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I’m not going to condone what Dale Thomas did last Friday night.
As Chris Judd explained perfectly on Footy Classified on Monday night, “Needless to say, drinking – full stop – in public two days before a game when you’re 1-9 fails the stupidity test, clearly.”
In a team that is desperate for seasoned bodies, leadership and football nous, a decision to drink at a charity function on Friday night after a week when the Carlton players looked at each other eye to eye and demanded higher standards of one another is so hypocritical.
Thomas made a poor decision and will cop his right whack by lining up in the back pocket at Windy Hill instead of the MCG on Sunday.
A club like Carlton are ripe for the picking for a media pile-on given their current state – dead last on the AFL ladder with only one win, a coach who is under siege and a supporter base who is fed up with not winning.
The optics are bad. But aren’t we going just a little bit too far with our scathing criticism? Calls for Thomas to play the rest of the year in the VFL? Or even more extreme, his immediate sacking?
This is the second time that we have gone to task on a player having a drink in season. Steven May was criticised just weeks ago for partaking in a Sunday drinking session with some friends while in rehab.
His club was in a similarly dire situation given the Demons’ pre-season expectations. Again, it’s a bad look and a clear breach of team rules and club standards.
In the media-saturated industry that our game has become, both of these stories received significant airtime and everyone who has an opinion voiced it.
While both Thomas and May did the wrong thing by their clubs and their team-mates, the severity of what they have done in the grand scheme of things is quite minor.
If this is the level of scrutiny for indiscretions such as drinking and being drunk in public, I fear for the day when one of our players actually does something wrong.
Our footballers of today live in a very different world – very different to the ones that we at home live in and worlds away from eras of the past when some of our long-time favourites plied their trade.
Before the competition was professional and the media and commentary from ex-players was not nearly as big as it has become today, it was commonplace for players to be seen out, allowing themselves the freedom to let their hair down in every way possible.
Now, the over-saturation of media, analysis and criticism means that everyday life for the current player is being lived under a microscope.
The need to create a story along with the constant witch-hunting, guessing games and barracking for teams and individuals to fail for the good of the story means it has never been harder to live as a professional athlete here in Australia.
Tom Boyd retired partially due to the pressures of the media and the expectation he plays like a world beater every time he steps out onto the field.
(Photo by Daniel Carson/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Travis Cloke said he struggled with the pressures of media and social media and the constant pile-on when he had one of those days.
It’s the pile-on of the modern-day media cycle that is creating distrust between the players and the media, which only further separates with every passing barb, verbal take-down and the ever-mentioned line “back in my day” that is a regularity from former players.
While Dale Thomas would be rightfully ashamed of his actions last Friday night, getting drunk on a Friday night isn’t a criminal offence.
Remember when Luke Hodge was done for drink driving and was then allowed to play a qualifying final a week later? Dustin Martin threatening a woman with chopsticks? Jordan De Goey getting busted for drink driving?
All three of these offences are much worse than having a drink or three at a charity event.
I genuinely feel for our players. They’re human beings and have lives away from the game, and while they might not read and hear everything that gets said and written about them, they live in the modern world where the media cycle is constant and it gets to them one way or another.
It’s an emotional game and we all have the right to have a say, critique, question and when the occasion demands it, go over the top.
If we’re saying that Dale Thomas should lose his job over having a few too many drinks at a charity function, then how will we react if one of our players crosses the line and finds himself in a spot of bother?
Dale Thomas will take his place at the Northern Blues this week. How long he stays there will be at the discretion of Carlton’s coaches and leaders.
While it was an act that didn’t deserve to go unpunished, Thomas has been around long enough to know what he has to do to redeem himself and endear himself to his team-mates.
While this happens, the media will move on to their next target and prepare their next assault.
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