Polishing the Halo

[hasimir]

So the “Dickileaks” saga is apparently resolved. How many heads rolled? None. Not one. Following a great deal of posturing by the St. Kilda Football Club, including taking a 17-year-old girl to court on Christmas Eve, they have apparently decided to settle. The football club will pay the girl’s rent for a few months in return for a public apology, deletion of the photos and a statement by her that the players who were involved with her met her socially following a match and not at her school.

This leaves a great many unanswered questions. It does not settle the issue over when Sam Gilbert and another player actually met the girl, not when the statement to the contrary is effectively being bought with the price of accomodation. Nor has there been a satisfactory explanation of the role of the Victorian Police, who allowed her initial statement to them to be influenced by calls from St. Kilda Football Club personnel. There has been no statement about how the Memorandum of Understanding between the Australian Football League and the Victoria Police, which was active at the time of the initial investigation, may have influenced that investigation.

The resolution of this case appears to be an enormous win for the St. Kilda Football Club and the AFL. For the club, buying their way out of further scandal has come very cheaply. Meanwhile, football players have seen that clubs and the league are still willing to buy them immunity for their transgressions.

Did we really expect it to go any other way? Not in this town.

Originally published at Organised Adversary. Please leave any comments there.