This was tucked away in an article in the Herald Sun today, mostly about a potential Preuss trade.

Harley Bennell will be cut from the Demons after a disappointing finish to his time at the club.

Bennell, who was lined up to secure a contract extension a fortnight ago, broke COVID-19 protocols and dismissed Melbourne’s attempts to bring him back to Maroochydore.

Right decision in the end unfortunately. 

Just hope he gets his life in order now.

Yeah I mean if we tried to get him back and he said no, then clearly we have to let him go and do what he needs to do for his own health and well-being. 

Jeepers, if we had actually made the decision to give him another contract, we'd want to be 100% sure about cutting based on this incident.

I'm not saying the incident couldn't be bad enough - we really just need to be absolutely sure this is the right call.

1 hour ago, Lord Nev said:

This was tucked away in an article in the Herald Sun today, mostly about a potential Preuss trade.

Harley Bennell will be cut from the Demons after a disappointing finish to his time at the club.

Bennell, who was lined up to secure a contract extension a fortnight ago, broke COVID-19 protocols and dismissed Melbourne’s attempts to bring him back to Maroochydore.

Yet another experiment gone sour.  I liked the idea at the time and easy to say in hindsight but what a waste of time and resources this endeavour turned out to be.

9 hours ago, Rusty Nails said:

Yet another experiment gone sour.  I liked the idea at the time and easy to say in hindsight but what a waste of time and resources this endeavour turned out to be.

Still think it was worth it. He didn't cost us any time, money or resources that we wouldn't have been spending anyway. Bit of nice PR for the club never hurts, even if it doesn't amount to much.

I think one of the biggest positives is that we've demonstrated that our medical team is capable of bringing back a perennially injured player to match fitness (g'day Joe Daniher if ya reading mate).

Such a shame, i was really excited to see what he could have produced with a full pre-season. definitely felt like he contributed something to the club. 

can't do much when the player pulls a stunt like this though

All he had to do was wait 4 to 5 days and he was free to do what he wanted.  We aren't talking about a player that is young and inexperienced in life, he is experienced trying to win a new contract no matter what the circumstances may be he made a poor choice that will end his time on any AFL list.

My information is that the incident may have been salvageable from another contract point of view.. but its the way he has handled it after, refusing to take the calls or discuss anything with the club.. its not so much the incident, its the way he has handled it that has really made it straight forward decision.  The club is disappointed that after all the efforts they have put into him, he has not had the respect to discuss with the club and apologise and show any remorse.. especially after what was promised at the start of the year.

Just a bit of a mess sadly, and the club has done everything right, in the end, this will be because of Harley and no one else.

On 9/24/2020 at 11:42 AM, Dannyz said:

This mail is wrong. Term's had been agreed on a contract for 2021 with Harley subject to the finalisation of list numbers not dropping below 36 (Unlikely). 

What about this? You sounded very confident Dannyz. Any update from your end?

9 minutes ago, Demon3 said:

My information is that the incident may have been salvageable from another contract point of view.. but its the way he has handled it after, refusing to take the calls or discuss anything with the club.. its not so much the incident, its the way he has handled it that has really made it straight forward decision.  The club is disappointed that after all the efforts they have put into him, he has not had the respect to discuss with the club and apologise and show any remorse.. especially after what was promised at the start of the year.

Just a bit of a mess sadly, and the club has done everything right, in the end, this will be because of Harley and no one else.

That’s interesting. Also the fact that he played so few games and wasn’t picked in the second half of the season, pinpoint to what must be real concern about his footy. 

What a fool.  nice way to repay the faith the club showed him

he has thrown away his last chance.

By the looks of his Instagram.. its over and he has accepted it. What a shame but hope he can stay on the right path, family is his biggest investment and priority. Good luck to him. Once a Demon always a demon.

Sad that it's worked out this way.
Looked like it could have been a really positive story to come out of 2020 and beyond.
Pretty deflating.

Glad that the club took a chance on him and a credit to our medic and fitness staff that they got his body right.

 

Officially retired

https://twitter.com/melbournefc/status/1310391213262921728?s=20https://twitter.com/melbournefc/status

/1310391213262921728?s=20

Edited September 28, 20205 yr by Demonland
Admin Edit: Added Club's official Tweet

Sad that it ended this way, but it's for the best. Harley clearly struggled both mentally and physically this year. Though he was able to get back playing, he was still a shell of his former self on-field.  

It's a credit to our fitness staff that they got him back fit enough to get through AFL matches without breaking down. No other club was able to get him to the level we did. Combine that with a brilliant injury run this season and the fitness and medical staff get a massive tick for 2020.

On 9/24/2020 at 11:42 AM, Dannyz said:

This mail is wrong. Term's had been agreed on a contract for 2021 with Harley subject to the finalisation of list numbers not dropping below 36 (Unlikely). 

Looks like it was your mail that was wrong unfortunately, not mine.

On 9/24/2020 at 5:58 PM, JimmyGadson said:

 

Sounds like your your post hasn't worked out..

Sounds like your your post hasn't worked out.. ?

I'm very proud of the efforts of the club in all of this.

Well done to the Footy Dept in backing itself in, it didn't work out but so be it. From the above it looks like that was solely on Harley, not the work put in by the club. Best of luck for the future Harley, I hope you find a positive and happy future for yourself and your family.

Warning lights everywhere. In the hub the player support network was busy and lots of players had issues, Harley however chose his own way. He cut contact with the club after the incident and his initial excuse was shown to be false. OK so Ross Lyon has mentioned that Harley has issues way more significant than footy. I wish him well but there is no way he could stay.

He has lost the confidence of the players (not naming my source) and has cost one of the support staff their job next year. $ 50K is someones job and that is just selfish.

36 minutes ago, Demon3 said:

By the looks of his Instagram.. its over and he has accepted it. What a shame but hope he can stay on the right path, family is his biggest investment and priority. Good luck to him. Once a Demon always a demon.

Its a shame it finished like this.

Nice words D3.

Best of luck Harvey with future endeavors.

 

The story here had so much potential but ultimately it delivered a really disappointing outcome.

At least it’s resolved any lingering questions as to what Harley could otherwise have achieved in his AFL career.

I feed sad about this.

 

Pity it didn't work.

Did enjoy his first goal for the club and the players getting around him.

Seems the spirit and trust in him may have waned based on some of the comments above though. 

 

Proud of his efforts, and proud of the club to get him back on the park, but an absolute waste of talent. Could have been great for us going forward and he threw it away. 

Obviously there were the recent off field issues, but in terms of on field maybe we thought he was never going to be able to get back to his best? I mean he did basically miss about 5 years of his career with his calf issues.

All the best , for the future, Harley.