sydney says:

      12:59pm | 03/02/11

      Going by most of the posts in this forum and what i hear in the media, i think it is pretty obvious what most Australians want in their sportsman. So there is only one thing for it…. send all our sporting recruiters high up in the Himalayan mountains of Tibet so they can recruit only Tibetan Monks from now on!

      Reply

    • HappyCynic says:

      01:11pm | 03/02/11

      All they’re doing is having some fun.  They’re young, rich and women want to be with them.  If I was lucky enough to be them I would be doing a lot worse and if some stuffed shirt of a football club thought it had the right to tell me how I was allowed to spend my spare time I’d tell them where they can stick their rules and regulations.

      Imagine if you will that you work in an office and the HR department tells you that you’re not allowed to go out for Friday drinks after work because it makes your company look bad.  The rules imposed on footy players are no different and frankly it’s also unfair that footy clubs get blamed for their players acting like normal kids.

      Reply

    • Mary Monica Roche says:

      03:24pm | 03/02/11

      St George Illawarra won the 2010 NRL Grand Final whereas St Kilda lost the 2010 AFL Grand Final .
      As a result, Australian Football League Runners Up St Kilda are celebrating Ground Hog Day by behaving worse than Ground Hogs in an infant school pig sty

      Reply

    • Like it says:

      04:17pm | 03/02/11

      Yeah, I like this smile

    • Mary Monica Roche says:

      03:29pm | 03/02/11

      Last year in 2010
      St George Illawarra won the 2010 NRL Premiership Grand Final
      St Kilda lost the 2010 AFL Grand Final.

      Now we find out St Kilda, the red light district of Melbourne have Demons within their midst.
      Can the Saints be exorcised before the 2011 season??

      .

      Reply

    • Mary Monica Roche says:

      03:31pm | 03/02/11

      St Kilda is not St George Illawarra.
      St Kilda must be exorcised of its Demons.

      Reply

    • Must win says:

      04:19pm | 03/02/11

      The Saints need to win a Grand Final to get back on track. Or will they get out of control and drink, drink, drink.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      08:30pm | 03/02/11

      Darryl Baldock died yesterday.
      He was the St Kilda Captain when they won their only Premiership in 1966, and I was there.
      I also met Mr. Baldock. At about 1964, he came to our school, (South Melb. Primary), and he showed us how to handball.
      (All kids can kick acorns and those crappy play-lunch milk cartons, so we didn’t need to know how to kick.)
      He was stocky and friendly, and, I never imagined that, 47 years later, I, (then with wide eyes, crew-cut and jug-handle ears) would be writing about his death today, on this page.
      He was mighty.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      08:55pm | 03/02/11

      Sorry, Sth Melb. East primary, ‘case anyone checks.

      Reply

    • You were right says:

      05:53am | 04/02/11

      stephen. I hunted through the school newsletters in 1964. It was South MElbourne East. you were right

    • stephen says:

      12:14pm | 04/02/11

      Mate, I’m always right.

    • Sugiarta says:

      01:50pm | 02/06/12

      I was under the impression the Brass Monkey was hanivg a BBQ, but you mentioned pies? My friend emailed them last week to organise where we could all go and ask if there was beer specials for non anzcham members as well but he wasn’t emailed back. We ended up at the Tavern with about 20 other Aussies eating chicken parmas and aussie chops from their Aussie buffet . Was an absolute cracker of a game!

      Reply
 
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