Brendan Fevola says players battling Peter Pan syndrome

PAGE 13: Carlton bad boy Brendan Fevola says players need to shoulder their own problems and stop blaming clubs or the AFL for their downfalls after they finish the game.

BRENDAN Fevola says footballers suffer from Peter Pan syndrome and never grow up.

The former Carlton great was all but mature when he told Page 13 this week players need to shoulder their own problems and stop blaming club’s or the AFL for their downfalls after they finish the game.

As he gears up to renew his vows with wife “and rock” Alex later this year, Fevola says AFL players need to set themselves up for life after footy so they don’t become one of the lost boys.

“You get given all the avenues to succeed and I didn’t go down the right path,” Fevola said.

“Ultimately it is up to you and your management to set that up.”

Fevola says he was approached to appear on this week’s Four Corner report “After The Game” which shed a light on Aussie sporting champs and their struggles to restart their lives after their elite sporting careers ended.

Fevola credits his family with helping him turn a corner in his life. Picture: Josie Hayden

But Fevola, who now shares equal billing on Fox FM’s brekkie radio show says rather than have a sook about being treated like a piece of meat by the AFL, players need to suck it up and take responsibility themselves.

“In the cold hard truth of it all you are a piece of meat,” Fev said.

“Footy is a business. It is the same with any business, if you are not performing they are not going to keep you going, they will replace you.”

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Fev says he has had to cop his past follies — which among many others includes being arrested on a New Year’s morning after a big bad bender, dressing up on Mad Monday in a pink nightie and a sex toy, or THAT naked bathroom photo of Lara Bingle — all on the chin and take ownership of it.

Fevola turned heads with his Mad Monday costume in Melbourne’s CBD.

“It was all my own fault, No one else contributed to that,” Fevola laughs.

“I own most of my mistakes, but it is all about maturing.”

He says it is all the more difficult for players who are cocooned into an institutionalised and structured life whereby everything is done for them, right down to the manager paying their bills.

“It is just about growing up, but it is very hard for footballers,” he said.

Fev says it’s taken some time, but with the right support, in his case wife Alex and their three girls Mia, Leni and Lulu, he is back on the right track.

Brendan and Alex Fevola with there children Leni, Mia and Lulu. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

“It’s the old fork in the road, which one do you want to go down? I was sort of stuck in the middle but gradually I’m getting toward the right one.

“Alex just knew how I ticked, I hit rock bottom and came out of the other side.”

While cagey on exact dates, Fevola says his girls are excited to head overseas to renew his vows with Alex.

“We will probably have a party and then go away and do it,” he said.

“Mia was the only child at our first wedding so the girls are pretty excited about dressing up and it will just be a family thing.”

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