Eagles 'too weak' with problem players
February 14, 2008 - 7:12PM
West Coast will consider player minders and extra drug testing after finally admitting they haven't acted fast or hard enough on misbehaving players.
An independent review, commissioned by the club, carried out by former WA deputy Premier Hendy Cowan and released on Thursday, revealed a catalogue of 35 incidents of poor behaviour by 13 players in the six years up until December 2007.
And referring to a cabal of senior players whose arrogance influenced the entire club, assaults, drug and alcohol abuse, fraternising with underworld figures and even poor behaviour during drug testing were allowed to go almost unchecked.
"Many of the stakeholders interviewed, internally and externally, believe more should have been done by the club to investigate and to deal with these matters earlier and with more severity," the report said.
"This does not just relate to the allegations of drug use, but the broader attitude and behaviour of the player group."
The report was ordered after a disastrous year which saw drug addicted former captain Ben Cousins sacked, midfielder Chad Fletcher hospitalised in Las Vegas and Daniel Kerr repeatedly in trouble with the law.
Cowan and co-author KPMG executive Steve Scudamore spoke to more than 50 parties, including AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, WA police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan, one ex-Eagles coach, 10 current players and parents of players.
And chairman Mark Barnaba said it was clear the club had not done enough when signs were there player behaviour was reaching unacceptable levels.
"We did not act quickly enough and we did not act severely enough and we let our standards slip," Barnaba said.
"There is little doubt that the actions we took in the past neither changed the prevailing culture of the club nor materially improved the off-field behaviour of some of our players..
"The responsibility for this has to be shared evenly across all areas of the club.
"We had holes in the support structures ... a culture that was materially impacted by the arrogant and risk taking behaviour of some key members of the player leadership group and a club where there was a betrayal of trust between some of the players and the administrators."
But with the report concluding that various actions taken since November 2006 - when senior Eagles officials accepted privately they had a serious problem - that huge improvements have been made.
"The report has come to the conclusion that we are well on track, and the initiatives we have taken have placed us well to go forward," Barnaba said.
Amongst 18 recommendations is that the club further investigate the use of personal security/minders for players attending public events considered "high risk"
"This would be aimed at assisting the prevention and management of any issues that could occur. We understand the Club is currently considering a number of options in this area," the report said.
Cowan also recommended the club establish protocols for eliminating player connections with underworld figures and "undesirable hangers on" and finalise a pay structure for chief executive Trevor Nisbett and coach John Worsfold linked to the achievement of 'off-field goals'.
The report also said the Eagles should also investigate with the AFL possible additional targeted drug testing of West Coast players, and general changes to an AFL player contract to reward or punish good or bad behaviour.
"We have not spoken to the AFL and the AFLPA ... but I am certain they will pay attention to the report. I don't think a lot of these recommendations will happen overnight, it will take time," Barnaba said.
A second report into the Eagles, ordered by the AFL and carried out by former Victorian High Court justice William Gillard, is due to be discussed by the AFL Commission in the coming days.
http://news.theage.com.au/eagles-too-weak-with-problem-players/20080214-1sai.html
