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WELCOME TO THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - HARLEY BENNELL


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9 hours ago, Supreme_Demon said:

Almost tempted to just sack him.

If I cost the organisation I work for $50,000 I would be sacked.

Harley also broke his promise not to touch alcohol when we recruited him.

I reckon Simon Goodwin would be filthy and so should Max Gawn and the rest of the players.

 

It's a pretty rubbish effort from him, but on the other hand the club has played him out for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marketing content, free publicity and so forth, so he's probably still in credit on the whole 'look at us, we're turning around the life of a troubled kid' story.

Imagine how many times we would've had to sack Garry Lyon and the players of his time, or Jack Watts, or... or... or... and so forth.

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I can only imagine how gutted, disappointed and angry that Pert, Goodwin and Burgo must be.  We gave him his final chance.  
 

He has responsibilities.  His family. His future. Where else do you earn such $$$ and be do well looked after. Footy is a privilege and his talent might be wasted.  It’s been a tough year but the rules are there to protect everyone. 
 

It’s very sad. 
 

Big call by the club now.  I think he’s probably lost his chance. I’ll back the clubs decision either way.  

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6 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Club will keep him. If we dump him, some other club will pick him up as a low risk/high reward "free swing". We'll get to watch him tear it up after we put in the effort of working out his injury problem and solving it.

That will be the thinking anyway.

I think he's damaged goods in terms of being an AFL player. I don't believe any club will go near him after this incident. It's not as serious as the Stack and Coleman-Jones kebab incident but it's just as stupid.

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The human in me says keep him, far riskier future for Harley if we were to drop him now.

 

The Football club administrator in me says cut ties with him. If we were a club with a strong culture that didn’t need much maintenance you could probably carry him but the reality is we’ve got a culture/environment that needs PLENTY of work so dedicating time towards getting a troubled 28yo right just isn’t a sensible decision.  The risk for MFC is far greater than the upside now with Harley.

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May went drinking last season when he was injured. Did people call for him to be sacked? No. Yes it's a mistake, a covid breach and a costly on at that. He's been isolated in the hub without being selected for a number of weeks, not saying what he did was ok but he shouldn't be crucified either. 

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Well now that he has been suspended and the club fined, it is open for informed comment. 
It is very disappointing for all concerned in this and especially as Harley was given a lifeline by the club, when his footy  career appeared over. He is a husband and father and presumably this is his main source of income and to put that at risk is really unbelievable. 
FWIW I think they will give him a one year deal.

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36 minutes ago, RedFox said:

May went drinking last season when he was injured. Did people call for him to be sacked? No. Yes it's a mistake, a covid breach and a costly on at that. He's been isolated in the hub without being selected for a number of weeks, not saying what he did was ok but he shouldn't be crucified either. 

Completely different situation. Harley has form. May broke team rules, not league and state rules relating to Covid. 

Drinking is not illegal. Going outside of the hub to an authorized place is and puts at risk our entire club, not to mention the AFL.

Imagine he caught Covid, walked back to the hub and we made finals. Not to mention we are hubbing with another team who is in finals. It has disaster written all over it, which is precisely why the AFL is so hard on these breaches. 

Edited by Jaded
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35 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Well now that he has been suspended and the club fined, it is open for informed comment. 
It is very disappointing for all concerned in this and especially as Harley was given a lifeline by the club, when his footy  career appeared over. He is a husband and father and presumably this is his main source of income and to put that at risk is really unbelievable. 
FWIW I think they will give him a one year deal.

He has form in this area Mr. Leg. It is not the first time.  Leopards and spots I think. 

Oh almost forgot we finished 9th did you notice. 

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14 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Completely different situation. Harley has form. May broke team rules, not league and state rules relating to Covid. 

Drinking is not illegal. Going outside of the hub to an authorized place is and puts at risk our entire club, not to mention the AFL.

Imagine he caught Covid, walked back to the hub and we made finals. Not to mention we are hubbing with another team who is in finals. It has disaster written all over it, which is precisely why the AFL is so hard on these breaches. 

Did he go back in the hub?

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1 minute ago, deanox said:

Did he go back in the hub?

No he didn't, but I have no idea if it was because he was found out and then stopped. From what I read he's isolating in a separate hotel now. 

I doubt his plan was to leave the hub and not return, given his partner and baby are both still in there. 

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11 hours ago, DaisyDeeciple said:

My mail is this is not a story about 'booze', lets give it 24 hours before we assemble the bonfire, get some facts, the guy has been getting his running going again, has been a long way off sustaining his high intensity running and you would have to think with a  preseason his numbers could be good. All season he did not breakdown or re injure himself. And if this incident does resolve around getting a bigger car and a car seat for a kid, while STUPID, is not the end of the world. Wasn't like he was doing lines with  Karmichael Hunt.

We need to get behind him. People are very quick to form a lynch party these days.

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25 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Completely different situation. Harley has form. May broke team rules, not league and state rules relating to Covid. 

Drinking is not illegal. Going outside of the hub to an authorized place is and puts at risk our entire club, not to mention the AFL.

Imagine he caught Covid, walked back to the hub and we made finals. Not to mention we are hubbing with another team who is in finals. It has disaster written all over it, which is precisely why the AFL is so hard on these breaches. 

Understood, it's a different set of circumstances. I'm making a point of people are so quick to say sack him without knowing all of the details, and it is a huge double standard to have that attitude towards Harley and not Spargo, Kozzie, and to a lesser extent May last year. I for one hope we support Harley and don't abandon him, he's had troubled life and I'd like to hope we get around him and give him an opportunity to repay the faith we've put in him. Would be a shame for it to end like this

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18 minutes ago, old dee said:

Last one is yet to come.

Vice captain is moving  to Geelong.

So there is a silver lining then. Given his salary we can expect an end of  first round pick!

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13 hours ago, Lord Nev said:

Nowhere near as bad as has been made out by a rabid and not very factually concerned media who only care about being first.

Bloke has made a mistake and owned up, story has been overblown though.

 

Good on ya for sticking up for him LN but please, it's not like he doesn't know the rules....The bloke's got history & was a bad decision to recruit him.....simple. 

oh maybe your right though & I'm sure the club would be stoked paying the $50k from next years soft cap. ?

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