Nathan Broad deserved to be punished but he should consider himself lucky penalty wasn’t more severe
NATHAN Broad has been banned for three matches for the Richmond nude photo scandal and he should consider himself lucky. The woman had every right to pose for the photo — he lied and deserved to be punished, Lauren Wood writes.
Richmond
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SOME will consider Nathan Broad lucky to have copped a three-game suspension.
And he is.
The Tigers premiership player has on Monday been banned by the club for the first three games of next season after circulating a photo of a nude young woman donning his prized premiership medallion, taken in what he described as “drunken” celebrations.
A crime — one that he’s now admitted to — that will not be pursued by police at the request of the woman involved.
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Had the woman chosen to follow through with a criminal investigation, he could have faced jail — up to two years.
But she didn’t — this wasn’t about hunting Broad. For her it was about privacy, not punishment.
He circulated an image that was meant to be kept safe. It was meant to be deleted.
The woman involved — who her lawyers say the scandal has had a “devastating impact” on — had every right to pose for that photo. She trusted him. And when Broad said he had deleted the snap, she believed him.
Less than 24 hours later — as Broad and his Richmond teammates continued to celebrate their drought-breaking victory — the photo had been circulated widely among the football community and beyond.
“I take full responsibility for what I have done. I sent a very private picture, without this young woman’s consent,” he said.
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“I’m ashamed and embarrassed and I made a very bad drunken decision.
”Not only have I let down my family, my friends and the Richmond Football Club, most of all I let down a young woman who I cared about, a young woman who I spent time with before the Grand Final, a young woman who I like and respect.
“It was never my intention to hurt her or her family. (In sending the photo) I lied to her and I broke her trust. I’m the one who deserves to be punished … she does not deserve any more pain.”
As soon as police closed its investigation last Tuesday, Richmond and the AFL moved quickly to deal with the issue.
No matter what police thought of the matter, Broad was always going to face punishment for bringing the game into disrepute on the night of the competition’s crowning glory.
Richmond and the AFL want this to be the end of the matter and have decided no other Tiger player will face sanction.
But there are still many unanswered questions.
Who did Broad first send the picture to? Where did it go next? Just how many players were implicated?
The club refused to take questions on Monday morning, giving brief statements only and leaving everyone free to speculate on what the answer might be.
It’s a “serious warning”, club president Peggy O’Neal said, about “respectful and responsible behaviour”.
The Herald Sun sat down with Broad in the lead-up to the Grand Final, with the defender speaking glowingly of his grandmother and family.
He presented as a nice guy, but one who has subsequently made a dumb decision.
Broad — evidently shell-shocked on Monday morning and contrite — has now been named and shamed. This will follow him for far longer than three games. Richmond would no doubt have considered that when handing down its punishment.
Further, he jetted to the races in Hong Kong and then Bali with teammates providing regular updates of their overseas frivolity via social media as the scandal rolled on back in Melbourne. She was left here to deal with that. He wasn’t. A poor look in a game that cares so much about the “optics”.
It was an ugly end to an otherwise glorious end to a glorious season by Richmond that will follow two young people far beyond Round 4 of the 2018 season.
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