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News Harley arrested on NYE for disorderly conduct.

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Prominent football star Harley Bennell has been charged with disorderly conduct following an incident on New Year's Eve.
The Gold Coast Suns midfielder was reportedly with friends when a large fight broke out during local New Year's Eve celebrations on the Mandurah foreshore, south of Perth.
Mr Bennell was arrested at the scene about 2am and taken to Mandurah police station where he was charged before being bailed early this morning.
bennell-200x0.jpg

Harley Bennell. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo
Bennell was picked number 2 by the Gold Coast Suns in 2010 draft, after playing WAFL with Peel Thunder Football Club.
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In 2012 he finished played every game during the season and finished runner-up to Gary Ablett in the club championship.
The Gold Coast Suns management team has been contacted for comment.
- with the Mandurah Mail.
 

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My thoughts are mirrored by previous comments. He obviously didn't do much if he got a disorderly conduct charge.
 
We need him fit and firing, lets hope there is no court case that could hamper is concentration on footy.

Go suns
 
Liam Patrick said:
We need him fit and firing, lets hope there is no court case that could hamper is concentration on footy.

Go suns
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Will not get to that stage I'd think but it would be a morning in a magistrates court if anything. Nothing to worry about.
 
You can take the boy out of Mandurah, but you can't take the Mandurah out of the boy. Will surely receive a club imposed suspension aka Danny Stanley, etc for breaking team rules, 2 NAB Cup matches maybe?
 

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I think if there was anything more to it, there'd be the assault charge thrown in too.

All he got charged was with disorderly conduct and not obeying the police. If he was actually punching people, surely an assault charge would be in there too?

Good thing he called Ashcroft as soon as it happened, anyway. No idea on what his punishment will be, or even if there will be one. Don't know the whole story.
 
WrongUn said:
You can take the boy out of Mandurah, but you can't take the Mandurah out of the boy. Will surely receive a club imposed suspension aka Danny Stanley, etc for breaking team rules, 2 NAB Cup matches maybe?
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I guess the Danny Stanley incident set a precedent so Harley should probably cop a small club suspension for the sake of consistency.

Having said that, i don't think the club should have suspended Stanley in the first place.
 
I had some people there, it was nothing, there was a big brawl going on, he was on the fringes trying to pull out people he knew, he got caught up.

However Its Mandurah, its just stupid to even go out there.

Here's my opinion:

If you’re an AFL player dedicate the next 10-12 years of your life to the game, that’s it.

You will miss out on things; you will have no life compared to your young friends.

Commit to the fact that in your (relatively) short career you will have to sacrifice your life (social), friends, club scene etc.

You have to always be thinking about what you are doing, the choices you make etc. This isn't the first time HB has been in trouble there are stories floating around from the coast that are obviously BS, but some are not and some are worrying, even during and after his great season. Some he himself has admitted to the club.

You have to be a professional athlete; you are the best of the best.

When I finished College (yes American) I went straight to work in a big financial institution, on the street (wall), the professional financial equivilent to pro sports (yes i am aware i had university, however a double degree from my college in law/finance didn't allow much leisure time, considering you needed a finishing score high enough to get to a big institution)....

However my point is, when I got there at the prime age of 21 (remembering you can't get into a club in the US till 21), i worked day and night, 21 hour days were common, no weekends, sunday's you name it....i had no life.

Most other pro sports are like, hell most other high performance professionals are like this especially early in their careers.

I understand the work/life thing, but I have to be honest, many of the kids we hire to play for our teams are less than professional and I think the best thing for them would be internships with large organisations who could show them that as far as work requirements go, they are less than professional.
 
brucespringsteen firstly, you can't just say how other people live their lives. As a human, you only get your youth once, and any and every human should have the right to live it as they choose. Some players, I'm sure, aren't in live with the game at all, and that's perfectly okay.

Also, after completing a law/finance double degree, surely you learnt how to spell and how to use grammar? I'm not being a grammar nazi it's just, well lets be honest, smells pretty fishy if ya know what I mean.
 

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darkwingduck said:
brucespringsteen firstly, you can't just say how other people live their lives. As a human, you only get your youth once, and any and every human should have the right to live it as they choose. Some players, I'm sure, aren't in live with the game at all, and that's perfectly okay.

Also, after completing a law/finance double degree, surely you learnt how to spell and how to use grammar? I'm not being a grammar nazi it's just, well lets be honest, smells pretty fishy if ya know what I mean.
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I completely disagree, knowing what’s expected of you both on and off the field is not just a pro football phenomenon. The point of my post was not to brag, but to demonstrate to you that football players are not unique in what is certainly a high performance environment.

If they don’t want to play in a high performance environment, they can, however football is a business and they are well paid. Privately the club has huge questions about the commitment of a number of their players.

As far as Harley is concerned, I have heard nothing about his performance on the training track that suggests he is going to be anything other than a star. He apparently is a great trainer. However his decision making outside of football has been poor in numerous situations. The stories are out there.

Unfortunately if you want to get paid the big bucks, things like hanging out with your mates at a park need to be evaluated before the choice is made. Just like going to a night club, bar or house party would and should be at AFL level.

I’m sorry; “it’s your life” holds no water with me. Time away from football is joke considering how much they get, all they have to do is make the right decisions. Lets leave the water works for the minimum wage workers who bust their asses for tiny paychecks. Not the elite football players, paid huge sums of money and in return, all that is required is to not make the newspapers.

As for the spelling, just got the android and posting from it at work has just been killing me….although my spelling has always been average.

​
 
Also, I'm more inclined to go with darkwingduck here.

Granted I do think that players have to be pros, but they should not be expected to be perfect right out of the start. Some are, but some aren't. You learn from the mistakes, which I'm sure Harley will here. He's already learnt from his previous very minor discretion, as he told Ashcroft what was going on straight away.

And let's be real here, it sounds like this is a pretty nothing situation from a 20 year old kid. What do we expect him to do? Stay away from his family? Not go out with them on NYE? Couldn't think of anything worse if I were in his shoes.

I get the Americans are pros straight from the go, but not only are they older, they're better equipped to handle the pressure out from the draft methinks.
 
Sunny_ said:
Also, I'm more inclined to go with darkwingduck here.

Granted I do think that players have to be pros, but they should not be expected to be perfect right out of the start. Some are, but some aren't. You learn from the mistakes, which I'm sure Harley will here. He's already learnt from his previous very minor discretion, as he told Ashcroft what was going on straight away.

And let's be real here, it sounds like this is a pretty nothing situation from a 20 year old kid. What do we expect him to do? Stay away from his family? Not go out with them on NYE? Couldn't think of anything worse if I were in his shoes.

I get the Americans are pros straight from the go, but not only are they older, they're better equipped to handle the pressure out from the draft methinks.
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Well I understand some will make mistakes, however they should be aiming to teach the kids about decision making and how their charmed lives can change quickly with bad decision making.

Your correct, this is a nothing situation, from a 20 year old MAN and yes i would expect him to stay away from any situation that put him in trouble, included in that family members. Its widely known the boys were banned from the strip the first few years...does that change if your family is staying on the strip??? Its situations not people, places not people...hell people not places....there are places the boys go to let of steam, a certain broadwater cafe/bar supported by the owners...heaps of different bars...its all about decision making.

Americans are certainly more professional, our league, teams and players aren't going there. I will leave it there, but i reject the boys have the right to live their lives without consequences. There are limits, there are decisions, there is public scrutiny and perception. I know many of the boys don't go out anymore and the possibility for trouble is a huge reason. decision making is what i'm stressing...that and standards.
 
To be fair brucespringsteen I actually think you are expecting the fairy tale here. Humans aren't robots. We make mistakes, we regret things we learn, we screw up again... I mean, there's probably only like a handful of exemplary superstars in sporting history. I'd say its the same in any other profession too (which is as far as I think we need to delve into that tangent). In AFL in modern times its like, what, Hird, Buckley, Voss... Underneath the superstars you just have a mix of battlers who live exemplary lives, extreme talents who blow it with apathy and everything in between. I think you're expecting something from society that has never happened, and probably never will.
To bring it back in to the topic at hand, Harley is a 20 year old kid/man (who cares) as sunny said, who was involved in a bit of a fracas. Man, there would be tonnes of worse things going on his life, within our team, in the league and I'm sure within. Our own lives than to worry about this. It's like, this tiny little thing that deserves minimal airtime. I'm actually kinda glad our players can still enjoy themselves from time to time!!
 

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News Harley arrested on NYE for disorderly conduct.

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