Port Adelaide midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper says he was too drunk to remember what happened with woman at CBD nightclub
BANNED Port Adelaide midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper admits he was too drunk to remember how he “inappropriately touched” a university student on a nightclub dance floor.
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SAM Powell-Pepper admits he was too drunk to know exactly what happened on the dance floor of the Mr Kim’s nightclub at 3am during his late night on Hindley Street after playing an AFL game.
“I do not recall anything,” Powell-Pepper told The Advertiser in an exclusive interview.
“I was too intoxicated.”
The Port Adelaide midfielder does not even remember the name of the 20-year-old university student he was dancing with on Sunday, April 8 — and who the next day accused Powell-Pepper of inappropriate behaviour.
So the 20-year-old West Australian is relying on a 16-day AFL and club investigation to clear his name from accusations Powell-Pepper insists are not in his character.
Powell-Pepper has had no contact with the student who made her complaint about his behaviour to the Port Adelaide Football Club.
“I’m sorry,” Powell-Pepper said. “I have not spoken to her, but I am very sorry for making her feel uncomfortable on that night. I’m sorry.”
Powell-Pepper’s recollection of Saturday, April 7 is playing against Brisbane at Adelaide Oval where the Power won by five points. His post-match plans were to join his teammates at Port Adelaide midfielder-forward Robbie Gray’s 30th birthday.
“Obviously,” adds Powell-Pepper, “I took it a bit further. I went to the city and got a bit too intoxicated and stayed past (the team’s 2am) curfew.
“I’ve a good recall of the start of the night. Leading towards the end of the night, there are parts I don’t recollect. But I should have never put myself in that situation, especially being an AFL player. It is not a very good example.”
Asked what he feels did wrong during his boozy late night on Hindley Street, Powell-Pepper responds: “I accept that I drank way too much.
“I put myself in the situation where I have made someone feel uncomfortable. I feel really regretful for that.”
But Powell-Pepper cannot give a full account of how he behaved on the dance floor where the allegations made by the university student and the AFL’s findings are vastly different.
The AFL investigators ruled Powell-Pepper “inappropriately touched” the university student. Neither the AFL nor Port Adelaide will detail what this actually means.
Not even Powell-Pepper will reveal what the “inappropriate touch” was.
“I do not recall anything,” he said. “I just know that I was too intoxicated. I’ve said there were parts of the night that I don’t remember.
“The AFL and Port Adelaide have done their investigation and found there is no sexual assault or indecent assault. I know that is not in my character. That is not who I am.
“I am taking full responsibility for making (the woman) feel uncomfortable that night. And whoever else I might have made feel uncomfortable.”
Powell-Pepper knows his reputation has taken a pounding — from last year being one of the AFL’s “rising stars” to this month the carrying the image of being a professional footballer misbehaving.
But the 20-year-old Port Adelaide midfielder says he is now feeling relief after the 16-day AFL investigation cleared him of the label of “sexual offender”.
“This (saga) is slowly coming to the end and I can finally start to focus on what I am here to do — and that is that is to play footy,” Powell-Pepper told The Advertiser. “So I am feeling relief.”
Powell-Pepper describes his worst moment after leaving Hindley Street in a drunken state around 4am on Sunday, April 8 was the next day when he was asked to explain his actions as the Port Adelaide Football Club dealt with the complaints of a 20-year-old female university student he had danced with at a nightclub.
“When it all hit the fan, in that first week,” Powell-Pepper said. “Being labelled as someone who sexually assaults people really hurt me.
“To be perceived like that in public really hurt me.
“I’m obviously a role model, a leader in the community; so it did not sit well at all with me. I was quite embarrassed.
“It also affected my family (in Perth). They knew I am not that type of person. They rallied around me.”
Powell-Pepper paid tribute to Power captain Travis Boak for backing him through the toughest moment in his two-year AFL journey.
“ ‘Boaky’ was there from day one; he has the shoulder I can cry on,” Powell-Pepper said. “I can talk to him about anything. “
Powell-Pepper will complete his three-game ban by missing Port Adelaide’s away clash with North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday. He is hopeful of regaining his place in the AFL line-up the following weekend when the Power plays West Coast in Powell-Pepper’s home city of Perth.
Timeline to a three-game ban
APRIL 7: Sam Powell-Pepper plays in Port Adelaide’s five-point win against Brisbane at Adelaide Oval.
APRIL 8: Powell-Pepper leaves the Mr Kim’s nightclub in Adelaide in the early hours of the morning having broken the team’s 2am curfew and rules of excessive drinking in public.
APRIL 9: Female university student approaches the Port Adelaide Football Club — and Channel 7 in Adelaide — to take issue with Powell-Pepper’s behaviour in the nightclub.
APRIL 11: Port Adelaide bans Powell-Pepper for one game — against Essendon — for breaching team rules on curfew and drinking in public.
APRIL 22: Port Adelaide president David Koch rejects AFL’s initial findings of Powell-Pepper being guilty of “inappropriate behaviour” and questions how the AFL integrity unit has conducted its investigation.
APRIL 25: AFL hands Powell-Pepper a three-game ban for engaging “in inappropriate behaviour that is unbecoming for an AFL player by being intoxicated in a public place and by making inappropriate contact with a female.”
Powell-Pepper — as demanded by SANFL rules — plays for the Port Adelaide Magpies in the State league grand final rematch with Sturt at Unley Oval where he has 24 disposals.
APRIL 26: Powell-Pepper speaks publicly for the first time while Port Adelaide’s leaders maintain their fight to protect his reputation.
Originally published as Port Adelaide midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper says he was too drunk to remember what happened with woman at CBD nightclub