Of course they would. Just look at what hapenned to Lawrence Angwin. He was told he was sacked by the club while blokes from the leadership group were present at that meeting as they were the night before. The club I am sure would know who the culprits are but some players are marketable earn $$$$$ and are reputable and hence will damage the comp if their true colours are shown. In Cousins case it was about a player who had reached the stage of his life where drugs were consuming him so much that the club had to intervene for the safety of the player. If W Coast kept their mouth shut so would the AFL and they would sweep it under the rug and one morning we would have woken to the news at 7 to say Ben Cousins is dead and that's it until more details would have been released............Football nowadays is no longer male macho dominated as in the days when Paul Van Der Haar would have a slab of beer on a Friday night and then rock up on a Saturday to play all whilst Sheeds would know too well where his champ was. Community attitudes have changed and so has the demographics of the supporters to a large degree and it is marketed as pure family entertainment and hence they do not want issues like drugs tarnishing it and if you don't agree look at the rule changes that are brought in to appease mum so that Timmy isn't scarred for life if he sees Jonathan Brown clean up two blokes who will be taken off on stretchers while taking a speccy on the back of his 6 ft 4 opponent. Yet when mum and dad divorce because of financial problems, alcoholic problems, physical and emotional abuse that kids are a direct witness to they are not scarred??? Its all about image and it always will be. Happens with those that have power. Remember Ed on the footy show Schulz is a crim because he drank and dve yet Cloke getting clocked doing 144 is okay because he didn't have 15 schooners of beer in him and Millane was unlucky hence we retired his jumper. Its about image people. To create a perception that will promote you ahead of those in direct and indirect competition and where does this lead us back to in short THE MIGHTY DOLLAR $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
