Bennell, McKenzie & Matera fail to meet Suns' standards following win
goldcoastfc.com.au/news/2015-05-05/three-suns...
goldcoastfc.com.auPosted May 5, 2015, 4:58 AM UTC
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goldcoastfc.com.auMckenna, I miss you. Please come back. I miss this team being considered an opponent.
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Really just a glorious day for Queensland footy. Jesus.
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Hey, at least Qld teams aren't 17th and 18th this week!
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Matera what an idiot, just starting getting a regular game in the squad and now will probably struggle for the rest of the season. Dumbass.
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That's not good at all.
Good to see the club taking a stand. Can't afford to have culture problems at such a young club
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Hey Harley, I think the Eagles could be very accommodating about off field behavior...
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Shit we can at least hide it from the media better....for a couple years anyways!
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Then its in the media for the next decade
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Approaching 2nd decade quickly.
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Good thing they have an excellent reserves team to call upon.
Oh wait.
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Hey! They registered their first win in two years the other week!
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On Saturday. Hmm, I wonder if Gold Coast will play Raines this weekend?
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Raines is healthy? Huh. I thought he got a season-ending injury in the pre-season.
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He did a PCL in January. He was in the mix for round 5.
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Just as I think our season could not get any worse.
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Big outs for the Suns. Still, I hope this galvanises the rest of the team and at least they show up for the upcoming Crows game to make it interesting. As much as I'd love a good percentage boost a good contested game is so much more entertaining. With all the outs for the Suns and their form recently this is looking like it may turn into a blowout.
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I assume this is referring to overconsumption on alchohol? Or did they just overindulge on KFC or whatever? The article is rather vague.
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It is believed players were asked to steer clear of alcohol to concentrate on recovery in the wake of Saturday night's drought-breaking win over the Brisbane Lions. The trio breached the directive on Sunday.
From the AFL website.
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Fucking retards.
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Without knowing how much alcohol they had, I'm not sure if this is fair enough or a massive overreaction. Fully understandable decision if they decided to go out and get plastered, but if they only had a couple of quiet ones (which is what the article makes it sound like) then this seems insanely strict.
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I disagree, only for the fact that if they all agreed to a team rule to have 0 drinks, then the went and had >0 drinks, you should expect repercussions.
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I feel like it's the sort of thing that would be very hard to object to amongst your teammates, such that if one of the more vocal and respected clubmen proposed it you'd simply go along with it because the potential political consequences are too severe.
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Yep, absolutely. But sacrifices have to be made.
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Well, if they said they wouldn't then it's not strict, it's just holding them accountable.
That said...
"The player leadership group advised the coaches on Monday that they had challenged a group of players who had failed to live the standards agreed upon following Saturday's match.
Kinda makes me think that they turned up worse for wear, or enough for someone to smell it on them.
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I don't think that a strict zero drinks policy is reasonable in the first place. It implicitly encourages the use of other illegal substances as a replacement, it creates factions in the group, and it makes being a footballer a 24-7 job with no downtime. If they turned up worse for wear, then fair enough, you've got to cop it, but provided it's not impacting what happens at the club, it shouldn't be an issue what happens outside of the club .
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I don't think that a strict zero drinks policy is reasonable in the first place.
Maybe not for a season, but for a single week it shouldn't be too hard.
Again though, they (the players) supposedly discussed and agreed to it after Saturday's game.
With all that said, I agree with you that maybe it's not a great policy for any number of reasons - but it IS policy and if you have a standard set for you and then don't live up to it, you can expect to be reprimanded.
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If you're earning that much money in any white collar profession, you don't get that much "down time". Especially 8 weeks off at the end of the season.
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You also don't have to completely change your career by the time you're 30 in those professions. There's only a handful of ex-players who have the luxury of staying within football, the rest have to find jobs in the "real world" to make a living.
And even during the off season players are heavily scrutinized, if not by their club then by the media. You don't get any of that if you're earning that much money in a white collar profession.
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Gotta make a stand somewhere, this is where you draw the line and establish your clubs identity.
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if they only had a couple of quiet ones (which is what the article makes it sound like) then this seems insanely strict.
If they only had a couple of quiet ones no-one would have been able to tell. If they're drunk enough that it's obvious to their teammates the next day then there's a serious issue.
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There's no mention of them turning up noticeably drunk, just that the coaches were told on Monday that they hadn't lived up to expectation. It's not an implausible scenario that they had a couple of drinks with mates and it was shared on social media by someone and that was enough.
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Nothing should be celebrated more than notching your first win after 4 straight losses when you were considered a sure top 8 team. LETS GET SHITTY.
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Gold Coast have a real culture problem, just seems to be problem after problem at that club.
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[deleted]
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What are the other cultural problems?
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Yeah umm ...experimental injection regime? Oh no wait...
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Saw this on facebook, all the articles had the usual cries of "let the kids have a farkin beer!".
That attitude doesn't have a place in the league anymore. Like it or not this game is becoming more & more professional, & if your players are getting on the piss whilst other teams' aren't then you're going to fall behind.
If the players want a few drinks they should be smart enough just to do it at home or over a quiet meal & make sure they can get up for recovery the next morning.
If they want a few drinks they can get paid $1000 a game to play local footy and get as pissed on a Saturday night as they want. But if they want to be paid $500,000 a year, then they have to toe the line. Up to them.
Totally agree. We don't know anything for sure, but I doubt they're breathalysing them on the way into training, which means that their teammates were able to tell they weren't 100%.
Yes, let's be clear, I don't think Bennell, McKenzie and Matera reviewed a newly released cellar cabernet over roast lamb.
Bennell, McKenzie and Matera rocked up hungover.
Exactly. The vast majority of players would enjoy a quiet 1 or 2, they're just smart about it.
And there are few adults on earth, let alone people with elite athletic bodies, who couldn't function the morning after 1 or 2 beers.
Booze isn't the enemy, unless you're an idiot about it, which it sounds like these 3 were.