Jan 31 2008
Same Old West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are eager to put the excesses of the last two years behind them, stamp out the lawlessness — which probably scared Chris Judd away — and start living clean and sober. Their #1 draft pick? He’s fitting right in.
THE first important appearance for West Coast’s No.1 draft pick Chris Masten will be in court rather than on the field.
He has been summonsed by police on a charge of disorderly behaviour in public.
The East Fremantle recruit was caught up in trouble during Australia Day celebrations on Saturday night, prompting police to handcuff the 18-year-old, issue a him a “move-on” order and take him to the South Perth mobile police compound.
After learning of the teenager’s misdemeanour, the Eagles hierarchy and leadership group fined Masten $2000 on Monday, and more significantly suspended him from any involvement in this year’s AFL pre-season competition.
Had this happened with any other club, this would probably be a minor blip that would eventually be swept under the rug and forgotten. The specter of Ben Cousins, however, still looms large in Perth, and it would really like you to stop bogarting the horse tranquilizers.
Welcome to the Eagles, Chris. Hope you survive the experience.
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Will they ever change? West Coast have come out after the Ben Cousins dramas touting that they in the process of building a new culture, new leadership group and that the club is heading in the right direction now. Yeah Right.
What hope have they got when their prized Number One selection in the draft gets himself in strife even before he has had a kick?
They have certainly got their work cut out trying to change their reputation.
[...] news stories and they are the ones that generally fin their way around the world as I saw on Daves’ Football Blog the other day. It is always interesting to see what makes headlines in other parts of the World. [...]
He has obviously been indoctrinated into their culture….
Two things about this.
1. Darren Harris came out post draft and said the number one thing they had looked for in the draft was men of character. Mmmmm.
This recruit is quoted as saying, “all that stuff was blown way out of proportion”, “I could not see much wrong with what they had done”…. Denial is the hallmark of the Eagles, Denial and arrogance.
2. The recruit has not fronted the media, and the West Coast have done the normal hush job.