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Open Mike

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Him reading that Diary entry was just ****ed.
 

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That was easily the most intense episode I've seen. That was really tough viewing.

Hope the guy continues to improve, he's hit some incredibly low lows.
 
I went through high school with Mark & I'll be honest, we weren't close. I knew who he was, he knew who I was & that was where it ended. We were at different ends of the scale. He was the champion footballer & champion athlete, I was the smart kid whose football ability was marginal & who sucked at athletics (I was pretty handy at cricket though).

It was always obvious that he was going to play football at the top level & he knew it. As a result he was quite cocky & more than once I was on the end of this type of behaviour, but I'll tell you what, having watched that Open Mike interview, my heart totally breaks for him. He is barely a shadow of the brash kid that I saw at school & no matter how little respect he had for me at that time, I feel nothing but sympathy for him & I sincerely hope that now he has his life back in some sort of order, everything goes well for him & he gets back on his feet.

It was a massive show of courage that he demonstrated in doing that interview with Mike Sheahan & I respect him for it.
 

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mediumsizered said:
I went through high school with Mark & I'll be honest, we weren't close. I knew who he was, he knew who I was & that was where it ended. We were at different ends of the scale. He was the champion footballer & champion athlete, I was the smart kid whose football ability was marginal & who sucked at athletics (I was pretty handy at cricket though).

It was always obvious that he was going to play football at the top level & he knew it. As a result he was quite cocky & more than once I was on the end of this type of behaviour, but I'll tell you what, having watched that Open Mike interview, my heart totally breaks for him. He is barely a shadow of the brash kid that I saw at school & no matter how little respect he had for me at that time, I feel nothing but sympathy for him & I sincerely hope that now he has his life back in some sort of order, everything goes well for him & he gets back on his feet.

It was a massive show of courage that he demonstrated in doing that interview with Mike Sheahan & I respect him for it.
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Really great post mate.

Indeed that was hard to watch. Hers a man who lived his entire childhood around windy hill and was destined to play for the EFC. Automatic selection into the under 19s, plays first league match at 17...but just as he hits the prime young 20s age, along comes a super squad at the club that Sheedy lead with an iron fist. The weaker ones were weeded out left to be backups if needed and then tossed aside back to the ressies the moment the premier player returned.

I remember Mark being bought into the side only if there were many injuries at the time.

29 senior games..100 ressies games in 7 years. He loved Essendon and battled hard to stay apart of it all. Fantastic 2nds player..but just not quite skilled enough to handle the brutal nature of league football.

I hope by doing that interview..which was a very brave thing to do...that someone is compelled to give him even more help.
Stacking ####ing pallets at midnight is not good for anyone's mental health let alone what that guy has been through.

It was heartbreaking to see such a trouble soul pour his guts out on national tv. I nearly had bloody tears in my eyes. But he doesn't realise he is a success now. He's 100% clean and sober and looks like staying that way.

Good on Sheehan too for the way he conducted the talk. Really well done.
 
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Shane Hird said:
Really great post mate.

Indeed that was hard to watch. Hers a man who lived his entire childhood around windy hill and was destined to play for the EFC. Automatic selection into the under 19s, plays first league match at 17...but just as he hits the prime young 20s age, along comes a super squad at the club that Sheedy lead with an iron fist. The weaker ones were weeded out left to be backups if needed and then tossed aside back to the ressies the moment the premier player returned.

I remember Mark being bought into the side only if there were many injuries at the time.

29 senior games..100 ressies games in 7 years. He loved Essendon and battled hard to stay apart of it all. Fantastic 2nds player..but just not quite skilled enough to handle the brutal nature of league football.

I hope by doing that interview..which was a very brave thing to do...that someone is compelled to give him even more help.
Stacking ####ing pallets at midnight is not good for anyone's mental health let alone what that guy has been through.

It was heartbreaking to see such a trouble soul pour his guts out on national tv. I nearly had bloody tears in my eyes. But he doesn't realise he is a success now. He's 100% clean and sober and looks like staying that way.

Good on Sheehan too for the way he conducted the talk. Really well done.
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I imagine the pallet work is actually really helping. I've struggled with mental illness before (nowhere near as badly as Mark) and having something there that gives a sense of purpose is huge. He'd mentioned he'd been unemployed for 8 years, I think any work is likely to help.

I'm sure stacking pallets isn't his dream job but it's something to keep him ticking over and that's the main thing.
 
Remember Mark playing for Richmond quite vividly. He could play. he wasn't the battler that he was made out to be on the show.
I was in tears watching it. That was very powerful stuff. Not once did he blame anyone else. Absolute courage.
 
Played some good footy at my mob too. He was no dud. Wrong place, wrong time at Essendon.

One of only a few blokes to play for two clubs in the one year.

Excellent interview. Gut wrenching to watch and certainly gives you some perspective on life.
 

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I grew up in Essendon and went to Essendon Tech. Not sure, but I think Mark "Wally" Eustice went to Essendon Tech after he left Essendon Primary School. He would have been about three years behind me at school. Brilliant junior footballer, well known in the Essendon District League, playing for Strathmore. He was destined to become a long term Essendon player, similar to Bomber Thompson who was another gun junior in the local league (Airport West) around the same era.

Sadly, it appears his mental illness was not diagnosed nor treated at the time and he suffered enormously. He was expected to toughen up and get on with it. Mark said at times he was too scared to take the field and would hide in the toilet. He said he would burst out crying after a game for no apparent reason.

He felt humiliated during his time at Essendon - play a game mainly on the bench then get dropped the next week. He started most of his 26 senior games on the bench and did not play a full senior game at Essendon. He played 100 reserves games before realising things weren't going to change. He was heart broken when he realised he had to leave Essendon at the age of 23 and went to Richmond.

The footy industry would spit you out if you were not considered tough enough to handle it. The biggest surprise for me was that he played over 130 games with three clubs in a career that spanned 12 years, whilst having bipolar. The torment he endured would have been excruciating.

It is a sign of how far we have come dealing with depression, especially men in elite level sport. Today Wally would have received support and treatment and his welfare would be paramount.

Whilst it was hard to watch it was also the most compelling edition of Open Mike I've seen. The Alan Stoneham interview was the most memorable (& compelling) for me until Mark sat down with Mike last night.

To listen to Mark tell his story so honestly, openly and with such raw courage was just extraordinary. Several times he broke down crying, as he spoke of his experiences including the break-down in his relationship with his son, his incredible support from Greg & Mary Williams, how he lost everything and at one stage was told he had three days to live. The reading of the diary entry from a day in 2011 when he said he had no phone calls, no mates, no job, no money, his life was f****d, and then continued with the self loathing.....was just heart breaking. I must admit I teared up and felt enormous empathy for Mark.

I urge everyone to watch it. It is sure to appear on YouTube at some stage. In my view it should be compulsory viewing for every footballer regardless of the competition.

The great thing is he is still with us and hopefully he gets to enjoy a better life from here on.
 
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intensely powerful interview. felt real sorrow for him and his story. really hope he continues to get the help he needs.
 
Mike Sheahan should win another Walkley for that interview. He was simultanenously empathetic and caring while also probing for more detail. Amazing interview.
 
I watched this earlier today and all I can say is wow! The raw honesty and courage that Mark showed in opening himself up to tell his story is something that I found inspirational. By telling his story he will have planted the seed for many people to seek help for whatever mental demons they are grappling with.

He blamed no one else, he acknowledged there were many people that helped him along the way and he had a commitment to himself to stay clean, when perhaps everything was going wrong and it would have been easy to relapse.

Mark just chipped a massive slab out of the stigma of mental health by telling his story. I hope he understands that it was appreciated and I applaud him for it.
 

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