Ex-Canterbury and NSW Rugby League executive Dirk Melton happy to help Manly prop

Manly have reached out to former Canterbury executive and Sydney FC chief executive Dirk Melton to help educate Addin Fonua-Blake as they deal with the fallout from his weekend attack on the officials

Dirk Melton will speak to Addin Fonua-Blake about challenges faced by the disabled

Former Canterbury and NSW Rugby League executive Dirk Melton felt physically ill when he read the comments attributed to Manly forward Addin Fonua-Blake this week.

Melton was officially diagnosed with autism four years ago but the barbs from his childhood have never left him. They bubbled to the surface as he read that Fonua-Blake had called referee Grant Atkins a “f. king retard” at the weekend. Then on Tuesday morning it emerged he had compounded those comments by then branding the match officials a “bunch of spastics” in the tunnel.

“It makes me feel sick,” said Melton, who was also formerly the chief executive of A-League club Sydney FC.

“It was brutal growing up in Australia being extremely different. I learned to mask. I am what they would say is low support.
“I was non-verbal as a kid until probably primary school. My motor skills were very poor. It is a disability, not a mental health issue.

“Autistic people have the highest suicide rates in the world. Two-thirds of autistic people attempt or successfully achieve the outcome of suicidal thoughts.

“We look normal but quite often we don’t have the best relationship skills or social skills. We have a whole lot of weird traits — I have major ticks and stems which over the year I have learned to control.

“I tried to take my life twice. I have been fortunate that part of my mapping of my brain is I have a high IQ. My ability to solve problems is what saved me in life.

“My political skills and diplomacy, all of the grey murky soft skills that are so prevalent in sport, I am shit at.”

Melton left Canterbury before Des Hasler arrived as coach but he has a longstanding relationship with the Manly coach. When Hasler was in trouble at the Bulldogs three years ago, Melton was a sounding board for a time.

They have stayed in touch and Hasler reached out to Melton on Tuesday to ask whether he would give Fonua-Blake — and for that matter the entire Manly squad — a hand.

Sea Eagles chief executive Steve Humphreys reached out as well. The idea is to have Melton speak to the playing group to give them a greater understanding of inclusivity and challenges faced by people in the disability community.

“There are two things,” Humphreys said. “One to see if he could help advise us as a club in this space because we would like to take a negative and turn it into a positive in doubling own on our efforts to support organisations focused on disability.

“Two, to provide some one-on-one support and education to Addin. Dirk has agreed to do that.”

There are connections in the playing group as well. Marty Taupau was Melton’s intern when he was at the Bulldogs. He has spoken at events with Daly Cherry-Evans and Jake Trbojevic. He doesn’t know Fonua-Blake, but he finds it hard to believe the Sea Eagles prop had any idea of the far-reaching repercussions of his comments. That view is strengthened by the knowledge that a member of Fonua-Blake’s own family has learning difficulties.

“You know with Addin it is not mean spirited,” Melton said. “It is ignorance. The word is highly offensive to the disability community. It upsets them to the point where they will take matters into their own hands and self-harm.
“It also impacts the carers. Those words can be as upsetting to the carers. I have survived. I have been institutionalised twice post-suicide attempts.

“I now have slowly but surely over time come to understand the triggers and understand myself. I don’t want people to have to go though the shit I have.
“My passion is about people trying to get it right.”
Melton is a non-executive director of Rural Lifestyle Options Australia, an organisation that supports people with disability in southeast Queensland and northern NSW.

He feels strongly enough to suggest Fonua-Blake’s comments are comparable to the racist attacks on Adam Goodes and the anti-gay social media comments by Israel Folau.

“We are different and people need to accept that,” Melton said. “To me, it is not about the suspension, it is about the education. Addin is Addin. He is a prop forward. He has a brutal job.

“He did not have, I truly believe, any understanding of the impact of what he was saying had on other people.

“For dissent he has to get a punishment level with what happened before. For the NRL, let’s use this opportunity to do the right thing.

“There are things that are happening but it needs to get moving because too many people are dying.

“I don’t hold anything against Addin. What I have been most disappointed about is the number of people who jumped on the Adam Goodes situation and the Israel Folau situation.

“They have jumped on these minority areas that need to be addressed. This has fallen by the wayside. It is not about Addin. It is about the disability community.

“He needs to be educated. Not enough people have spoken out.”