Should AFL footballers or sportsmen and women in general be role models for others?  This is a question that is not easily answered but your honorable write Digger is going to have a go.

Cousins, Johnstone, Johnson, Tarrant, Cloke, Ottens et al have felt the wrath of the media and public for indiscretions with the law after a drinking bout.  Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.  Should young men who have a gift of being able to play football better than other be vilified for doing what others of their age get away with all the time?  Why should these guys be considered role models when their gift is athletic not academic.

I have read nowhere that if you are good at sport that this equates to being smarter or controllable.  Leonardo was a very smart man but how many goals did he score for Vinci?  Winston Churchill is considered one of the great statesmen of the 20^th century but how many Test centuries did he make.  Gary Ablett was a great in AFL football but he was unlikely to discover the theory of relativity.  Ted Whitten was another AFL great but was not going to offered a job by NASA.

It may be argued that these footballers are paid highly for there skills but the majority of players entering the AFL ranks last three years.  Even a lot of the long time players only have a life in the game of 10 years so money should not be considered.

A draftee aged 18 can come from Melbourne and then be shunted off to Perth and miss the nurturing of family and close friends.  The big wide world can gobble these young guys up.

Just as these guys lose the guidance of the parents it is up to the parents of the young kids who idolize the AFL players to teach their kids what is right and what is wrong in life and to explain responsibility to them.  Get them involved in the game themselves and they will learn the game of football can be a great guide to growing up and maturing the mind by being part of a tough, hard and disciplined team.

Alcohol is a legal product and we all know its affect.

So players can get massacred in the media for doing something that 99% of the population do, are fined and are suspended yet the AFL and its players association has "written in stone" the drug code that gives them 3 strikes before their name becomes public.  This is a laugh as the drug code is for products that are,

1/         Spelt out that you cannot use them

2/         Are illegal in the case of party drugs

So tell me, what is the difference in the treatment of the player.

Diggers policy is to drink responsibly.