I’ll be honest, I don’t know how clubs should handle players who get themselves in trouble. Personally, I reckon what someone does in their private lives is their business. They are paid to play footy, and if they are still training and playing at a high level, then there’s no reason to sack them for what they do at their time away from the clubs. In fact, I’d say you have an obligation to bring them in and help steer them in good directions. Of course the extreme end of the ‘it’s none of our business’ approach is Ben Cousins. We know that didn’t end well for the person (although, arguably, and cynically, it ended quite well for the club).
When you coach 40-odd young men, then you have an obligation to the other 39. Gold Coast’s men are younger than most. Some would argue that a club must have ‘minimum standards’, and that by tolerating repeated indiscretions you are tacitly accepting that behaviour, and that you are failing in your obligations to discourage it in others. Certainly I can see that being a concern for a club of teenagers based on the Gold Coast.
So, although it will hurt Gold Coast in the short term, I understand their decision. Happily, both Harley and Freo shape to benefit from Gold Coast’s decision, assuming Harley has the right attitude, and Freo put the right architecture in place around him. I think we might overstate Freo’s abilities in this regard. I don’t think we handled Jeff Farmer’s indiscretions very well (we were probably a bit lenient at the start, then from nowhere arbitrarily dropped the hammer towards the end of his career). Our most recent success story – Son Son – resurrected his career after we told him to bugger off. I’m not sure how much the club can claim credit for that. The less said about Colin Sylvia or Josh Simpson the better, but we certainly aren’t perfect when it comes to maximising talent.
Let’s hope that Harley brings the right attitude, and the club does the right thing by him. Whatever that is.
