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Former Richmond player Reece McKenzie appears to have raged against the club on social media just months after retiring from the sport.
“When you have intolerable levels of anxiety and depression and have developed an eating disorder causing you to lose all your friends all because of an incompetent, dysfunctional, joke and embarrassment of a club, i didn’t retire from football because of mental health reasons, i quit Richmond i f–king quit because if i had have continued to receive the treatment that they were giving me i would have killed myself no doubt no person at any profession deserves the treatment i received, they are a disgrace to professional sporting clubs around the world and it’s no wonder they got someone else in to do Dan Richardson’s job because he knows f–k all about fooball and f–k all about basic human care. When i was 16 i tried to commit suicide but i failed, i failed because in those moments of agony i told myself that I would one day play afl and that was the only thing that was gonna keep me going and then one day i got there only to have my dream taken away by a joke of a club that doesn’t know how to take care of it’s players. I am now a broken man because of this, Football was my life and now i don’t even know if i will ever be able to return to the football field because of my anxiety. They even tried to silence me by signing a deed of release that was going to have a silence clause for life but instead i signed one that was for a ‘reasonable period of time’ well you know what i find it a pretty damn reasonable time, so f–k you Dan, f–k you Richmond thanks for ruining for my life, just f–king hope you don’t f–k someone else’s up too”
Although the Facebook post doesn’t appear to be publicly visible, comments made by McKenzie on Twitter do suggest the image, shared on Reddit AFL, is legitimate.
I don't have serious mental health problems, I'd like to see you go through half the shit I've been through and come out ok
— Reece McKenzie (@reecemck21) November 2, 2016
@Jonesracing82 Yeah i saw it too, let people see it, I've said nothing wrong, a little extreme yes but you'd be pretty pissed off too
— Reece McKenzie (@reecemck21) November 2, 2016
McKenzie was drafted by the Tigers in the 2014 National Draft at pick no.77, a late selection compared to the opinions of some who thought the key forward’s impressive underage form could see him rise up the order.
He was never seen at AFL level. In May 2016 he was placed on the long-term injury list “for mental health reasons”. He then officially retired from the game in late June.
The Roar encourages all readers who may be suffering from mental illness to seek support from organisations such as Lifeline, Beyond Blue or Headspace.
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