Zantuck mobile incident threatens Tigers' sponsorship
By Caroline Wilson, Lyall Johnson
realfooty.com.au
June 9, 2004
Richmond faces losing its major sponsor, the Transport Accident Commission, mid-season following revelations yesterday that defender Ty Zantuck was booked by police for using a mobile phone while driving, possibly without a licence.
It is believed Zantuck lost his licence some time ago as a result of a speeding fine but is contesting the suspension, claiming his father, Shane, was driving the car at the time.
Richmond said yesterday that Zantuck had been returning from an AFL clinic on Friday when he was noticed by police using a mobile phone while driving. The statement said that should Zantuck be deemed to not have a current licence, he would defend the case.
The TAC is already considering ending sponsorship arrangements with Richmond and Collingwood, partly because of previous player driving indiscretions.
The TAC is meeting next Wednesday to consider the sponsorships but it is believed that should Zantuck be found to have no licence, the organisation would consider withdrawing its Tigers' sponsorship of about $300,000 immediately. But should Zantuck be found to have a licence, it is believed the TAC will not sanction the club.
The TAC is believed to have told the club when former defender Royce Vardy was booked for driving with a blood alcohol level of .14 in December 2001 that should another drink-driving offence occur, the club would immediately lose its sponsorship.
What particularly has galled Motorola, Richmond's other major sponsor, is that all the Richmond players had been issued with hands-free kits with their Motorola phones.
The club yesterday was forced to tell both the TAC and Motorola of the incident.
Richmond president Clinton Casey said yesterday Zantuck's misdemeanour "could not have come at a worse time".
"At the moment, Ty has been booked for a traffic offence of using a mobile phone while driving," Casey said. "(The football department's) still yet to see the (police) brief and get to the bottom of the whole incident and waiting on return phone calls.
"In terms of getting to the facts of when, where, how and all those sorts of things, they're not to the bottom of it yet . . . Ty's a good kid and it appears he's made an error. But we don't know the full extent of it at this point."
Casey said the discussions he had had with the TAC in recent times "indicated that the sponsorship is on track and they are happy with the reach of the joint message we've been able to carry for the past 15 years".
". . . The message that we jointly carry has been very successful for them and we would like to hope that's going to continue," he said.
Casey said he had had a long talk to Zantuck and his parents on Sunday to encourage the player to keep working hard to regain senior selection, having lost his spot in round five.
Two weeks after losing his spot, Zantuck also was involved in an incident outside a nightclub with teammate Mark Coughlan about 4am, and then missed an AFL Auskick clinic, for which he was fined.
"He has (had a rough trot lately)," Casey said. "I had a long chat to him and his parents . . . on Sunday, just saying to him, 'Keep your chin up, get out there and put in the hard yards and you'll get the rewards'."
http://realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/06/08/1086460295467.html
