'Too loose': When Dusty advised Tigers on BennellBy Jake Niall
The Age
6 May 2018 Grand final week, 2015: There’s a whiff of desperation at Punt Road. After just missing the top four, the Tigers have been bundled out of the finals by North Melbourne and spurned by departing Giant Adam Treloar, who has chosen Collingwood in a trade that proves contentious.
The Tigers, widely criticised for not acquiring anyone of note in 2014 when they reloaded at the draft (effectively as it happened), are under pressure to land a noted recruit after three successive years of losing elimination finals.
They turn their lonely eyes to a pair of high-end talents with questionable lifestyles: Gold Coast’s Harley Bennell and Carlton’s Chris Yarran.
Bennell, who has run foul of the Suns on multiple occasions for disciplinary/lifestyle breaches, is flirting with Fremantle, the logical destination for a wayward West Australian kid. But the Tigers – with Hardwick keen on immediate talent – will check him out.
Bennell is flown over to Melbourne and, in what seems a risque decision, the Tigers get him to stay with their emerging midfielder and fellow maverick, Dustin Martin.
What transpires next is a tribute to Martin’s unconventional leadership, as the Tigers dodge the Bennell bullet. Bennell arrives at Dusty’s place, but disappears shortly afterwards. He leaves Martin and goes out, spending the night elsewhere. Bennell fails to front up at Punt Rd for a scheduled medical examination the next day.
Martin’s opinion of Bennell is sought by football department officials, who interview Bennell later that day. Martin advises them against recruiting Harley, telling the Tigers that Bennell is ‘‘too loose’’.
If Dustin Martin thinks you’re a bit loose, where does that leave you?
Unsurprisingly, Richmond put a line through Bennell, who went on to join Fremantle. Bennell has since played two of a possible 51 games with the Dockers, as a combination of persistent calf injuries and off-field indiscretions — the nadir being an eight-game suspension in this year’s pre-season for an altercation with bouncers — have plagued his second club.
In truth, the Tigers would not have needed Martin’s opinion to rule out Bennell – his failure to show up at the medical told them enough, and his Suns resume had already stamped him a high-risk stock. He was facing a reverse onus of proof: guilty until proven otherwise.
In hindsight, this sober assessment of Bennell is perhaps the first sign of a maturing Martin. Despite the hiccup of a complaint at a restaurant later in 2015 – in which he was accused by a woman of waving a chopstick at her threateningly (and cleared of it) – Dusty’s career has seen constant growth since he hosted Harley.
Today, club insiders marvel at his fastidious professionalism, evident in his embrace of yoga, of bathing his body in salt water and his devotion to mindfulness training.
Fremantle’s eyes were open when it acquired Bennell, the Dockers giving up picks 16 and 35 in the 2015 draft in return for Harley and the Suns’ pick 22; this seems a fair price for a chequered player with huge upside. The Dockers and coach Ross Lyon backed themselves to bring out the better angels of an elite talent. It’s also quite probable that, as a WA kid, Bennell would have chosen the Dockers, regardless of Richmond’s fleeting interest.
Richmond went on to recruit Yarran, who, unlike Bennell, presented well and said all the right things. Yarran, as we know, never played a senior game and left the club before the 2017 season; subsequently, it became public that the former Blue had developed an ice habit late in his footy career. Yarran said his drug problem had taken hold – outside the club – while he was at Richmond.
The Tigers had squandered two second-round picks and some money. Having ducked the Bennell bullet, they still took one by falling for Yarran, hoping – as Freo did with Harley – that the gifted ‘‘Yaz’’ would flourish in a different environment. Yarran returned home to Perth and went public about his drug problem after posting a video that described his conversion to Christianity.
Every club has a similar story of falling for troublesome talent. Some work out. Most don’t. Yet the greatest, game-changing players — Martin, Buddy Franklin, Wayne Carey, even quirky Patty Dangerfield — are often out-of-the-box, edgy characters.
Bennell was to play yesterday in the WAFL for Peel Thunder, his first outing of 2018. The Dockers plan to ease him back gradually. Lyon told the West Australian earlier this year that Bennell would be at the club in 2019, provided his behaviour met club standards.
Would Harley have fared any better at Tigerland? Unlikely.
He didn’t make it to the medical, let alone pass it. And by the following afternoon, he was done and Dusty-ed.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/too-loose-how-dusty-s-report-helped-tigers-dodge-the-bennell-bullet-20180505-p4zdlk.html
