What really happened at Carlton co-captain Sam Docherty’s wedding
The bride of Carlton co-captain Sam Docherty is quite rightly livid that her wedding at the Royal Botanic Gardens on Australia Day weekend is being referred to as a Blues-bagging bender. So what really went down with the team on the big day?
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Nothing to see here! Carlton Footy Club president Mark LoGIudice says rumours of players putting on the wobbly boot at co-captain Sam Docherty’s wedding are, well, “exaggerated”.
Yes, the prez had heard about some players being legless but, no, only some injured players had a drink as did those who had survived the pre-season intact.
As one insider observed: “When they’ve been teetotalling for training and get on the piss for one night it hits them in a big way.”
Which brings Page 13 to Docherty’s wedding at the Royal Botanic Gardens on Australia Day weekend.
Bride Natalie is quite rightly livid her nuptials are being referred to as a Blue-bagging bender. But the wedding whispers persist.
There’s the one about the star forward who got so sideways during the day the he slumped under a hundred-year-old English elm tree for a nanna nap.
He was reportedly found by one of the groundskeepers the next morning after being locked in for the night.
Or the one about the injury-prone player so poleaxed he was helped into a cab, all under the eyes of coach David Teague.
Teague has already said he is not going to turn “discipline” at Carlton “into a dictatorship”.
With the new cockroach, as some of the old players at Carlton referred to their coaches, players had a clear understanding of what they could and could not drink.
“If you have an acute injury, you don’t drink. If you have a longer term injury, you need to be smart with it,” he said this week.
Teague said some players went to the wedding and “didn’t drink and they didn’t drink because they have acute injuries. But the ones who could have a drink, I have no issues with that”.
Seems hangovers don’t count as an acute injury at Carlton.
LoGiudice, who was at Percy Jones’ North Fitzroy Arms pub as guest speaker at Perc’s Odd Friday Lunch, backed up the Teague Train.
“No suspensions,” said the prez. “People get on social media and start saying whatever jumps into their head.”
LoGiudice later told the packed house that if he took notice of everything he read online or on social media or in the newspapers, “I would be curled up in a corner over there in the foetal position.”
So much for the one about a veteran Blues big man throwing up on comedian Andy Lee.
Not true? But was Carlton tragic Lee rubbing the big guy’s back as he took a chunder into the Botanic Gardens bushes?
Remember that Blues booze cruise back in the day when teenage rookie Levi Casboult was handcuffed to a senior player and forced into a drinking contest as part of Carlton’s end-of-season celebrations?
Who hasn’t had two too many at a wedding party and woken up to the grey cloud of cringe? OK, although someone close to the action said: “It wasn’t two too many, it was nearer 200.”