St Kilda

Just like that, the St Kilda scandal engulfed another victim.

On Channel 7’s Sunday Night was a much-hyped interview with Kim’s parents. Kim being the 17-year-old at the centre of the St Kilda scandal. Parents Tony and Susan went on television and spoke of their horror at being called “bad parents”, the death threats levelled against them, and their fears for the safety of their younger daughter, who is just 10.

Then there’s a gratuitous shot of Kim jogging through a park with her little sister. So now everyone knows what this young girl, who is arguably the only innocent one in the whole sordid mess, looks like.

Continue reading "St Kilda scandal: Guilty parents, an innocent child" »

As Lainie Anderson wrote in this piece yesterday, it’s wrong for anyone, let alone the likes of Peter Costello, to cast aspersions on the character of all footballers based on a few sporadic incidents. Because really, when you’re dealing with up to 1,000 blokes between 18 and 32, a bit of Tony Abbott’s favourite phrase is going to happen from time to time.

But this stuff with The Girl at the heart of the St Kilda facebook pictures scandal, and her allegations about big time player agent Ricky Nixon is a bad business. This is some seriously low rent theatre we’re watching now.

Let’s start with the girl first. The 17 year old schoolgirl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, first came in contact with St Kilda players who visited her school on a footy clinic.

Continue reading "Grubby & grubbier: The sad girl and the wayward agent" »

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.

Continue reading "Exorcising the devil in the Saints" »

The “St. Kilda schoolgirl” and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange have, surprisingly, a lot in common.

Bear with me. Just as Assange’s careful trickle of classified cables gave the broadsheets something to write about daily (The Wikileaks Saga: Day 255 -Assange grows beard), the St Kilda school girl’s systematic release of nude and suggestive photos gave her an upper hand over the mainstream news media.

While Assange comes from a journalistic and computer hacker background, and the closest Miss St Kilda has probably come is reading Dolly magazine and getting her MySpace spammed, their strategic release of classified information into the public sphere is, surprisingly, similar.

Continue reading "For all our eyes only" »

Who is the real victim in the AFL nude scandal case? The 17-year-old girl who alleges she slept with a star AFL player and then was dumped and ignored by his club?

Or the other footballers who have been publicly humiliated after homoerotic images of their post-season bonding flooded the net? What makes this scandal problematic is that the young woman’s aggressive, clumsy attempts to exact highly publcised retaliation have left us struggling to identify who is the victim in this grubby scenario.

Both sides in this case are making blatant public grabs to claim the moral high ground and the public’s sympathy, but both have opened themselves up to voracious public condemnation for their behaviour.

Continue reading "Playing the media can be a dangerous game" »

Another day, another footballer caught up in a scandal.

Today it’s Riewoldt fronting the media in defence of explicit pictures a teenager posted on Facebook.

He says he asked the photographer to delete the photos. Smart. He didn’t make sure that happened. Dumb.

Continue reading "Football scandal spreads on internet. Again." »

The Magpies’ 20-year premiership drought is over. Collingwood players were soaking up the sweetest feeling in AFL today after their 56-point annihilation of St Kilda in the Grand Final replay.

The nervous tension expended in last week’s draw proved to help the Magpies. Today they moved with confidence and precision.

The Pies blew away their cobwebs in last week’s draw. It proved a blessing in disguise as the Pies finally executed on their game plan.

Continue reading "So long, Colliwobbles" »

On the eve of the AFL Grand Final, I wrote just two words. Colliwobble Day.

It wasn’t a deliberate curse – I was simply acting on a sickly feeling that the Magpies might kind of wobble.

My instincts proved right, when the Pies died in the second half of their Grand Final showdown against the Saints. It’s scary, when you feel those Colliwobbles invading the hallowed turf once more.

Continue reading "What the hell was that? The big AFL let-down" »

Last week while much of eastern Australia struggled with visibility I had a moment of surprising clarity.

Having ceded control of my diary years ago to my assistant Sav, nowadays I have about three hours visibility in my life. I know what I am doing up till about 10.30am but after midday it starts to get foggy.

And yet for three weeks I was completely aware that I would be in Cairns on Friday, September 25. Even more amazingly I was thinking about what to wear.

Continue reading "I am, you are, we are Geelong" »

COLLINGWOOD’S stinging loss to Geelong on Saturday night wasn’t a classic case of Colliwobbles.

The Cats were at their destructive best, as they are hell bent on avenging last year’s heartbreaking Grand Final loss to Hawthorn.

When you have as someone as passionate as Gary Ablett driving Geelong’s midfield, it is tough to stop their charter to win the 2009 AFL Grand Final against St Kilda.

Continue reading "Ablett the key to 2009 flag" »