Nixon proves AFL's got the "issues"

The release of a nude photo of St Kilda Captain, Nick Reiwoldt and two team mates helped bring in 2011 with all the class we’ve come to expect from Australian footballers. And all the sexism we’ve come to expect from those commenting on them. The 17 year old woman who released the photos accessed them while having a sexual relationship with another St Kilda player, Sam Gilbert. She was then subjected to a barrage of abuse and told by the AFL that she “has issues” (unlike Reiwoldt in whom they stated they had great faith in as an individual). Now Reiwoldt’s 47 year old manager has admitted to having inappropriate dealings with the young woman while she was holed up in a hotel room paid for by the St Kilda football club. It’s a series of events that make Sam Newman’s crass blowup doll scandal look like Disney On Ice.

Player manager, Ricky Nixon, admitted to seeing the young woman on Valentine’s Day this week and the Herald Sun claims they saw him leave the woman’s hotel at around 7.15am the following morning. The young woman alleges he also provided her with alcohol during their relationship which lasted several weeks. Nixon is player manager to three players involved in the original naked photo scandal – Reiwoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Sam Gilbert. Dal Santo was naked in a separate photo released and Sam Gilbert was the player who took the photos and had the relationship with the then 16 year old woman.

Nixon denies having sex with the teen and providing her with alcohol but admits he made a series of bad decisions by visiting the woman to try to help her. This isn’t the first spectacularly bad judgment call by Nixon. He is notorious for his rash actions which have included drink driving his Alfa Romeo into a tram on his way home from work in 2009, getting arrested for public drunkenness at the Caulfield Cup in 2002 and escorting his client Ben Cousins to Riva nightclub while Cousins was at the Tigers trying to recover from his drug addiction. He also represented Wayne Carey from the time Carey was 18 through to 2002 when news broke of Carey’s affair with his best friend’s wife.

Nixon proclaimed repeatedly on radio this morning that the teenager “needs help”. It’s Nixon who needs help and so does the game. Just at the time when the AFL should be encouraging more women to be involved in the sport to try to curb its sexism issues, the double standard applied to the young woman compared with the St Kilda players and Nixon proves that sexism is alive and well in the sport. Channel Ten has also fumbled their opportunity to contribute to a culture change by recently demoting the game’s only female commentator, Kelli Underwood, after a two year trial at the commentary desk.

The question must be asked, where are the players and members of the football community who oppose these grubby goings on? We know that not all players are misogynist, nor do all have tiny enough brains to treat a 16 year old so badly and take photos of their team mates naked. Harry O’Brien has rightly spoken out against the focus on women’s fashion at the Brownlow Medal awards night. More players need to join him in speaking out about sexism and condemning personalities like Nixon who have obviously been a toxic influence on the game’s culture and useless in mentoring young footballers to become decent and respectful human beings.