Tom Harley fires back at Grant Thomas over Dan Hannebery and Lance Franklin allegations
TOM Harley has fired both barrels at former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas for his attacks via Twitter on the Swans and their star players Lance Franklin and Dan Hannebery.
Sydney
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SWANS football manager Tom Harley has slammed former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas for questioning whether mental health reasons were really behind Sydney star Lance Franklin’s self-imposed absence from the 2015 finals series.
Thomas launched a scathing attack on the Swans, Franklin and teammate Dan Hannebery, claiming the Swans duo were in fact not injured, but being internally punished.
Franklin missed three weeks of footy this season because of a bruised heel suffered in Round 1 against West Coast at the newly built Perth Stadium.
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Hannebery, conversely, has missed four matches in 2018 because of groin issues.
The Swans were initially angry at Thomas’s comments, but were prepared to let the situation pass without any consequence for the 60-year-old.
But Thomas fired another tweet on Monday afternoon, claiming a number of parties were attempting to cover up off field indiscretions.
Harley said the club will continue to pursue the possibility of legal action against Thomas, declaring his comments were a massive blow to the gains Franklin had made for the issue of mental health in the AFL.
“The first tweet was laughable,” Harley told The Daily Telegraph.
“I couldn’t believe it because we would call it out if it was a behavioural issue. But then to go further to make the suggestion around the players and pedal rumour is really poor and really sad.
“We are better than that and better as a society for the strength of character Lance showed in 2015. What Lance did gave a lot of other players who don’t have the platform or the voice to demonstrate the same strength. To belittle that is just sad.”
Was Franklin & Hannebery injuries coincidentally the same time frame?🤔 Hearing perhaps internal punishment for off field indiscretions? I’m sure it’s just gossip - there’d be no way Bud would do anything wrong off field. 😳
— Grant Thomas (@Thomo_Grant) June 2, 2018
I hear Tim Watson’s Channel 7 buddy Tom Harley said its rubbish so it must beðŸ˜. Therefore all test result stuff doing the rounds must be rubbish too. Even missing the finals is probably rot also? In fact he has never missed a game for anything other than legitimate injury https://t.co/AcJvSnsebh
— Grant Thomas (@Thomo_Grant) June 4, 2018
Thomas’s latest tweet raised questions about Franklin’s leave of absence from the 2015 finals to deal with mental health issues, suggesting a cover-up by the club.
“All the test result stuff doing the rounds must be rubbish too,” Thomas said.
“Even missing the finals is probably rot also?
“In fact he has never missed a game for anything other than legitimate injury.”
“We are really disappointed about it, we’ve been called liars,” Harley told the Daily Telegraph.
“We don’t take too kindly to that and we will explore our legal options. As an industry we have come a long way when it comes to mental health,” Harley said.
“When Lance stepped out of the finals (2015) on the back of acknowledging the things he was dealing with in relation to mental health issues was as significant a moment in that space in the AFL. To suggest otherwise is just bad and just not right.”
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