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Well, the game is this Saturday night, and lets hope Todd has a shocker. Already the articles are coming from each direction.
Why I couldn't quit booze at Raiders: Todd Carney
FROM the moment reborn Rooster Todd Carney swore off alcohol in January, outraged Raiders fans sprang up in unison and asked: Why now?
Why now ... and not midway through 2008, when Carney refused the same prohibition clause that the Raiders pushed as a condition for him to avoid the axe?
Now - just five days ahead of the most emotional 80 minutes of his career - Carney has finally revealed why Roosters coach Brian Smith succeeded where Canberra officials did not.
"I understand why Raiders fans would be bitter because I've read things where they've wondered why I gave up the grog for another club," Carney said last night. "What I'd like to say is that the Roosters went about it the right way.
"There's two sides to every story and I was actually going to accept Canberra's guidelines. But I wasn't given enough time."
According to Carney, he only had an hour to consider Canberra's behavioural guidelines when the board met to discuss his future after a string of drunken incidents.
"My manager [David Riolo] and I never had time to discuss them properly," he said.
"We met with the board and they told us to go away for lunch for an hour to think about the guidelines.
"But when we came back their decision was made and that was it.
"I would have accepted, because I was going to be suspended for a while anyway and would have had time to work through everything, but we weren't given a chance to talk to them properly."
Asked why Smith had managed to persuade him to make the life-changing sacrifice that is re-igniting his career, Carney said: "He didn't rant and rave and tell me what to do.
"Smithy just sat me down after Airlie Beach [where he singed a friend's buttocks with a lighter on New Years Eve] and said, 'I suggest you give-up the drink'. It was like we were two men looking each other in the eye. He didn't say giving up was the be all and end all - but he said he wouldn't support me if I kept drinking. And at this stage of my career, I just can't afford that."
Until he was sacked, the Goulburn junior never imagined himself lining up against the Green Machine. And that's why Carney scanned the 2010 draw as soon as it was released last year, and found himself staring at this Saturday night's Round Six clash at the SFS. Why a large proportion of Carney's friends and family from Goulburn will be at Moore Park, along with Mick Nasser - the North Queensland publican who adopted the troubled footballer last year.
And while he was "bitter and disappointed" upon splitting with Canberra at first, Carney quickly realised the buck stopped with him. The only lingering resentment is Canberra's refusal to allow him to play NSW Cup last year, a ban that forced him to live and work at Nasser's pub in Atherton.
"But in some ways it's been a blessing in disguise because I've grown up and I'm in a really good place now," Carney said.
"I've now got the mindset that it all happened for a reason.
"This game has always been in the back of my head and I've been thinking about it a lot in the past few weeks.
"Obviously there is a bit of emotion because I never saw myself playing against Canberra. I captained the club and had a lot of great memories.
"Mum's still got my debut jersey and the Aboriginal heritage jersey we wore.
"When I get my house I'll have them put up, because I'm proud of having played for the club.
"I was bitter and disappointed when they first sacked me, but I sat down and realised that I'd made the mistakes and brought the club bad publicity. The only thing I'm still disappointed in is the Raiders wouldn't let me play for a feeder team (NSW Cup) last year."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/n...ders-todd-carney/story-e6frfgbo-1225852949282
Todd Carney needed to lose it all
Paul Kent From: The Daily Telegraph April 14, 2010 12:00AM
LET'S read the words again: "I would have accepted [the ban] but we weren't given a chance to talk it through properly."
They come from the reformed Todd Carney, and they are designed to explain why he was sacked from Canberra after he refused to accept a drinking ban to stay at the club.
His refusal was an indication of how far he was gone. He walked out on a job he loved - the only job he loved - that paid him $400,000 a year, all so he could have several dozen schooners on a Saturday night.
Most of us found it mad.
But somebody better keep a watch on Todd Carney.
He has made great strides in his return since the Raiders sacked him after he urinated on a man in a nightclub toilet, and then refused to give up drinking as part of the conditions imposed to save his job. Carney claimed yesterday that when the Raiders put the ultimatum to him he and his manager had just one hour to accept the ban.
Related Coverage
Why I couldn't quit booze at Raiders Daily Telegraph, 1 day ago
No hard feelings as Carney and Raiders make up The Australian, 17 Mar 2010
Todd Carney Daily Telegraph,
Carney cleared to play bush footy Fox Sports, 6 Mar 2009
Carney an Atherton Rooster Courier Mail, 4 Mar 2009
It was his way of justifying his silly refusal. It ignores the fact that most of us wouldn't have needed a minute of that hour.
Give up the drink to save my career? Give up the drink and it might save my life?
Carney's hesitation shows he was going downhill fast. And his return to the Roosters and his recent self-imposed alcohol ban show how far back he has come, and a lot of people are hoping he makes it all the way.
Why wouldn't you cheer a young man resurrecting his life?
But Carney had better be careful. There are dangers in his comments that reveal he is not home yet.
The truth is that the Raiders five-point plan was sent to Carney's manager David Riolo three weeks before the meeting.
He had far longer than an hour to decide whether to accept Canberra's guidelines.
That Carney is now willing to risk the ire of the Raiders by claiming they were unfair to him shows he is not completely clear. He knows the Raiders have a dossier as thick as a baby's wrist on his various offences, many of which didn't come to light.
The club has never released it, so why call the club's bluff now?
Carney's nightclub antics were the 26th offence the Raiders had on record. With sponsors threatening to swan-dive off the sinking ship, they had to say enough was enough.
Carney also claimed the motivation behind his recent booze ban, which he was unable to deliver at the Raiders, was that coach Brian Smith spoke to him like a man. Former coach Matthew Elliott sat Carney down and spoke to him about his behaviour a dozen times. Next coach Neil Henry did the same.
These two men knew Carney's tremendous ability as a footballer but also had enough life experience to see the kid was, in the old pub phrase, p ... ing it up against the wall.
They tried.
And - and it seems Carney doesn't want to admit this truth - the Raiders' final ultimatum was also designed to save him.
They ordered him off the grog.
They could see it was the only way to save his career.
He knocked it back.
The reason Carney has given up the drink for the Roosters and not the Raiders is what happened in between.
He lost football.
It took rugby league being taken from Todd Carney's life to save him. But he should remember that many tried to help in the meantime.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/n...ders-todd-carney/story-e6frfgbo-1225852949282
