For almost the entire length of the 2015 trade period St Kilda, Essendon, and for a while Hawthorn, haggled over the services of Jake Carlisle.
Despite all the toing and froing St Kilda and Essendon finally came to an agreement and it was announced that Carlisle would be Saint in 2016 and beyond.
However, only hours after the announcement was finally made, A Current Affair aired footage taken on a mobile phone of Carlisle snorting a white powder.
The stupidity of Carlisle cannot be emphasised enough. That he engages in an activity that could link him to illicit drug use in itself is a very poor life decision for a player of that public profile, but to then film himself and upload it to the internet is an act of sheer idiocy.
What was he thinking?
It has been shown time and time again that the internet is not a secure place to store anything you do not want seen – just ask Collingwood or Jennifer Lawrence.
In Carlisle’s favour is the fact he owned up to it quickly, and publicly apologised. So too that he cut his overseas trip short to come home and face his new club.
He has not said whether what he was taking was an illicit drug or not.
Between them, St Kilda and the AFL will come up with suitable punishments. But it is a tricky situation as officially Carlisle was still a Bomber when the incident occurred.
The Saints are in the process of amending his contract, although those changes will not be as severe as some in the media are suggesting.
They may also suspend him for a few games. However if that is done it would more than likely be in the pre-season competition, and not carry through into the home-and-away season.
The AFL will probably hit him with a strike, and deservedly so. But arguably the biggest punishment he faces is that he was publicly outed, and there will be ramifications from that which will last longer than any suspension.
He has and will continue to be attacked on social media, and will no doubt cop it from opposition players when he returns to the field. And of course he is yet to face the St Kilda leadership group.
Carlisle will also have to work extremely long and hard to earn the respect of his new teammates.
However, while Carlisle’s decisions to film himself snorting something, then upload it to the internet were monumentally stupid, the decision by his manager Anthony McConville not to disclose to the Saints the crap was about to hit the fan was far worse.
ACA had contacted McConville 24 hours prior to the story going to air, which would have given him more than ample opportunity to let St Kilda know what was about to occur before a trade agreement for Carlisle was reached.
While McConville was under no legal obligation to inform the Saints about the ACA story, his decision not to let them know – even after the deal had been made – quite frankly stinks.
At this stage it appears as though McConville will escape any sanctions for his nondisclosure, but he should be punished.
The situation he has put St Kilda in is unjustifiable. Saints fans are just starting to put the Andrew Lovett debacle behind them, and lo and behold they cop another bite on the backside as they use another first round draft pick on a player with unknown baggage – and ironically, from the same club.
As we have just seen during this trade period, deals that should have been done in days take weeks. The decision by McConville will hardly help matters. If anything it will only cause further mistrust between clubs and player managers.
McConville may not face any punishments for his inaction, but his client will, and will continue to do so on a personal level for some time to come.
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