Sydney Stack is back, and all he wants to do now is move forwardPeter Ryan
The Age
July 11, 2021 On Sunday, Sydney Stack rejoins the AFL fray for the first time since August 22 last year.
The talented 21-year-old will take to the field with teammates that need him as much as he has needed them in the past eight months.
His return is a triumph for both Richmond and the man who had to accept, without complaint, the harshest of consequences for two headline-grabbing mistakes in his 21st year.
The first error had him sent home from his team’s hub on the Gold Coast with a massive fine and a 10-week suspension after he breached the AFL’s COVID protocols with teammate Callum Coleman-Jones and found trouble in Surfers Paradise’s nightclub strip.
He watched from afar last year as his teammates won their third flag in four years.
Stack’s second error was breaching the COVID exemption Western Australia had granted him to enter the state for a family funeral, when he was arrested out in Northbridge while he should have been in quarantine. The authorities’ response was harsh and unyielding.
For his act of wantonness, Stack spent two weeks over Christmas in Hakea Prison – most of that time in isolation in the jail’s COVID wing with only his legal team able to contact him – before serving two months adhering to bail conditions. He was eventually fined $6000 in the Perth Magistrates court after a series of Supreme Court decisions in the state found incarceration for COVID breaches was a manifestly excessive penalty.
He stood on the steps of that court late in March with his legal team, manager Paul Peos and steadfast Richmond list manager Blair Hartley alongside him, apologised, and resolved to move forward from a three-month ordeal a person close to him described as “distressing”.
“I have a lot of work to do when I get back to Melbourne,” Stack said.
He knew by then that the Tigers were going beyond what many clubs would do to hold up their end of the bargain and he was determined to undertake the hard yards required for him to use the opportunity.
As he began his period of purgatory in Perth, Stack began working with a personal trainer to stay in shape.
His management group, Inside 50, led by Peos in Perth and Cam Read in Melbourne, worked in lockstep with Hartley, the man who added Stack to the Tigers’ list two years earlier, to help Stack face the consequences of his actions and recognise that plenty of people, including at Richmond, remained in his corner.
Stack heard from teammates and club officials regularly. Vice-captain Jack Riewoldt also made it clear the leadership group knew when they recruited Stack there might be some hiccups as he adjusted to an elite environment, but they would ride the bumps with him.
A host family put up their hand to house Stack when back in Victoria, and Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said the club would open their arms up for him when he returned.
“In his own time he’ll get up and address the group, he’ll tell his situation of what he’s been through and, more importantly, what he wants to do going forward,” Hardwick said the day after Stack was fined.
In early April at Punt Road Oval Stack’s re-emergence began as Richmond’s VFL team played Sandringham in the opening match of the season. He found his feet, gathering 10 touches, and was away.
He kept turning up, getting fitter, and performing in the VFL, but the Tigers didn’t rush to put him back in the team, even as injuries hit and players struggled to recapture the form that made them premiership winners.
Then, last Saturday, Stack picked up 29 touches against Preston. The old zip was back as he charged through congestion and accelerated with intent.
Of course, his return was complicated when he picked a bad time to be reported, but a fine cleared the way for him to be selected to play against Collingwood.
The pride in Hardwick’s voice was evident as he declared on Friday that Stack was close to selection.
“He is going well. He has really impressed in the way he has gone about it,” Hardwick said.
“He started obviously a little bit behind the eight-ball but his fitness has really picked up and he is starting to see the form that we know that Sydney can play with.”
There were no excuses from Hardwick as he explained the path Stack has been on at Richmond.
“I think what happens is everyone matures and everyone grows up at stages, don’t they?” Hardwick said.
“Some take a little longer than others, but we always thought Sydney’s on-field performance is not our biggest concern.
“He can play the game, there is no doubt about that. But what we have been really impressed with is how he has gone about his life off-field.
“He has started to get some things in play, he has started to grow up, which is not only going to make him a great footballer, I think, but also a great person off the field.”
Read hopes people will let Stack put his past behind him and focus, as Richmond have, on the character he is, rather than make judgments based on headline-grabbing, silly mistakes.
“Syd is an honest kid and the first to admit to his mistakes. He is also lucky to the have the unwavering support of family and friends,” Read said.
“His return to the highest level is the culmination of a lot of background effort from a lot of people, but most importantly, the hard work of Syd to accept his mistakes, take what has come, and work to get back the trust he lost, along with the conditioning to play at the highest level.”
People have seen what Stack can become. Now he is back, it’s time to push forward.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/sydney-stack-is-back-and-all-he-wants-to-do-now-is-move-forward-20210709-p58892.html
