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Confessions of a Bulldog: inside football's darkest scandal
Jessica Halloran | March 14, 2009
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/articles/2009/03/13/1236919566414.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
IT IS a balmy night in Coffs Harbour. You and your mates are having a good time. A young woman is weeping. You can't see what her problem is.
You are one of six Bulldogs players who is about to be accused of gang rape.
It is an allegation rugby league is all too familiar with. Now one of the men at the centre of the game's most notorious scandal has decided to provide a compelling insider's view into the mindset of accused players.
He reveals that even as the police investigation rolled on, they felt not so much as a flicker of fear that they could end up behind bars.
Even when the media attention hit fever pitch, he says the players did not flinch and the atmosphere in the dressing-room barely changed.
The players did not care what people outside the club thought of them. Life was about football and football only, regardless of the severity of the accusations.
It was not until a few months later, within the walls of his own home, that the enormity of the allegations hit the accused footballer. After a bit of banter with his cousin about what had happened in Coffs Harbour, it suddenly hit him - "I could have ended up in jail," he thought.
"Yeah, it was stressful," the former Bulldog tells the Herald. "I don't really think about things too much, things blow over my head a bit, but you know I was sitting there one day with my cousin and I thought to myself, 'Say they believed her - I could have ended up in jail, you know'. I didn't really think about it too much It just hit me, what could have happened."
Perhaps he had not thought about it because no one else at the club seemed to have been thinking about it, either. The Bulldogs, after all, had continued as normal, the same old training drills leading into what seemed a perfectly normal season, that ended with them winning the 2004 premiership.
"We were very tight obviously to come through and win everything," he says. "To be honest, things went on as normal, training and that was normal, nothing really affected us."
The footballer says he and the other players had even laughed at the newspaper articles, including the one mocking them for wearing boardshorts and thongs when they turned up to give DNA samples at police headquarters in Sydney. "You'd pick up the paper and read crap in there and laugh at it pretty much," he says.
"The police didn't even care. We weren't going there to be questioned. We were going there to give a saliva sample. I just walked in and then we left. I don't know, maybe it looked like we weren't taking it seriously. I thought it was pretty funny."
In a crisis like this, similar to the one unfolding at the Manly Sea Eagles right now, it is important the club's hierarchy is on your side, the footballer says. It keeps the footy club unified.
"As long as the hierarchy stands with you, then everyone is fine," the footballer says.
"Everyone was on the same page - we didn't do anything wrong, we don't have to say sorry for anything."
Steve Folkes, who was the Bulldogs coach at the time, did not address the players specifically about the incident. Why not?
"It was pretty evident that it wasn't really affecting anyone that much," the player says. "We were all the same guys chasing around the footy at training. We'd finish training, go out, muck around, whatever, hang out, whatever. Football-wise, I can't speak for everyone about at home whatever, but at football it was just the same really.
"We knew nothing wrong had been done. It didn't faze anyone. We all just got together and didn't worry about anything they were saying. We didn't really care."
When the allegations first surfaced in February, some players felt an urge to declare their innocence. The club's lawyers advised against saying anything.
"I thought why not just say something but the lawyers at the time told us that the police have got nothing and not to give them anything," the footballer says. "I didn't really understand it but they were paying them a lot of money for what they were doing so we all went along with it."
He speaks of the woman who made the allegations with disdain and blames her for the scrutiny placed on today's footballers.
"It's a shame to think one person has done," he says. "I think it's changed a lot of other things now. Even in general life as well as sport, everyone is getting too uptight. They're trying to take the fun out of everything."
He wishes the woman was charged with being a public nuisance.
"I hate it [the allegations]," he says. "I don't understand how someone can do that. Be nice if she could have got a bit of justice her way. We were told pretty much that we could have had her charged with being a public nuisance. They said you're as close as that to having her charged, to pretty much have it proved, she had to admit she was lying. Which I doubt she was going to admit she was lying."
Eventually the Director of Public Prosecutions decided there was "insufficient evidence" to charge the footballers and the Bulldogs went on to beat the Roosters in that year's grand final.
Malcolm Noad, then the Bulldogs chief executive, infamously remarked: "Let's believe nothing happened at Coffs Harbour."
"I think players knew from the start that we were going to have a good year and probably go close to winning it," the footballer says.
"[Coffs] probably drove everyone a little bit more. We were a bit selfish, we didn't think we needed to keep everyone happy, we had done nothing wrong, so we didn't care what anyone else thought. That's it."
Players received abusive phone calls and were taunted by rival fans as "rapists".
"It was worse for certain players. It's a pretty despicable thing. Boys can get rowdy and that on the drink but it was just ridiculous the things that were being reported. The whole accusation was ridiculous."
Jessica Halloran | March 14, 2009
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/articles/2009/03/13/1236919566414.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
IT IS a balmy night in Coffs Harbour. You and your mates are having a good time. A young woman is weeping. You can't see what her problem is.
You are one of six Bulldogs players who is about to be accused of gang rape.
It is an allegation rugby league is all too familiar with. Now one of the men at the centre of the game's most notorious scandal has decided to provide a compelling insider's view into the mindset of accused players.
He reveals that even as the police investigation rolled on, they felt not so much as a flicker of fear that they could end up behind bars.
Even when the media attention hit fever pitch, he says the players did not flinch and the atmosphere in the dressing-room barely changed.
The players did not care what people outside the club thought of them. Life was about football and football only, regardless of the severity of the accusations.
It was not until a few months later, within the walls of his own home, that the enormity of the allegations hit the accused footballer. After a bit of banter with his cousin about what had happened in Coffs Harbour, it suddenly hit him - "I could have ended up in jail," he thought.
"Yeah, it was stressful," the former Bulldog tells the Herald. "I don't really think about things too much, things blow over my head a bit, but you know I was sitting there one day with my cousin and I thought to myself, 'Say they believed her - I could have ended up in jail, you know'. I didn't really think about it too much It just hit me, what could have happened."
Perhaps he had not thought about it because no one else at the club seemed to have been thinking about it, either. The Bulldogs, after all, had continued as normal, the same old training drills leading into what seemed a perfectly normal season, that ended with them winning the 2004 premiership.
"We were very tight obviously to come through and win everything," he says. "To be honest, things went on as normal, training and that was normal, nothing really affected us."
The footballer says he and the other players had even laughed at the newspaper articles, including the one mocking them for wearing boardshorts and thongs when they turned up to give DNA samples at police headquarters in Sydney. "You'd pick up the paper and read crap in there and laugh at it pretty much," he says.
"The police didn't even care. We weren't going there to be questioned. We were going there to give a saliva sample. I just walked in and then we left. I don't know, maybe it looked like we weren't taking it seriously. I thought it was pretty funny."
In a crisis like this, similar to the one unfolding at the Manly Sea Eagles right now, it is important the club's hierarchy is on your side, the footballer says. It keeps the footy club unified.
"As long as the hierarchy stands with you, then everyone is fine," the footballer says.
"Everyone was on the same page - we didn't do anything wrong, we don't have to say sorry for anything."
Steve Folkes, who was the Bulldogs coach at the time, did not address the players specifically about the incident. Why not?
"It was pretty evident that it wasn't really affecting anyone that much," the player says. "We were all the same guys chasing around the footy at training. We'd finish training, go out, muck around, whatever, hang out, whatever. Football-wise, I can't speak for everyone about at home whatever, but at football it was just the same really.
"We knew nothing wrong had been done. It didn't faze anyone. We all just got together and didn't worry about anything they were saying. We didn't really care."
When the allegations first surfaced in February, some players felt an urge to declare their innocence. The club's lawyers advised against saying anything.
"I thought why not just say something but the lawyers at the time told us that the police have got nothing and not to give them anything," the footballer says. "I didn't really understand it but they were paying them a lot of money for what they were doing so we all went along with it."
He speaks of the woman who made the allegations with disdain and blames her for the scrutiny placed on today's footballers.
"It's a shame to think one person has done," he says. "I think it's changed a lot of other things now. Even in general life as well as sport, everyone is getting too uptight. They're trying to take the fun out of everything."
He wishes the woman was charged with being a public nuisance.
"I hate it [the allegations]," he says. "I don't understand how someone can do that. Be nice if she could have got a bit of justice her way. We were told pretty much that we could have had her charged with being a public nuisance. They said you're as close as that to having her charged, to pretty much have it proved, she had to admit she was lying. Which I doubt she was going to admit she was lying."
Eventually the Director of Public Prosecutions decided there was "insufficient evidence" to charge the footballers and the Bulldogs went on to beat the Roosters in that year's grand final.
Malcolm Noad, then the Bulldogs chief executive, infamously remarked: "Let's believe nothing happened at Coffs Harbour."
"I think players knew from the start that we were going to have a good year and probably go close to winning it," the footballer says.
"[Coffs] probably drove everyone a little bit more. We were a bit selfish, we didn't think we needed to keep everyone happy, we had done nothing wrong, so we didn't care what anyone else thought. That's it."
Players received abusive phone calls and were taunted by rival fans as "rapists".
"It was worse for certain players. It's a pretty despicable thing. Boys can get rowdy and that on the drink but it was just ridiculous the things that were being reported. The whole accusation was ridiculous."
