Double trouble: How strippers, kebabs and a barney brought undone Tigers Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones
Mick Malthouse has heavily criticised Richmond for their on and off-field behaviour, declaring the club is disrespecting opposition and have become “too big for their own boots”, with a string of offences providing the evidence.
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Richmond premiership player and AFL coaching great Mick Malthouse has slammed the Tigers over their behaviour this season, declaring they have become “too big for their own boots” in the wake of their latest COVID breach.
The Tigers are reeling after being fined $100,000 due to Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones breaching the league rules by catching an Uber into Surfers Paradise and attending a strip club.
The pair were later involved in a fight which required police attendance resulting in a 10-game suspension and being banished from Queensland.
Richmond had experienced a COVID breach after Trent Cotchin’s wife Brooke attended a Queensland day spa.
The Cotchin family threatened to leave the hub after that controversy.
The Tigers have also had the groping dramas during their team song, and coach Damien Hardwick lashing out at Sydney after a low scoring game and former Melbourne star David Schwarz following criticism of Tom Lynch.
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Malthouse said too many issues were occurring and it would cost the Tigers the chance to win the flag.
“It’s almost like they’ve become too big for their own boots and this is payback time,” Malthouse told ABC Radio.
“It’s big, big payback.
“We saw what happened with (Nathan) Buckley in Western Australia when he went out and played tennis and his side went off the boil for two or three weeks because subconsciously, the players are going hang on aren’t we supposed to all be in this together?
“I reckon the consequences of what’s happened in the last few weeks at Richmond, that’s not going to bode well for them winning a premiership. They’re going to just cling on if at all to make the top four.”
Malthouse said Richmond’s behaviour on the field were also alarming.
While the Tigers have consistently shown that they play their best football when relaxed and happy, Malthouse said they were now disrespecting opposition teams by laughing on the field.
He said Hardwick’s three-quarter-time spray which sparked Richmond’s win over Fremantle showed that players couldn’t play their best when laughing.
“I think that’s disrespectful to the opposition for a start,” he said.
“I think it sets a very, very poor tone on the ground. It may be something internal – let’s laugh off the fact I missed a shot at goal from 20m out.
“But if you’re going to do that, you do it all day.
“You don’t do it until the chips are down, all of a sudden Fremantle had a sniff and all of a sudden there’s panic in the coach’s box and there’s panic on the ground.
“Where’s the smiling? Where’s the laughing? There’s no consistency in that so straight away the alarm bells in my mind are ringing because you’re not being consistent at all.”
STRIP CLUB DRAWS CURTAIN ON TIGERS’ BOOZY FIGHT NIGHT
Orchid Ave in Surfers Paradise is the Gold Coast’s party strip.
“It’s all nightclubs, strip clubs and kebab shops,” one business owner told News Corp.
Young revellers head here to party the night away at playfully-named venues such as Empire, Cocktail, Revolution, Retro, Lost Kingdom, Bedroom and Havana, then many tuck into a late-night feed to help ease the next day’s hangover.
It was on this street, outside one of those souvlaki shops and gentleman’s clubs, that Richmond’s Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones landed themselves, their club and the AFL in hot water by getting into a fight and breaching the league’s return-to-play COVID-19 protocols in the early hours of Friday morning.
CCTV footage from Kebab Zone — located at street level below Hollywood Showgirls — captured the duo sitting on a bench out the front, just before 3.30am, snacking on food they had ordered from the shop.
Moments later, the vision showed Coleman-Jones being accosted by a male bystander and Stack intervening, starting an altercation that lasted a few minutes.
Police quickly arrived from the 24-hour station situated two buildings down to break up the fight.
The players and the other man were separated in No Name Lane, beside Smashed Burgers and Fries — a shop closed for more than a year next door to Kebab Zone and below Hollywood Showgirls.
Stack and Coleman-Jones would probably have hoped they were no names that no one would recognise in a non-traditional AFL market when they caught an Uber to the glitter strip at an hour the only places open on a Thursday night were kebab shops, strip joints and convenience stores.
For Hollywood Showgirls’ part the boys’ night out would have been kept a secret.
The club posted a statement on its Instagram page on Friday, saying “we cannot confirm or deny any fight or eviction occurred”.
“What happens in Hollywood stays in Hollywood,” club boss Craig Duffy said.
“We value our customers’ privacy whether they be an unknown client or a high-profile celebrity or athlete.”
Kebab Zone owner Mick Akca, who did not recognise the duo, was more forthcoming.
He served the Richmond pair and saw some of the fracas but said Stack seemed a “nice guy” who was tired and a bit tipsy.
Akca called the man that approached the duo a drunken troublemaker, who was a regular nuisance in the area.
He saw him drunkenly fall over outside his shop as the two Tigers tried to resist his aggression.
“They got the kebabs, sat down, started to eat, then the drunk guy came over and got involved with them,” Akca, whose shop was open from 6pm to 4am, told News Corp.
“They were just eating their kebabs – why would you disturb them?”
Akca has grown accustomed to fights on the strip, saying are were up to three or four a week and that is why the police always keep an eye on the street and he does not bat an eyelid at many fisticuffs.
“It wasn’t a big fight, it was an argument,” he said.
Stack was taken into police custody but no charges were laid, while Coleman-Jones was treated in hospital with minor facial injuries.
Footage showed Stack ordering two lot of two kebabs — a pair either side of the fight because he and Coleman-Jones dropped the first two on the floor during the scuffle.
What the vision does not reveal is where the Tigers pair come to the shop from.
To get to Hollywood Showgirls, you have to walk down a side alley that leads to a staircase into the establishment.
There are signs on the footpath with scantily-clad dancers advertising “Australia’s most beautiful exotic showgirls” with special features like “double trouble”.
Hollywood Showgirls opens from 8pm, closes at 3am and, according to Akca, the last customers emerge from there as late as 3.30am.
A security guard mans the line-up to the gentleman’s club, which like all bars and nightspots in Australia, are dealing with coronavirus restrictions regarding crowd numbers.
Akca saw Stack and Coleman-Jones leave the area, heading north up the street, as they waited for a ride home.
But not before Stack bought his second lot of kebabs.
Akca said Stack must have known about his shop because he ordered four Mick’s special kebabs, which were not advertised or on the menu, people only found out about from word of mouth.
Wanted to see what the fuss was about so ordered a Mick's special from Kebab Zone.
— Matt Turner (@mattturner1986) September 4, 2020
Hits the spot. pic.twitter.com/ZjQRrNCjn7
They are made from “special sauces” and from a recipe Akca will not reveal, saying only they are his best.
“(Stack) said he wanted two of my famous kebabs — Mick’s special,” Akca told News Corp.
Those kebabs better have been good because they are among the last meals Stack and Coleman-Jones will have in Queensland before returning to Melbourne in disgrace.
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Originally published as Double trouble: How strippers, kebabs and a barney brought undone Tigers Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones