Dustin Martin chopstick incident, Matthew Lloyd says Richmond should still punish starSarah Olle
FOX SPORTS
December 23, 2015 1:13pmMATTHEW Lloyd says Richmond should still come down hard on Dustin Martin, despite the police dropping their criminal investigation into his alleged chopstick incident.
The former Essendon champion said Martin’s behaviour warranted much more than a slap on the wrist, particularly given his high profile.
“Dustin Martin has got to understand that when you’re a six-year player and you’re on half a million dollars, you’ve been around long enough not to be carrying around in restaurants and getting to the stage that you’re that drunk that you’re threatening women,” Lloyd told 3AW.
“That’s unacceptable behaviour.
“I think he does deserve to have the game taken away from him for a number of weeks and be told in no uncertain terms by his coach and the players that it’s not going to be tolerated and that if anything happens again he’ll be banned for 10-12 weeks.
“Slamming down shots in December when you’ve just finished a big break as an AFL footballer, that’s just not the standards you expect.”
Lloyd said while Martin had made a “good fist” of his career thus far, he could learn from the experience of once-troubled former Cat Steve Johnson.
Lloyd’s brother Brad was Johnson’s player manager when he was handed a monstrous eight-week ban by the Cats, whose patience had grown thin with the troubled young star.
Geelong wanted to teach Johnson a lesson and it was a lesson he heeded.
Lloyd said the same approach could be successful with Martin.
“If it has been a slow build to something like this then they should hit him harder,” Lloyd said.
“But if it’s out of the blue then I think a couple of weeks or four weeks would be enough.”
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