A minor calf tear has again put troubled Fremantle midfielder Harley Bennell’s AFL career on ice – again.
The Dockers say the latest injury on the 25-year-old’s left leg is in an area unrelated to a previous injury.
The grade one tear occurred while he was with WAFL team Peel, where the midfielder was banished in mid-January for a scuffle at a Perth nightclub and drinking excessively the day before a training session.
He was also fined $15,000 – a third of which was suspended.
At the time, Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe said Bennell would have to “fight for his career” during his eight weeks at the state league club.
The 2010 draft’s No.2 pick has played two games in two years for the club after spending five years at the Gold Coast Suns.
It had been hoped the move west would see an end to the off-field troubles that plagued his time at the Suns.
But in April, he was ejected from a Gold Coast-bound flight before it departed because he was intoxicated.
The club also ordered him to undergo counselling and fined him $10,000 – half of which was suspended – after bizarre behaviour while watching a WAFL game in 2017.
The 24-year-old interrupted the three-quarter-time huddle of a match involving the Dockers’ WAFL-affiliate Peel Thunder to speak to his cousin Traye Bennell.
In May 2015, the Suns dropped Bennell from their team after he drank alcohol after a game, breaking a team rule.
And in July 2015, pictures of Bennell allegedly preparing to snort an illicit substance were published.
The Suns traded Bennell after he was involved in a drunken altercation in September 2015 on the Gold Coast.
Paul D
Roar Guru
If I am projecting anon it's because you don't give us anything to work with beyond your words. If your entire posting style is honking out profound recommendations and assertions whilst refusing to divulge any of your credentials, demanding adulation and people apologise to you when you feel you have got something right - well, I don't see how you can complain when you get dismissed out of hand. I said to you in the past you're never going to get any respect or acknowledgment if you don't at least take some time to outline who you support, why you're here, where you go to watch football - at the very least some actual lived experience that gives illustration to why we should listen to what you say. You never do this. Hence why I cast aspersions and write caricatures of you, because I'm trying to fill in the grey and encourage you to be more explanatory. Not saying you have to write for respect or acknowledgment, some of us just write for our own enjoyment, but you seem constantly hung up on the fact people don't listen to you enough. I'm trying to suggest ways to modify your writing so that this becomes a reality. If you want to scoff and ignore me out of hand, feel free, but when I keep giving you well-meant advice to try and help you lift your standards, and all you do is keep complaining about personal attacks, well, it's not hard to dismiss you as a lightweight, tearful, slip of a human
Don Freo
Guest
Violent incidents? Do you think Harley and Shane Yarran are the same person? You get yourself into such a mess by passing opinions about people without being able to distinguish the difference. Good to see you beginning to get upset by how easily people dismiss you. Perhaps you'll try to be better informed in future.
anon
Roar Pro
Once again with the personal attacks rather than addressing my points. your writing is a weird mix of economic and social envy You’re always angry about how other people spend their money, or how other people choose to fritter away their talent. This is you projecting again. perhaps Harley has been given a lot of chances. Certainly there are those more ‘deserving’ – if such a thing can be quantified – but the reality is he has a special talent that extends him more leeway than say a bog standard worker in a position or industry that could easily be filled by another similarly qualified employee with the same trade or degree. We can go through his rap sheet but I don't have time. Violent incidents, kicked off a plane for being drunk, drug use, bizarre behaviour consistent with being under the influence, missing training sessions. And then you have this mysterious calf injury on top of everything. That is pro sport for you. These guys earn the big $ because they have unique, irreplaceable skillsets or potential, and surely understanding the reality of that and being able to assess it dispassionately is a sure sign of the mature, intelligent football fan I think giving a dozen second chances to some with such appalling behaviour sets an awful example to other players and makes a mockery of the clubs values.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
I think anon is a classic example of a new human subspecies "tabloidus absorbius". Whom not only have adapted tabloid "news" as their primary information diet, but also absorb it wholly unprocessed. Not only that, they are so thoroughly dependent upon such a diet that they process other information in a tabloid way and even form views in tabloid form.
Paul D
Roar Guru
your writing is a weird mix of economic and social envy You're always angry about how other people spend their money, or how other people choose to fritter away their talent. perhaps Harley has been given a lot of chances. Certainly there are those more 'deserving' - if such a thing can be quantified - but the reality is he has a special talent that extends him more leeway than say a bog standard worker in a position or industry that could easily be filled by another similarly qualified employee with the same trade or degree. That is pro sport for you. These guys earn the big $ because they have unique, irreplaceable skillsets or potential, and surely understanding the reality of that and being able to assess it dispassionately is a sure sign of the mature, intelligent football fan
anon
Roar Pro
This from a guy who routinely admits he goes to games just to get drunk. Not to get drunk, but I couldn't last the entire game without drinking. You lecturing on alcoholism is like Barnaby lecturing on chastity – your actions undermine everything you say. I drink and you would have no idea that I was intoxicated. I'm a responsible drinker. Harley has proven time and again he can't be trusted to be a responsible adult. Successive clubs have coddled this recidivist. The guy needs to be kicked out of the AFL it's the only way he'll turn his life around. I for one hope he gets through this and we see him back to his best. He will have a long time to regret it if he doesn’t, and that’s a very sad thought. I don't really care one way or another. The number of second chances this guy has been given is ridiculous. Completely undeserved. The guy seems like a real bad apple, hangs around some bad people. There are people in this world deserving of a dozen second chances -- Harley is not one of them. If he couldn't kick a ball well he would have been kicked to the curb years ago. He knows he'll just be slapped on the wrist so goes about behaving as he likes.
Paul D
Roar Guru
This from a guy who routinely admits he goes to games just to get drunk. You lecturing on alcoholism is like Barnaby lecturing on chastity – your actions undermine everything you say. I for one hope he gets through this and we see him back to his best. He will have a long time to regret it if he doesn't, and that's a very sad thought.
Maurice
Guest
Agree totally , grade 1 calf tear turns into a article we have read and known for the last few months . Move on and write a article with a bit more unknown news, of interest.
anon
Roar Pro
At the very least Harley hasn't given himself the best chance of recovering from a long-term injury. Late nights, routinely out getting drunk, getting thrown off planes, thrown out of nightclubs. That's not the injury rehab of an elite athlete. Basically a continuation of his behaviour at the Suns. This guy hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt.
Paul D
Roar Guru
only if anon is a euphemism for soulless
Paul D
Roar Guru
Yeah I agree, it's getting very tiresome.
anon
Roar Pro
Is calf a euphemism for something else?
Don Freo
Guest
Just thinking that when I read it too. It's as if a calf tear is alcohol related. Perhaps the journalists are projecting.
johno
Guest
3 weeks rehab takes him to 5th March, back in the main training group a week later and then 2 weeks to AFl start - he can still be available for round 1 .... fingers crossed Thunders game 1 is Friday 30th March which is a week after the AFL start, so not good on that front.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Curse ye footy gods! On behalf of all Freo fans I declare war on ye, the first and last shot of which is to stop believing in you (until you begin to look after us). But seriously, has it got to the point where every article on Bennell now needs to catalogue the already ad nauseam listed array of his missteps and misdemeanours?