Tough response needed by Richmond, AFL in nude photo text scandal, writes Mark RobinsonMARK ROBINSON,
Herald Sun
14 October 2017RICHMOND will unveil its premiership flag at the MCG in Round 1 next year, probably in front of 90,000 fans.
President Peggy O’Neal will be front and square, as will chief executive Brendon Gale and coach Damien Hardwick.
It remains to be seen how many of the premiership 22 will be on the ground.
If players are found guilty in the courts over the distribution of the photograph of a near-naked woman wearing a 2017 premiership medal, there will be punishments.
Richmond knows it. The AFL knows it.
The first player to send the image will almost certainly face criminal charges, and it’s possible players who received the image and passed it on could also be charged.
There’s no reason the AFL integrity unit should not act independently and come over the top.
One AFL figure on Thursday suggested four weeks for the main man might be appropriate and the remainder on a sliding scale.
A $5000 fine for conduct unbecoming would be a wholly insufficient punishment and send a shocking message.
The police and courts will do their job, and the Tigers and league will have to act as a matter of principle.
If they don’t, the collective chest-thumping about respect and responsibility towards women would be revealed as nothing but grandstanding.
“We are committed to creating an environment where women can thrive and we are dedicated to promoting attitudes and behaviours that are respectful and supportive of women,” Richmond said in a statement this week.
The story went viral and moved quickly this week, but the footy world moved too slowly.
The woman’s family approached Richmond and the AFL in the days after the Grand Final, and then the police.
It took eight days — from when the photo was allegedly first distributed until O’Neal was questioned about it on the ABC on Monday night — for the story to gain real attention.
Were Richmond and the AFL on the slows?
Why did they not act sooner?
If members of the public were receiving this picture on the Monday after the Grand Final, surely Richmond and AFL staff were, too.
Some say the woman deserves no sympathy, that she was foolish to have allowed the photograph to be taken and ask, “What did she think was going to happen?”.
Incredibly, there is some sympathy for the player — boys being boys and she was up for the photograph in the first place.
People have to get with the program on this one.
In The Australian newspaper, former Western Bulldogs board member and patron of the women’s game Susan Alberti labelled the episode “disgusting”.
“It’s important that this isn’t just brushed aside. It’s not ‘ho hum’, it’s no laughing matter,” she said.
Take it as read, no one at Richmond or the AFL is laughing now.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/expert-opinion/mark-robinson/a-tough-response-needed-by-richmond-and-afl-in-picture-scandal-writes-mark-robinson/news-story/0b69faebb0ad8353bc369aba443f745e
