Richmond’s Sydney Stack vows to make amends after getting into fight outside strip club
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has revealed how Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones went to a strip club after having drinks with teammates in the hub and admits the club has lost respect.
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Richmond coach Damien Harwick concedes last week’s protocol-breaking night on the Gold Coast has tarnished the club’s reputation but says the incident is not reflective of his team and does not expect it to affect its on-field performances.
Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones were suspended for 10 games and booted from the Queensland hub after taking an Uber to Hollywood Showgirls strip club then getting into a fight outside a kebab shop in Surfers Paradise about 3.30am last Friday morning.
Two-time premiership coach Hardwick said he was incredibly disappointed the club had lost respect and the club’s image meant a lot to him.
But he stressed that “98 per cent of our players know and respect” the AFL’s COVID-19 protocols.
“We speak about the Richmond family and what our jumper represents and who we are as men and an organisation, and it reflects poorly on us, we understand that,” Hardwick told reporters on Wednesday.
“Respect is very hard to earn but it’s easy to lose and we’ve probably lost a bit at the moment.
“The important thing for us is we’ve got to continue to rebuild our reputation.
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“It’s been tarnished, there’s no doubt about that.
“It’s been an intense 48 to 72 hours but we’ll grow from it, we’ll learn from it, the players are disappointed and accept the responsibility.
“We’ve dealt with it as a footy club and we’ll continue to be judged on it until we continue to move forward with an unblemished record.”
Hardwick said the AFL allowed Richmond to hold birthday drinks for Jack Ross and Ben Miller, but Stack and Coleman-Jones “took it upon themselves after the admitted finish to have an hour’s sleep then go out”.
The 11th-year coach learnt about of their indiscretions the next morning.
He said he had emphasised to the players the ramifications of another breach, which would result in the loss of draft picks and/or premiership points, but called the club’s messaging “consistent”, even before last week’s incident.
“We can only tell them so many times as an organisation as a coaching fraternity as an administration of what the protocols are,” he said.
“Two players stepped outside the boundaries and it’s cost us and them dearly, so we’ll continue to educate and grow.”
West Australian Stack has played nine games this season, most recently in Round 13 against Essendon.
Coleman-Jones, a South Australian, has featured once for the club.
Hardwick last spoke to the duo on Monday and said although the club was disappointed with them, it was concerned for their welfare.
He would not speculate on their futures, saying they would be “determined in due course”.
Both players are contracted to the end of 2021.
“We’ll continue to monitor them and help them through their journey,” Hardwick said.
“The two players are like family to us … but they’ve also got to understand the repercussions of their actions.”
Richmond’s first test of whether the incident will derail the team’s push for a third flag in four years is against second-placed Geelong at Metricon Stadium on Friday night.
Hardwick said the proof would be in the pudding.
“All we can control is our on-field performance … and we’ll put all our time and effort into that,” he said.
Hardwick was unsure if a Tigers staff member would lose their job due to the $100,000 hit to the club’s 2021 soft cap.
“It will obviously affect us in some way,” he said.
RIEWOLDT: TIGERS ARE ‘ON THE BORDERLINE’
Richmond star Jack Riewoldt says all Richmond players will “own” the reckless behaviour of teammates Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones.
The young pair have been sent home from the AFL’s Queensland hub in disgrace and the Tigers whacked with a $100,000 fine after police were called to a fight outside a Gold Coast strip club in the early hours of Friday morning.
Riewoldt, Richmond vice-captain, said there was a feeling of “disbelief” when the news filtered through about the COVID breaches on Friday morning, admitting the club’s brand had been damaged.
“Naturally there is a lot of frustration from some people because we understand the consequences. And we only have ourselves to blame because this is a team sport so we are not going to ostracise the boys and throw them out. We are going to own it,” he said.
“The majority of our actions are of a club that is built on respect and connection and love and care for each other, but we have made two really poor decisions and it’s not going to define us. And we have got to learn from it because we are right on the borderline of going over onto the next stage of punishments, which are pretty severe.
“We are on heightened alert. For us it’s a pretty expensive lesson and a pretty damaging one for the brand of the footy club and we are pretty disappointed about that,” he told the Tiger Time podcast.
Stack is determined to show he can again prove his critics wrong next year as Richmond empowers its players to ensure they do not suffer another catastrophic COVID breach.
Stack is staying with his aunt in Adelaide as his manager Paul Peos and fellow mentors find a way to get him back to extended family in Perth in coming weeks.
The AFL and AFLPA are adamant Richmond will have to foot the bill for the $75,000 fine levied on them by the league for the Stack-Callum Coleman Jones COVID breach.
Stack will already have to cop a 10-match suspension, with the missed match payments and game bonuses set to see him miss out on more than $35,000 next year.
His manager Paul Peos told the Herald Sun on Monday he understood the gravity of his infraction after going to a strip club and then fighting outside a kebab shop.
The Tigers are aware he is not in any position to pay a fine but it is understood he could eventually pay some portion as a show of sacrifice to his fellow teammates.
Coleman-Jones is a popular member of the group but will be encouraged to limit or end his alcohol intake given his only poor choices have occurred after drinking.
Richmond has continually reinforced to players the consequence of COVID breaches, with a next infraction resulting in the loss of draft picks and/or premiership points.
The Tigers hierarchy discussed ways to again make that clear to players, believing it must come from the playing group rather than again lecturing them about consequences.
Peos said on Monday Stack had been underestimated before and found a way to get to the highest level of the AFL.
“He is with an aunty at the moment and he knows the consequences are serious so once we get him back into WA we will be able to start mapping out a way forward for him,” he told News Corp.
“The Richmond welfare team has been talking with us pretty consistently all the way through.
“The WA border has toughened up in relation to him coming back into WA so at some stage he will be home isolating or quarantining.
“Talking with the people who know him pretty well, he has been a pretty resilient boy when he has had his back to the wall. They are different circumstances here and I have said it before but he’s pretty good at owning his mistakes, Syd.
“This is a significant one by any measure and there will be a lot of people along the way he has burnt bridges with.
“Maybe there are some bridges he can’t repair but I am pretty confident he will do his best to restore the ones he can.”
As a second-year rookie he will miss the chance to make the COVID-reduced $2000 match payments this season with Richmond in as many as six games if the Tigers make it deep into the finals.
Then next year as a third-year rookie he would miss out on $4000 match fees, or $5000 match fees if the Tigers had elevated him to the senior list.
If the Tigers play four finals he would be eligible for Round 5 of the 2021 season but might have to work his way in through the VFL.
The Tigers structured his contract over summer to include bonus clauses if he hit certain fitness measurements.
He returned in excellent condition but coach Damien Hardwick admitted his lack of discipline through the COVID shutdown had harmed his selection chances given his fitness.
LYON’S WARNING TO TIGERS ON PRE-FINALS BYE
Richmond players have been urged to approach the pre-finals break with extreme caution to avoid a disastrous third COVID-19 protocol breach which would cost the club premiership points or draft picks.
Respected former Fremantle and St Kilda coach Ross Lyon said the Tigers would have no choice but to remind all the players and staff in the club’s hub about their responsibilities after an embarrassing breach from Callum Coleman-Jones and Sydney Stack last week.
And Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says he was dumbfounded by the stupidity of the Richmond pair, backing the penalties handed down by the AFL.
The AFLPA remains adamant the pair will not have to pay $75,000 of the $100,000 fine after they each copped a 10-match suspension for leaving the hub to go to a strip club and kebab shop where a scuffle broke out last week.
Lyon said the club would be careful over the pre-finals bye and potentially reconsider any pre-planned gatherings.
“The leaders, you would be more diligent, the reminders,” Lyon said on Triple M.
“All of a sudden next time you have a break, the next break for the pre-finals bye are they going to have a get-together then?
“Or are they going to say ‘Gee whiz, we put this up and we weren’t able to handle it?’
“Everything just tightens up a little bit. So that mental stress become a bit greater.
“This is the reputation of our club and our season is on the line here.
“We are a legitimate chance to win a premiership.”
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Coleman-Jones and Stack have apologised for their error and have departed the Tigers’ hub ahead of Friday night’s clash against Geelong at Metricon Stadium.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said everyone in the hubs had a huge responsibility to abide by the rules.
“(AFL CEO) Gillon McLachlan is basically in the room upstairs from me here – we just couldn’t believe what happened,” McGuire said.
“In here at the moment at the hub, Gil and even myself and club officials sat around and we actually spoke to all the people that were up here, the journalists, the wives, the girlfriends, the kids and everybody.
“We said right, here’s what we need to do. We actually brought out a pole that was one-point-five metres and put it by the pool to make sure everybody has an understanding. Everyone’s on tenterhooks about getting this right.”
McGuire said he was dumbfounded by the stupidity of the Tigers pair, but was satisfied with the sanctions handed down, which he has frequently said should’ve been harsher from the outset.
“Clearly they had a drink to celebrate after a game, it was a teammates’ birthday, that was sanctioned,” he said.
“Then they went back to the room, the idiot soup kicked in on them and they decided it was a good idea to break every rule they’ve been told for the last three months and as a result they got a full whack.
“Everyone knows the rules, I’ve been pretty strong on this, you’ve got to go hard. I would’ve gone hard earlier including some of my people at Collingwood who got into trouble, but it is what it is.”
SHOULD ‘VERY SORRY’ TIGERS BE FORCED TO PAY MASSIVE FINE?
AFL Players Association chief executive Paul Marsh says he was “taken aback” by Richmond’s declaration that Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones would pay $75,000 of the $100,000 fine imposed on the club for their late-night transgressions.
Marsh and Stack’s manager Paul Peos are adamant the young Tigers won’t be paying it, while AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking said on Saturday it was “intended to be a club fine”.
Meanwhile, both Tigers have now broken their silence and apologised for their actions.
Marsh met with Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale inside the Gold Coast transition hub on Saturday morning, with the players’ boss stressing there was no provision for any financial penalty on the players.
He expected a swift resolution to the standoff, saying the players had already been penalised to the maximum of their hub agreement with the AFL – a 10-match suspension which is set to run into the 2021 season – and won’t be paying the fine.
“We were taken aback by the suggestions the players should pay the fines, given we had agreed to sanctioning parameters with the AFL upfront,” Marsh told the Sunday Herald Sun.
”I am not arguing with the 10-week suspension.
“The players’ actions were significant and they have received the maximum penalties under those protocols.
“They have been suspended for 10 weeks. There are financial penalties that come with that. They can’t earn any money from match fees or if they had bonuses in their contracts they will miss out on that.
“The fine … is not related to the players. There is very clearly an agreement between the AFL and the clubs (in regard to fines).”
An agreement between the AFLPA and the AFL prior to the establishment of quarantine hubs centred on suspensions, not fines.
But the AFL had a separate deal with the 18 clubs which related to financial penalties handed out to the teams for breaches of protocol.
Stack and Coleman-Jones have been booted out of Queensland after a fight outside a kebab shop and strip club in the early hours of Friday morning, an act that potentially put the rest of the AFL season at risk.
Gale said on Friday night the two players would pay the $75,000 fine, with the club also forced to pay an extra $25,000 that had been suspended from Brooke Cotchin‘s COVID-19 spa breach last month.
A compromise whereby the players – who are both in the lower end of the pay bracket of AFL footballers in this COVID-19 reduced season – could pay a portion of the fine could still be an option.
But Marsh insisted he had not considered that option.
“We will work through it,” he said. “Everyone has a common objective here of supporting the players and working through the issue,” he said.
“The clubs and the AFL have agreed to this. If Richmond doesn‘t believe this is fair, then they need to prosecute that with the AFL. We are not a party to that.”
Peos told ABC radio: “It’s pretty clear that the player is not responsible in relation to the fines part of it on the basis they accept whatever sanctions are set down for them.”
“I’m sure the PA (Players’ Association) and Richmond and the AFL will be able to work through that part of it. The simple answer is a second-year player that has to play on half his money anyway can’t afford $37,500 or $75 or a 100-grand fine. That’s why it’s with the club.”
Stack and Coleman-Jones broke their silence on Saturday afternoon, with both players posting apologies on social media.
Stack wrote: “Hello everyone. I just want to take the opportunity to apologise for the mistake I made. I’m very sorry, understand the seriousness of it and can do nothing now but own the consequences.
“I’ve let down the AFL, the club I love, my teammates, coaches and staff, (its) members, and the Tiger Army. I also have let down my family, my friends, and all of those who have helped me along the way. To those who are supporting me at the moment, a huge thanks. I only hope going forward I can rebuild trust in me again.”
Coleman-Jones followed with: “I would like to take the opportunity to apologise to everyone that I have affected with my actions,” he posted on Instagram.
“I take full responsibility for what I have done and am extremely remorseful.
“I’ve let a lot of people down including the football club, the AFL, the Queensland Government, my friends and family and all the supporters/Tiger Army and the wider community.
“I realise what I did was selfish and had the potential to jeopardise the continuation of the competition being played in Queensland.
“I fully accept the consequences that have been handed to me. I’m not going to let this incident define me and will work towards earning the trust and respect of everyone back, however long it takes.”
HOW THE NIGHT PLAYED OUT
Stack and Coleman-Jones broke strict AFL COVID protocols by venturing out in an Uber to the notorious Cavill Ave nightclub strip in search of food.
The Tigers had a nine-day break and had been celebrating the birthdays of teammates Jack Ross (20) and Ben Miller (21) birthdays inside the Richmond hub.
The use of an Uber was the pair’s first breach of the AFL’s rules.
The second breach was spending time in a strip club – a non-approved venue in Queensland under AFL COVID protocols.
CCTV vision showed Stack and Coleman-Jones sitting on a bench outside a kebab shop, near the Hollywood Showgirls strip joint, when Coleman-Jones was accosted by a drunken bystander, starting an altercation.
The incident happened just metres from a police station.
Stack was detained briefly at 3.30am on Friday. This was the third rule breach.
A Richmond statement said Coleman-Jones had been taken to hospital with a facial injury, while Stack also suffered a facial injury.
AFL integrity unit officials interviewed the players on Friday afternoon before Dillon imposed the sanctions.
STACK SHATTERED: MANAGER
Sydney Stack’s manager Paul Peos has told the Herald Sun his client was shattered by his strip club transgression after putting the entire competition at risk.
Stack has been told he will be thrown out of Queensland on Saturday and will be unable to get a flight back to his home state of Western Australia given its hard-line border stance.
Peos said Stack, who missed last year’s premiership after a late-season ankle injury, would do it hard given he at times lacked direction without football in his life.
But he said he would need to stand on his own two feet with Richmond’s entire football staff in Queensland.
“He is shattered. I think they are both suffering pretty heavily but there are no mitigating circumstances. They have to cop the consequences.
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“Clearly he understands the risk he put on the club and everyone else and that’s not good.
“He has put more than (a premiership in jeopardy, it’s the competition). He will be missing the balance of the year of footy and that’s about the only thing that keeps him going.
“We can’t get him (to Perth), they want him out of there straight away. He hasn’t got that option, it takes a few weeks processing to get into WA. It’s going to be pretty difficult for people to put their arms around him. It’s just not the environment to be able to do that. He is going to have to stand on his own two feet and wear the consequences.”
Stack is contracted for the 2021 season and could return as early as Round 5 if Richmond plays four finals this season.