Doug Hawkins reveals wild night out with Danny Frawley, Darren Millane
Bulldogs legend Doug Hawkins spills the beans on a crazy visit to Hobart’s Wrest Point Casino that led to State-of-Origin black-listing for him, Danny Frawley and Darren Millane.
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It was the vicious king hit that failed to floor Collingwood’s “Raging Bull” — Darren Millane — but ultimately led to a State-of-Origin black-listing for three high-profile footy stars.
Millane, Doug Hawkins and Danny Frawley were a part of a Victorian team that thrashed Tasmania in a state game in July 1989.
But a night out at Hobart’s Wrest Point Casino unexpectedly turned ugly when a boozed-up patron threw a wild punch at the unsuspecting Millane.
The Collingwood star didn’t flinch.
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“Me and ‘Pants’ (Millane) were rooming together … we went to the casino and there was a bit of a scuffle,” Hawkins told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast.
“We were in the upstairs bar having a beer. This girl started talking to Darren. Darren said ‘Hello’ and she moved away.
“Then this bloke came up and just kinged Pants. You know what … his head didn’t move one inch. I said, ‘Here we go’.
“I thought ‘Knackers, you are in trouble here, you have hit the wrong bloke’.
“ (Millane) just jumped on him and there was a bit of scuffle … that scuffle turned into an all-in blue. Pants could do anything … he could play footy, he could fight, he could drink and he wasn’t bad with the girls either.”
Hawkins and Millane hadn’t started the fight, but they ended it … until security and police arrived.
As they were being escorted out of the casino, Frawley went to their aid and was also taken into custody and locked up alongside his teammates.
Victorian chairman of selectors Ted Whitten vowed to keep the arrest of three of his high-profile stars out of the media.
“The first bloke I saw was Teddy … after the four-hour regulation (in jail),” Hawkins said.
“Then EJ said, ‘Let’s just keep it mouse (quiet). When he said mouse, that meant it was fixed up.
“But … (TV journalist) Rob Astbury got hold of it and broke the news that we had been locked up.”
The league cracked down hard on the players, even though no charges were laid.
Millane was suspended from playing for Victoria for two years; Hawkins copped a one-year ban.
Frawley fared a little better.
“Spud got a reprimand because he worked for the AFL as a promotions officer, so they looked after him,” Hawkins said.
The shock deaths of Millane, at 26, in 1991, and Frawley, at 56, last year still make Hawkins emotional.
Millane was killed in a car accident two years after the Wrest Point Casino brawl.
“It really rocked me,” Hawkins said. “I am not saying we were best mates, but when the two Ds — Darren and Dougie — got together, we had a lot of fun.
“It was just a tragedy for the family, for Denise (Millane’s mum) and Sean (his brother) and Bob (his dad) and Johnny (his brother).
“He would have been the next captain (of Collingwood).”
Frawley’s passing in a car crash just over a year ago has also left an impact on Hawkins, given the pair had done a sportsman’s night together only two weeks earlier.
“I was up in Bendigo for a show with Spud and we had a few drinks together, and then we had a few more drinks,” Hawkins said.
“Then two weeks later, he isn’t here anymore. I was in shock about that. I was with him two weeks earlier and I didn’t say, ‘Are you OK, mate?’.”
Hawkins said the Herald Sun’s recent revelation about Frawley’s CTE diagnosis — following countless concussions during his career — was a shock.
“It was the ’70s and ’80s, and you were too scared to say anything (about concussions) because it was a sign of weakness,” Hawkins said.
“How many times, myself included, would (we) have stayed on the ground (after) a whack in the head. I reckon I had half a dozen really good ones.”
Asked if his own footy-career concussions worried him now, Hawkins says: “There are things I tend to forget now.
“I go down to the local IGA to pick up five things and I could come back with two things. I think, ‘Jesus, is that just getting old?’. Or maybe it is a combination of that and the head knocks.
“You look at Shauny Smith, and Johnny Barnes and Greg Williams. Johnny Platten got knocked out about 30 times.
“It can’t be good for you, can it?”
HAWKINS’ BIGGEST FOOTY SHOW REGRET
Doug Hawkins says any chance of a coaching career was ruined by his court jester role on The Footy Show that saw him deliberately playing down his intellect as the bumbling ex-footballer.
But Hawkins says he should have stayed with The Footy Show instead of crossing to Channel 7 rival Live and Kicking.
Living and Kicking lasted only two seasons and was, in Hawkins’ brutal estimation, “a s--- show” as a football program that attempted to copy the banter and humour of its Nine rival.
Hawkins admits he will never be labelled a genius, but says there was a dark side to bumbling and mispronouncing his words on The Footy Show as the boy from Braybrook.
“The Footy Show was good for me and it was bad for me,” he told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast.
“Everyone saw the court jester, the guy who mucked his words up, and when I wanted to talk about football on a serious note, I felt a lot of people remembered me as being that guy who was the court jester.
“They didn’t take me seriously when I was talking about footy. That really hurt me and frustrated me. That was one area that I wanted to do after retiring, I wanted to be involved in coaching at AFL level.
“The Footy Show was a juggernaut led by Eddie (McGuire), Sam (Newman) and Trevor (Marmalade). I was part of it, I was a part of something. It was bigger than big as Ted Whitten would say. The one that I couldn’t say manure, Sam walked over and said, ‘That was gold, (it’s) great (for) ratings’.
“From that moment I didn’t care what I said on The Footy Show. So The Footy Show was good for me, but it was bad for me. What was (really) bad for me was going to Channel 7 and doing Live and Kicking. It was a s--- show.
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“My manager Ricky Nixon was a guru. I love Ricky. Jason Dunstall was going to Channel 7 and I said I wouldn’t mind having a look at this and Ricky said we’ll have a look to see if there is any interest. Seven said, ‘We would love to have Dougie come across’.
“I thought my role as court jester was coming to an end and I was getting sick of being half a goose. The money was better to go to Seven and at Channel 9 the late Ian Johnson matched it, but I decided I wanted a change in the direction of my media career.”
When Live and Kicking was sacked, Hawkins moved on to some radio with Triple M but while he coached the Bacchus Marsh under-17s to an emotional premiership he never found the senior coaching career he craved.
LEGEND STUMPED OVER SPLIT WITH CLUB
Footscray favourite son Doug Hawkins says he has a strained relationship with Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon and little official contact with the club.
Hawkins revealed that he had not spoken to Gordon since the 2016 premiership, still mystified about why his relationship with the club he did so much to market has cooled so suddenly.
Hawkins put an official proposal to the club in 2015 to help out as an ambassador in a similar manner to Essendon club great Kevin Sheedy.
But as he revealed to the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast, he didn’t get a reply from Gordon.
Gordon told the Herald Sun on Wednesday that Hawkins was a beloved champion of the club, and he was keen to do what he could to make him feel welcome back at Whitten Oval when the 2020 COVID pandemic faded.
Hawkins and Gordon have never been great friends after the president was in charge when Hawkins was sacked at the end of 1994, but he says it pains him that he has so little presence at the club.
“I don’t have a lot to do with Peter and he doesn’t have a lot to do with me. We don‘t have a lot to do with each other. He might be able to answer why we don’t talk. At the end of the day it was 2015. I put together a proposal to the club. Me and Peter had a little small disagreement over some past players function that I was invited to. It was only a little disagreement, it wasn’t much.
“That was right on the back of when (Brendan) McCartney was sacked and (Ryan) Griffin left and (Shaun) Higgins left and things were just happening, the club was in a bit of disarray. Essendon had just put Kevin Sheedy in as an ambassador and I got a handwritten letter put together from (former Bulldog) Matty Mansfield.
“I didn’t get a response from Peter or the club and that’s just the way it was then. We don’t talk a lot and that’s just the way it is. We don’t talk a lot …. we don’t talk at all.”
Hawkins is still invited to the club’s best-and-fairest night given the runner-up trophy is named after him.
Gordon said the Dogs had put several offers to Hawkins to become an ambassador several years back but for various reasons they were not taken up.
“Dougie is always welcome at the club. Everyone loves Doug. I remember giving him a hug the day after the 2016 Grand Final and commenting on who might have been drunker and it was probably me,” he said.
“When I first came back into the job in 2013 I offered him a couple of ambassadorial roles and it didn’t suit him for one reason or another but he’s one of the legends of the club, an official legend, along with John Schultz and Ted Whitten and Charlie Sutton and I hope he will always feel welcome. Footy can be a pretty emotional business and clubs are always making tough decisions, but it is all about your soul but we love Dougie and I hope he can always feel like he can come back any time.”
Hawkins has worked in his current role in traffic management for eight years so his beef is about a connection to the club rather than any financial issue.
But he said it breaks his heart that he does not have more contact with a club he was the face of as a player as the loveable boy from Braybrook.
“Yeah, it does a little bit. In my 17 years (playing) I marketed that footy club. I was the face of that footy club for membership drives that many times. I did that because I love the footy club, I loved the people, I loved my mates, I was the face of that membership drive for many years of those 17 years.
“I don’t really know what the problem is with me. Maybe I am too popular, maybe I am too loved by the Footscray people, I am not sure.
“I was one of their favourite sons and I still am. I am a passionate Footscray person and I love the club. I love the players, I love the supporters, I love what the Footscray football club and Western Bulldogs football club stand for. I love them to death, I would love to be a part of it, I watch every game. I love them to death.”
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Originally published as Doug Hawkins reveals wild night out with Danny Frawley, Darren Millane