By now, we’re all sick-to-death of the ongoing, seemingly neverending saga that is the dispute and legal proceedings between the Essendon Football Club, the governing AFL, and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.
But for better or worse that train, broken wheels and all, continues to roll on gamely towards its final stop. The cases have been made to the AFL Tribunal, who are now deliberating their findings and punishments. In the meantime, the AFL has allowed the Bombers to top up their list with ex-AFL players in order to field a side for (at least) the first two pre-season NAB Challenge fixtures, as the players present during the 2012 season voluntarily sit out to protect both player anonymity and preserve any prospective backdated suspension sentences.
One of the players who, under the rules, could potentially be signed by the club as a ring-in is former St Kilda small forward Stephen Milne. The Herald Sun floated his name as one of the top-choice options for the Bombers to select under the rule that clears them to contact any retired or delisted player who have been out of the AFL system for a maximum of two years. The Sunshine Coast Daily has also ran with this rumour, and speculation on social media has been rife.
Milne spent a year on the Bombers reserves squad back in 2000, before transferring to the Saints where he played 275 games – including the Saints three failed Grand Final attempts in 2009 and 2010 – booting 575 goals in the process. He retired at the end of the 2013 season, given a standing ovation by the St Kilda faithful as he left the ground for the final time as an AFL player. In the years since, Milne has played in the Bendigo Football League, booting 100 goals last season for Strathfieldsaye. He currently plays for St Marys in the Northern Territory Football League.
On November 18th of last year, Milne was fined $15,000 after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a woman in 2004, following a trial in which he (arguably miraculously) escaped conviction for rape.
Under no circumstances should the Essendon Football Club sign Stephen Milne to a playing contract, even if it is merely temporary. The two chief reasons for which are as follows, with the slightly less obvious addressed first.
IT MAKES NO SENSE FROM A FOOTBALL STANDPOINT
Pre-season games are tune-ups. A way for clubs to see game plans worked on during the summer actualised in match conditions. It’s also a way to blood and trail new recruits, test youngsters, and bring back players who may have suffered long-term injuries. Even without the 25 players from the 2012 list, adding Stephen Milne to that roster makes very little sense.
At 34 years old, Milne is well beyond his best playing years. That burden of age already necessitates higher levels of bench rotation than normal, due to body maintenance. The fact that he’s been out of the AFL system for two years – and thus out of the support network and training regime of an elite sporting organisation – means that, aerobically speaking, he cannot be near his peak condition, further exacerbating the need for extended bench time. This differs from the case of fellow small forward recruit Paul Chapman, who crossed from Geelong and did not leave the AFL system.
Milne could, in theory, be utilised to some effect as a pinch hitting forward – coming on for short bursts when the play is flowing towards goal. But in doing so, his very presence in a playing squad takes a place away from someone else. The entire point of utilising top-up players is to plug suddenly vacant holes in a list, not to improve position depth. Even with the absence of players like Jason Winderlich, the Bombers still sport a list that’s capable of fielding Chapman, Zach Merrett, Nick Kommer (if he’s fit) and new recruits Kyle Langford and Jayden Laverde.
In Merrett and Chapman alone you have two players who combined for 33 goals in the 2014 season – a remarkable feat given that it was in a team that managed to average a paltry 89 points per game. Pending fitness, Kommer’s re-addition to the team provides spark and run from the half-forward line, and Langford and Laverde’s size and versatility makes them capable of rotating around the field – either deep in the forward line, or further up the field to half-back. The five of them together can provide ample support for tall forward options like the emerging Joe Daniher, newly promoted Patrick Ambrose, and recent recruit Shaun McKernan. The Bombers forward line, even in a truncated team, remains threatening on paper.
That’s not to ignore the talent and ability that Milne possesses. True it is that they are prodigious. But his spot in a prospective Essendon team is at best a band-aid solution, and at worst severely hampers a rather unique opportunity to turn an unthinkable situation into a strange positive by allowing accelerated list development.
But for all the talent, and all the potential benefits temporarily adding Stephen Milne to the Essendon playing list represents, it’s all rendered completely and utterly moot by the fact that…
THE FOOTBALL CLUB CANNOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, CHAMPION A MAN WHO PLEADED GUILTY TO INDECENT ASSAULT
In a court of law, Stephen Milne pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a woman. That right there should be the definitive argument in this case. It’s all well and good to suggest that he’s done his penance and paid the fine levelled against him, and that a second chance should be allowed. And that might well be the right thing to do in criminal cases that aren’t a direct result of a criminal’s occupation. But in 2004, Milne indecently assaulted someone – a situation he knowingly placed himself into as a direct result of his profession. The inherent privilege of being a professional footballer granted Milne both a position of power, and an air of entitlement. And he used both of these things to indecently, sexually, assault a woman by repeatedly penetrating her despite her insistent “No”s, and despite her thinking he was someone else.
In good conscience, the Essendon Football Club cannot allow Milne a chance at redemption so closely removed from a guilty plea – remembering that this court case was only settled in November of last year.
To do so robs the victim of what little moral compensation she received from the court system, by simple virtue of placing him in front of a televised audience – the NAB Challenge games will be televised on Fox Footy and Foxtel, as well as the AFL’s official website and app – and have commentators inevitably state how good it is to see Milne back in the AFL, to have them champion his past on-field accomplishments, to state that he is potentially a future Hall of Fame candidate, and to state that he is “one of the all-time greats.” It is to welcome back a man who robbed years from her, who caused her untold and unfathomable mental duress, who willingly violated her through actions and attitudes afforded to him by his profession, back into the industry with open arms, and with no source of recourse for her to interject or fight back.
More to that, the AFL as a governing body should simply not allow it. With a new CEO in Gillon McLachlan on the cusp of entering his first full season as the game’s highest figure, what better time than now to take a hard-lined stance against abhorrent player behaviour like this? In Europe, former professional soccer player Ched Evans has not been able to find any pro team to take him on after being released from prison following a served sentence for rape. This rape occurred as a direct result of the privilege afforded to him by his chosen profession, and the sense of entitlement that it brewed. With the exception of jail time served, the similarities between Evans case and Milne’s are eerily similar. What then makes the AFL above any set of laws or morality in theoretically allowing Milne to re-enter its system?
Milne’s privilege to play in the highest form of Australian football ended on November 18th, 2014. At the age of 34, he should be thankful that a thin, hero-worshipping, misogynistic, at-times boneheaded, and potentially corrupt police investigation gifted him nine extra years of his career.
The Essendon Football Club cannot, under any circumstances, accept the signature of Stephen Milne on a playing contract. In the event that that should happen, and despite all the events that have lead to this point, there will be at least one 2015 Membership Card being sent back to them. This fact I can personally guarantee.
Photos: Scott Barbour, Chris Hyde, Matt Roberts via Getty Images.
