Frewrious Spew

Just looking over last weeks Australian in the tearoom, (at my work we get the papers three days late) and came across two articles regarding the recent footballer rapist cases. One was about the coach of the Hawthorn football team, Peter Schwab's, plea to the public that the 'footy club' was just like the rest of society, "We're a footy club, we're part of society, we understand, we hear what you're saying. We don't tolerate those behaviours." Now whatever, not all footballers are rapists, but to try and pretend that the environment fostered by football clubs does not lead to attitudes which may manifest themselves as rape is clearly delusional. If you look at the big media stars to come out of the AFL in recent years such as Sam Newman, who can scarcely be held up as a shining example of enlightened attitudes towards women. Eddie Maguire, surely the most overexposed person on tv, felt comfortable on a widely viewed nationally broadcast event, the Logies, to make a comment about Megan Gale's breasts (this during the middle of the furore over footballer sex crimes no less). Surely it can be no surprise to clubs that some players take it to the next level.