When Daniel Connors was told to clear out his locker * Jon Ralph
* Herald Sun
* August 27, 2010 7:27PMCLEAR out your locker, son.
With those bone-chilling words from coach Damien Hardwick, Richmond wild child Daniel Connors contemplated the end of his football career.
Only 36 hours earlier, Connors' late-night antics had created a disturbance so great they needed a black-eye-inducing punch from Ben Cousins to contain them.
Now, Richmond's 21-year-old problem child was facing the music.
And, for a short while at least, on that life-changing Monday morning after Round 3, the news was the worst possible.
" 'Dimma' (Hardwick) asked the guys, 'What sort of punishment should we give him?' and he looked at me and said, 'We already know your punishment. Go and clean your locker out'," Connors said.
"I thought it was over. I was pretty devastated. I did think it was over then. I was in shock. I couldn't believe what was happening. I was trying to work out what I would do (with my life).
"He had a bit of an idea what the punishment would be, but he made me sweat on it for half an hour. I sat down in his office thinking that was it. But I am grateful that the leadership group and Dimma decided the eight-week (suspension) would be the best thing."
Four months later, Connors sits in a Richmond FC office charting for the first time his remarkable fall from grace and subsequent recovery.
Suspension served and life overhauled, the raking left-footer has played some breathtaking football since his return.
The private and public rehabilitation has been extraordinary, but then again, Connors couldn't have fallen much further.
The 2006 draft's 58th pick arrived at Richmond with a reputation and skeletons in his closet.
Then, within three seasons he would amass what former coach Terry Wallace later estimated to be as many as eight warnings from Richmond for improper behaviour.
In short, Connors was a bad drunk. And, worse, a punchy drunk who didn't need much to get him into that state.
Footy came easy for the Echuca boy who dominated junior footy with Bendigo's TAC Cup team.
"Coming into the system as a country boy and being a lad, growing up, that was part and parcel, but I was young and vain and I wasn't ready for (real life) until all this."
By April, his confidence had swelled with a trio of solid performances across half-back for new coach Hardwick.
Then the dangerous combination of cockiness and alcohol threatened his livelihood in a late-night ruckus in Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel.
Reports had Connors "blind drunk, loud and obnoxious" and when the dust settled a picture emerged of a kid very much out of control.
Teammates Ben Cousins, Luke McGuane and Dean Polo would ultimately be suspended for a week for their part in the late-night fracas.
Even now Connors cannot recall exactly what caused Cousins to punch him, but he says in hindsight it was clearly warranted.
"I think when I get to that stage where I tip, it doesn't seem to be great, and I seem to tip a bit earlier than other people do," he says when asked if he was a bad drunk.
"I was just carrying on, and Ben tried a fair bit to calm me down (with the punch), and in the end I thank him for it, because he got me to pull my head in, in the only way he could, and it was the best thing for me, because it shut me up fairly quick."
It must have been a solid punch?
"I actually don't remember. I think it must have been," he says with that wry grin that he flashes regularly.
By Monday morning's meeting it was apparent something dramatic had to change.
The club's leadership group and Hardwick sentenced Connors to a penalty that forced him to miss eight weeks with Richmond and train away from the club for six weeks.
And, critically, he had to change everything about his life.
"The first week I didn't play I sat back and watched the boys go about it and I knew how much it hurt not being a part of it, and I watched them lose as well, and you just couldn't help but think I was a distraction.
''I felt horrible, and I wanted to get everything in my life right, and come back and have no excuses. I wanted to earn the respect back of everyone I had lost."
The days of denial were over for Connors.
"Straight away I knew. I had had a few stuff ups in the past and this was finally when the penny had to drop. I couldn't keep getting away with the things I had got away with. I had to take it on the chin, and realise I had to change.
"Everyone else couldn't keep on being wrong. It had to be me."
Two key steps were put in place.
Through player welfare manager Lauren Cooper he arranged to taste real life by working in a soup kitchen at homeless shelter St Mary's House of Welfare.
But first he met another country larrikin who had managed to turn his life around after early controversy.
"I wanted to talk to someone who had been through something similar and I am good mates with (fellow Bendigo Pioneers alumni) Joel Selwood and I rang him and asked if it would be all right if I spoke to Steve Johnson. It was really nice of him to do that for me, and Steve was amazing.
"It was just what he did away from the club and how he trained and the ways he won back respect.
"I still keep in contact with him a fair bit. I send him a few texties and watching him play - I used to be a forward and I let him know when he's going all right."
Quickly, the time at St Marys began to affect him in ways he had never known it could.
"The guys were great down there. They had me down there for six weeks, working from 8am to 2pm day every day except Thursdays, when I would have some counselling, and then after that I would do my training at Coburg and play on the weekends.
"When you work in a homeless shelter you see how lucky you are, and you can't take anything for granted.
"They were fantastic. I fit in well there and still keep in contact with some of the guys. A lot of people there had unfortunate stories. One guy in there used to be a boxer and he tried out for the Commonwealth Games, and it was pretty sad to see how it can end up for you. You can go one way, but he went the other way."
Throughout the two-month period, his family and friends stood strong.
Parents Mark and Meryl and sister Sarah were at first shocked, but quickly resolute.
Mark came to Melbourne from Echuca immediately to help his boy cope.
"Mum took it pretty hard, as well. They were pretty devastated, but I couldn't have done without their support."
Cousins too emerged as an unlikely mentor.
"He has been great. As soon as it happened on the Monday, he rang me to see how it was, and then on the Monday when I got the punishment he rang again and spoke to me. He has been through a bit in his life and he said it would make me a stronger person.
''When I was away from the club he always kept in contact with me and gave me support and advice, and that's the type of bloke you want to be around all the time."
He says he would not have got through without his teammates - "They know who they are" - and the constant reassurances and contact from Hardwick.
With mind and body focused, Connors brought his blistering VFL form to his return with Richmond.
Now, 10 games into his comeback, he is finding what Cousins so clearly lacked in his struggles - inner peace.
"The year has obviously had its ups and downs, but it's been good to come back and play the last 10 games, and play some consistent footy," Connors says.
"I think you find out in AFL footy that you can't take it for granted. It can be taken away like that. I am so grateful to Richmond for giving me another shot. I couldn't be happier with where I am right now, and I think, as a person, I have grown up a lot."
It may sound trite, but maybe this was the warts-and-all reality check he needed.
"I think people say that a fair bit, and you have to agree with them. I feel like I am a different person ... well, maybe not a different person, but I have changed my ways and grown up. It's unfortunate it happened, but it seems to have done me some good."
Challenges lie ahead, notably two months off, kick-started by Mad Monday celebrations.
Connors has not touched a beer since Round 3, and says he will stay alcohol-free next season.
Is he worried?
"Yes and no. I can't see myself going out there and getting pole-axed and getting into trouble. There is too much at stake, now. I am sure there will be a few opportunities to have a few beers. I have Graham Polak's wedding in Perth and I may stay a week, and I may head up to Sydney for a couple of weeks.
But I think I will hold myself in pretty good stead."
At 21, Connors is still young. He has had to grow up under the media's fierce glare, which has never been stronger.
But he has worked hard and doesn't plan to slip back to his old lifestyle any time soon.
"I have just got to keep on top of it. You are not just any person in the public; you are an AFL player who has to make sacrifices. People call them sacrifices, but as Luke Power said in one of his articles, they are investments, things you do to make you a better player.
"I want to be a successful player for Richmond Football Club, and if those things have to give, then they have to give."
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