Johns arrested and cautioned in London

[bluesbreaker]

Hahaha, what a moron! Say bye byes to immortality now you f**king clown.

 

[antonius]

The fact remains Roopy if the club knew he was using drugs as stated in todays Herald (Page 2) then I don't care how good he was, he should have been pulled from playing, and sent for help. Saying that the best way to treat him was to let him keep playing, attract the attention he did (thus adding to the pressures) is not the way to go. Your basically implying that the best way to handle it was to let him keep doing it. I repeat my opinion, the club have let him down and all it's supporters if they stood by and let him continue playing knowing he had a problem, they in fact are worse than he is because by knowing and doing nothing they are accepting it.

 

[TooheysNew]

none of you have a clue - which is a shame.

Another hugely arrogant cop-out.

 

[roopy]

The fact remains Roopy if the club knew he was using drugs as stated in todays Herald (Page 2) then I don't care how good he was, he should have been pulled from playing, and sent for help. Saying that the best way to treat him was to let him keep playing, attract the attention he did (thus adding to the pressures) is not the way to go. Your basically implying that the best way to handle it was to let him keep doing it. I repeat my opinion, the club have let him down and all it's supporters if they stood by and let him continue playing knowing he had a problem, they in fact are worse than he is because by knowing and doing nothing they are accepting it.

Oh well - i'd like to find a way to tell you in a few sentences why i think keeping a guy suffering from a severe mental illness functioning at a level that allowed him to be the best player in the world is an amazing achievement, but it ain't something i could do - maybe go and see the movie 'a beautiful mind'.
I never put the obvious clues together because, up until today, i'd have said the sport of Rugby League could not possibly show the compassion and tolerance needed to allow an outcome like this.
I'm pretty proud of the club today.
I've seen hundreds of people with a similar disorder go from promicing young people to being invalid pensioners barely able to shower and feed themselves, so i'm impressed with the club, impressed with his family, very impressed with his girlfriend who has obviously supported him through very dark times, and mostly impressed with Joey himself who has faced up to all this and kept functioning.

I've never been that much of a fan of Joey as a person (as opposed to a player) - but i am today.

 

[roopy]

he should have been pulled from playing, and sent for help.

PS - that mythical place where he could get 'help' - it doesn't exist. Even the very best of private psychiatric clinics are very dark places where extremely damaged people are much more likely to get worse than better.
Keeping someone functioning in their 'normal' lives is the best possible thing to do by any measure.

 

[roopy]

Another hugely arrogant cop-out.

I simply can't write a short paragraph that will let people who know nothing about a subject that takes years to understand 'get it' right away.
Quite frankly, all those with the pop-psychology knee jerk responces to this who are ignoring the fact that he has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist with a minimum of 15 years training at the highest possible level are at least ignorant, if not arrogant.

 

[KniGhTs BaTTLeR]

Taking him away from footy wasn't the answer, what would he do then? Sit on his ass trying to get over drugs? He loved playing footy he just hated the pressure from fans and media that was put on him. If you took him away from league he would have just got worst. Joey is a dickhead for doing it, but atleast he has now had the guts to stick his hand up and admit it.

 

[Ross Cadell]

In my time at the Knights I really only got one sit down quality conversation with Andrew and it was sharing a car to the city from Melbourne airport. A number of things came up in that chat that have a different focus today.

Andrew loves playing rugby league, he would have been just as happy playing 15 years with the Mighty Cessnock Goanna's as being "the best player in the world." He just truly loved playing the game and meeting the challenge. I think that had he been a plumber (or something like that) and played in the weekend game his life would have been perfect. The drama was he was to good to be left alone to do that.

The stress and the torment came from the demands that people like me, his management and sponsors put on him. The catch 22 is, if you are the best player in the world you get profile, if you get profile you get bucks, if you get bucks, every now and then (read constantly) you have to dance for the dollars. That is what messed with him in my opinion.

His management had an obligation to look after his financial future and they did. But that meant the club and his personal backers made ever increasing demands on his off field time to return some of the investment. Something it now appears had a bigger drain than any of us knew.

We all have our happy and not so happy Andrew stories and as a person you can take him or leave him.

The bottom line is that on the field he gave so many great joy with his abilities. He may have been a flawed person off the field but that is because his skills made us elevate him to a position he was always uncomfortable with and never aspired to as a junior footballer.

I think given these issues, he really did an amazing job to cope as long as he did no matter how he did it. How many other players have let dazzling careers fall into tatters because of the pressures and temptations of playing top flight footy.

I think that at this time we should thank him for the good times and wish him well in dealing with his demons. He wore it all to play footy in the red and blue.

Cheers

 

[perverse]

In my time at the Knights I really only got one sit down quality conversation with Andrew and it was sharing a car to the city from Melbourne airport. A number of things came up in that chat that have a different focus today.

Andrew loves playing rugby league, he would have been just as happy playing 15 years with the Mighty Cessnock Goanna's as being "the best player in the world." He just truly loved playing the game and meeting the challenge. I think that had he been a plumber (or something like that) and played in the weekend game his life would have been perfect. The drama was he was to good to be left alone to do that.

The stress and the torment came from the demands that people like me, his management and sponsors put on him. The catch 22 is, if you are the best player in the world you get profile, if you get profile you get bucks, if you get bucks, every now and then (read constantly) you have to dance for the dollars. That is what messed with him in my opinion.

His management had an obligation to look after his financial future and they did. But that meant the club and his personal backers made ever increasing demands on his off field time to return some of the investment. Something it now appears had a bigger drain than any of us knew.

We all have our happy and not so happy Andrew stories and as a person you can take him or leave him.

The bottom line is that on the field he gave so many great joy with his abilities. He may have been a flawed person off the field but that is because his skills made us elevate him to a position he was always uncomfortable with and never aspired to as a junior footballer.

I think given these issues, he really did an amazing job to cope as long as he did no matter how he did it. How many other players have let dazzling careers fall into tatters because of the pressures and temptations of playing top flight footy.

I think that at this time we should thank him for the good times and wish him well in dealing with his demons. He wore it all to play footy in the red and blue.

Cheers

wow... just...

wow.

awesome post and great contribution.

 

[TooheysNew]

I simply can't write a short paragraph that will let people who know nothing about a subject that takes years to understand 'get it' right away.
Quite frankly, all those with the pop-psychology knee jerk responces to this who are ignoring the fact that he has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist with a minimum of 15 years training at the highest possible level are at least ignorant, if not arrogant.

No mate, the arrogance is on your part. "I work in the field so I know everything". Piss off. Other people agree with you, they just aren't silly enough to claim they are the only ones who think so.

 

[TooheysNew]

In my time at the Knights I really only got one sit down quality conversation with Andrew and it was sharing a car to the city from Melbourne airport. A number of things came up in that chat that have a different focus today.

...snip...

I think that at this time we should thank him for the good times and wish him well in dealing with his demons. He wore it all to play footy in the red and blue.

Cheers

Beautiful post mate. Well said.

 

[roopy]

No mate, the arrogance is on your part. "I work in the field so I know everything". Piss off. Other people agree with you, they just aren't silly enough to claim they are the only ones who think so.

every now and then you go back to being that obnoxious kid.

 

[TooheysNew]

Probably do - but i'd prefer that to an old man who thinks he knows everything.

 

[m-i-k-e]

millions on millions of these pills are made every year.

i dare say andrew johns isnt the only one popping them.

 

[antonius]

Oh well - i'd like to find a way to tell you in a few sentences why i think keeping a guy suffering from a severe mental illness functioning at a level that allowed him to be the best player in the world is an amazing achievement, but it ain't something i could do - maybe go and see the movie 'a beautiful mind'.
I never put the obvious clues together because, up until today, i'd have said the sport of Rugby League could not possibly show the compassion and tolerance needed to allow an outcome like this.
I'm pretty proud of the club today.
I've seen hundreds of people with a similar disorder go from promicing young people to being invalid pensioners barely able to shower and feed themselves, so i'm impressed with the club, impressed with his family, very impressed with his girlfriend who has obviously supported him through very dark times, and mostly impressed with Joey himself who has faced up to all this and kept functioning.

I've never been that much of a fan of Joey as a person (as opposed to a player) - but i am today.

I realise Roopy that you work in that field, and therefore would have a better idea than I have, but I still say that allowing him to keep playing and thus attracting more and more attention surely only adds to the pressure that was on him. I too have never been a fan of Johns the person and I have my own first hand reasons for that, but I do agree it took a lot of courage for him to face up to and confess the way he has so publicly. Lets hope that he can can stick to his ideals and come through this. There are plenty of people who manage their depression and live successful lives, Johns has taken that first step. I just think that it could've been taken a lot sooner with a different approach from the people around him, if that meant he didn't become the worlds best player then so be it.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

Like many, this came as no shock to me. It's why I've been a huge push for guys like Hagan to be given the arse. This sh*t actually turns your brain into swiss cheese and they turned a blind eye to it. No wonder he's fighting depression.

It's difficult to comprehend people actually wanted him coaching the Knights last week. These people who got sucked into the media campaign against Smith can officially eat a bucket of sh*t with the wooden spoon they wanted us to pick up.

I'm truely dismayed that the club literally did nothing to help the guy out accept let it all slide. I'm thankful the cleanout has finally come. If they'd helped the guy out during the early years we'd have won more comps, not just rested on laurels of having him on the field. If guys like James Hetfield can stop drinking, guys like Andrew Johns can quit the pill popping with similar, real rehab treatment. Letting him have a full year off to fight it would've been more respectful and simply the right thing to do. It would've pro-longed his career too.

 

[roopy]

The government stopped providing inpatient rehab services for drug and alcohol 15 years ago - the reason - they were a complete joke.
The success rate for giving up was and is exactly the same for people having a one week medical detox in a general hospital as for someone spending 6 months in rehab - but rehab would cost about 70k more on current inpatient costs.
In fact - you take someone out of their life for six months and they lose their job, their partner leaves them, their friends forget about them - they basically lose all their community supports.
Dr Halpin's statement says he saw two emminent psychiatrists, had counselling from a clinical psychiatrist, and regularly saw Dr Halpin himself. That is as good as it gets. There is nothing else to offer - the magical rehab place doesn't have a machine that goes ping that will make someone want to give up drinking or taking drugs.

But anyway - he was an occasional user and it was very much a symptom of his bigger problem. A person addicted to drugs would not be able to show up for games and training 'clean' for 12 years - they would not be able to do that for 12 days, or even 12 hours.

 

[Danish Moo Cow]

Roopy, Roopy, Roopy. 12 years use of a drug that turns your brain into swiss cheese and you're making out that it's no big deal. You're making excuses the equivilant to any enabler I've ever heard of. Don't ever take the side of a drug cheat. That' what he is. He had a systematic reasoning to his use all designed not to be detected by testing, yet flaunted it in public to the point where he as clearly crying out for someone to step in and help him. It took a jail stint to finally attract attention, then look what happened, he owned up to it like he's wanted to do all along.

There are rehab programs that work and don't require inmate-like facilities. Research James Hetfield. He had all the right reasons to quit too, kid, career, everything, but no-one stood up and told him as they were simply enablers and yes-men. Using his profile to keep the cash flowing.

 

[antonius]

I don't think that turning a blind eye to someone using drugs (and we don't, and prob will never know how frequently,or infrequently he used them) is the best treatment for them, which is what you are saying. Continuing to do the thing that was causing, or increasing your depression (playing and attracting the attention) surely isn't the answer either. Using your theory we just say "well that's the way you are so just get on with it because that's the best way to handle your problems".

 

[roopy]

Roopy, Roopy, Roopy. 12 years use of a drug that turns your brain into swiss cheese and you're making out that it's no big deal. You're making excuses the equivilant to any enabler I've ever heard of. Don't ever take the side of a drug cheat. That' what he is. He had a systematic reasoning to his use all designed not to be detected by testing, yet flaunted it in public to the point where he as clearly crying out for someone to step in and help him. It took a jail stint to finally attract attention, then look what happened, he owned up to it like he's wanted to do all along.

There are rehab programs that work and don't require inmate-like facilities. Research James Hetfield. He had all the right reasons to quit too, kid, career, everything, but no-one stood up and told him as they were simply enablers and yes-men. Using his profile to keep the cash flowing.

He suffers from a bipolar disorder.
He has seen psychiatrists and is on medication for this.
His occasional drug use is a symptom of his much bigger problem.
You have your mind firmly fixed on the drug 'issue' - get over it - it's just a symptom.