Deadline: Toby Mitchell’s love of footy flares again

Years after Jake King brought him into the Richmond rooms, Toby Mitchell is back whiffing the sweat and liniment in Port Melbourne. Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with the latest crime buzz.

Years after his appearance in Richmond’s club rooms, Toby Mitchell is back sniffing the liniment.

Melbourne’s top crime writers Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with their weekly dose of scallywag scuttlebutt.

TOBY MITCHELL SNIFFS LINIMENT

It’s more than seven years since Jake “Push Up” King brought his good mate Toby Mitchell into the Richmond rooms after the Tigers beat the Lions in round 20.

It started a controversy that flared up all the following season.

The then AFL boss of bosses Andrew Demetriou thundered it wasn’t a good look, citing an Australian Crime Commission report linking organised crime and bikie gangs to professional sportsmen and warning of the threat of match fixing.

Toby Mitchell in the Port Melbourne Colts rooms.

King wasn’t one to drop his friends, no matter who they were or what sponsors thought, although he obeyed a warning not to bring notorious gangsters into the club again if he wanted to keep playing in the yellow and black.

But it seems old mate Mitchell hasn’t lost his taste for the whiff of sweat and liniment.

Older, gaunter and more heavily tattooed than ever, the Bandido-turned-Mongol was snapped in the Port Melbourne Colts rooms after a recent game against St Kilda City, as the photograph shows. Maybe it’s a seven-year itch.

Given Mitchell’s revealing selfies taken in the privacy of his Southbank apartment, the changing room image makes a rare recent picture of him with his clothes on.

Mitchell and King are still close — both rode Harleys in the wedding party of their mutual acquaintance Shane “Dr Ageless” Charter the other week.

As for the Colts, the trendies might have gentrified Port a lot in recent years but some traditions are slow to die.

“The Borough” has never been a club to be shy of rough diamonds.

The late Dennis “Mr Death” Allen was a dangerous Port supporter back when Fred Cook was full forward.

It was Dennis the Menace who first stirred “speed” into Fred’s drink at a footy game and gave him a taste for the drug that wrecked his life.

SLUG-GATE LATEST

Slugs don’t have legs but the Sunday Herald Sun’s story about the “slug that ate a business” certainly has.

All sorts of people have been moved to contact Deadline in support of the story, which is that an allegedly rogue health inspector planted a garden slug in a flourishing food preparation business in Dandenong two years ago.

This effectively killed the business (I Cook Foods) in favour of its competitor, Community Chef, which happens to be part-owned by Dandenong Council.

Retired delivery driver Peter Cassano got in touch as soon as the newspaper hit the street on Sunday.

I Cook owner Ian Cook (R) and son Ben Cook in the kitchen of their defunct business. Picture: David Caird

He writes: “I delivered regularly to I Cook in Dandenong South. (There is) only one thing to mention about I Cook … scrupulously clean … cleanest and strictest premises I ever delivered to.

“And I can truthfully say I have no connection to this company or any contacts who were employed there — only wish to make an honest comment.”

To which Deadline says, Slug-gate ain’t over yet.

It involves senior council and health department executives and a slimy senior police officer nobbling junior detectives supposed to investigate the scandal. Allegedly.

There’s more to come from Deadline’s Mark Buttler, who has followed the unfolding story for a long time.

THIEVES GET CARPET BURN

When they are not flipping over and killing people, quad bikes are an asset for primary producers.

But they’re not great for criminals.

Cranbourne insomniacs would have seen that for themselves in the early hours of Saturday as police chased a stolen quad bike loaded with two men, a door and a roll of carpet.

The carpet thieves were flooring the “bike” at 2.40am but had no hope once police road units and a helicopter gave chase.

The four-wheeler eventually got bogged in a paddock and detectives from Casey CIU arrested two men, aged 28 and 35.

The pair were released pending further inquiries.

They obviously don’t realise how lucky they are to be walking away in one piece.

CHRISTOPHER DALE FLANNERY LIVES (ONLINE)

Linked In is a fine online resource for people wanting to get in touch with other professionals.

But someone with a macabre sense of humour is taking the proverbial by building a legitimate-looking page for long-dead contract killer Christopher Dale Flannery.

It states he is the “principle” of Rent-A-Kill and, in line with other users, lists his education as “Morning Star boys home” and work history as “Mickeys Disco.”

Christopher Dale Flannery in 1981.

In the real world before the interweb, Flannery was exterminated in the 1980s, quite possibly by someone using a machine gun.

There wasn’t a lot of sympathy for him, as he’d killed too many people.

Stories vary as to the disposal of his body, which was never found.

The favourite theory: he was dropped into deep water off Sydney Heads, well weighed down in the way shown in the evergreen drama Blue Murder.

This contrasts with the bizarre Chopper Read rumour that he was fed through a wood chipper, Fargo-style.

The consensus is that bent Sydney cops were the last to see him alive, and that the world’s greatest race-fixing gangster George Freeman did the exit interview.

THE DIRT FILE

HE was a terminally-ill man who lived a very tough life in the emergency services. So what kind of person waits until the day he dies then steals his painkillers and personal possessions? We will soon find out.

HEARD SOMETHING? LET US KNOW AT [e-mail]