As an act of solidarity with the St Kilda Schoolgirl.
I have been following the #dikileaks saga very closely and my heart goes out to the girl in the middle of this whole nasty mess. A young girl who became pregnant to a St Kilda footballer and was told to piss off when she asked for help.
A seventeen year old schoolgirl.
Who met some football players when they held a footy clinic at her school.
She was 16 when, in February, several Saints players visited her high school in Melbourne’s south-east for a community event. A month later, she was at an athletics meeting in Sydney when the Saints beat the Swans at home. She waited with a friend by the change rooms after the game to see the players.
“They didn’t even question my age from the start because they recognised me from the school clinic. When we went back to the hotel room, [they asked] how old I was and I said ‘I’ll be 17 in a few months’ and they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, OK, that’s legal,’ ” she says.
Two St Kilda players were later cleared by police and the AFL of any wrongdoing.
Are any alarm bells ringing yet?
I have watched as the St Kilda players have held press conferences and talked about invasion of privacy, shame and distress etc etc.
A word to the wise boys, if you had kept your dick in your pants none of this would be happening.
I have watched as the St Kilda Football club have vowed to pursue this child for the next fifteen years.
I have watched as a hungry media pack have pursued a minor and managed to successfully portray this young girl as a predator and malicious troublemaker and I am angered and appalled at the way this girl’s reputation has been systematically destroyed.
The only journalist as far as I can tell that has asked any serious questions about the whys and wherefores of grown men having sex with a schoolgirl has been Derryn Hinch.
The St Kilda schoolgirl is just that, a 17 year old schoolgirl and I have watched in dismay as some very powerful grown men have tried to bully her into silence.
That is why I have weighed into this debate.
I can’t stand a bully and The AFL and the St Kilda Football club are showing themselves to be bullies of the first order.
Shame on you.
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Thanks for this. 100% agreement. I’d like to see more on the irresponsibility of the girl and her parents however.
Behind the bullying which I too deplore, and taking advantage of a minor, even if it was consensual, but illegal, was a 16yo girl outside a footy teams locker room and later, hotel room. When did that become ok?
I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m lessening the seriousness of the situation. Not my intent.
@ Indigored_Hot It is a valid point and in an ideal world all 16 year old girls would be home and in bed by ten pm or happily studying for their exams or whatever it is that we expect “good girls” to do. At 16 I had just discovered the new fad of punk rock and was regularly partying in a notorious pub chokkers full of underage drinkers. My Mum knew where I was and while she didn’t condone my behaviour. I always knew that I could talk to my Mum or that she would come and get me at 3 am if I was in trouble. So I was fairly wild but I also had that safety net.
@ Maid in Australia That is it exactly. She Was 16 and still now at the centre of this shitstorm she is only just 17 years old FFS. I remember at 16 I had a huge crush on one of the bouncers at above mentioned notorious pub. He was probably about 24 or 25. I tried everything to get him into the cot and his answer was always that I was too young and to come and see him when I was 21. God, 21 was ancient to me back then. heh
I think you nail it when you point out the girl was 16. Yes, she stuffed up, but 16-year-old girls are not as mature as their bodies, and are easily swept off their feet by attention from older males, particularly those who are seen as heroes. The have skewed perceptions of love, desirabity and sex. These men were old enough and experience enough to do the right thing and stay the hell away. And when she got pregnant to help her! It’s like gang mentality.
Of course she wasn’t doing the right thing, but what about the grown man who treated her so badly and are now vowing to make her life hell. There is so much that is wrong with that, and which hasn’t been revealed, except by Derryn Hinch. I admire him for that.
Hear hear
I’m not saying that the St Kilda players and administration have behaved anything less than abominably, but publishing naked photos of people on the internet is a pretty clear case of bullying too.
@ Jon Kudelka and that is one of the reasons why I didn’t publish the photos here, not because I consider publishing the naked photos to be an act of bullying. But because I knew how I would feel if there were naked photos of one of my children plastered all over the internet.
Good on the girl for fighting back, but once war has been declared, the moral high ground does become a little tricky to locate.
@ jon kudelka . Yes especially when the media scrum gets out of hand
As Hinch points out the crucial point is the fact that initial contact was made at the AFL sponsored clinic ie placing the players in a position of authority. Double standards when the policeman is being charged and the players are not. Also interesting to hear mention of the text from players about group sex. The whole thing is really SICK!
Irrespective of how the photos got online, I can not believe that Riewoldt in his senior position would be STUPID enough to allow photos to be taken in the first place. Makes you wonder what other photos are out there. I also find it laughable that he says it wasnt a posed photos…No attempt at all made to cover himself up and the position of the other players hands/invasion of space doesnt seem to upset him either in his ‘just woken up’ state….these comments dont ring true – as hinch again points out the bed in the background appears relatively made up.
Unfortunately for Riewoldt I dont think his career will ever get over this one & the photos will be what the mass remember.
If they didnt learn from Fev’s photos scandal god help them – and will have no sympathy in future for any other AFL players caught up in similar photo expose.
Excellent post
What’s gets me the most is that a number of AFL fans (I certainly hope they’re not players or officials) are creating fake twitter accounts to threaten, defame, and harass anyone that gives Kim support. Labeling supporters of Kim, pedophiles because the only reason they’re supporting her is because they want to have sex with her is disgusting in the extreme. It’s even quite odd since they’re the ones that give their full support to the players that did have sex with her when she was 16 and think the players did nothing wrong.
Here you can get married at 16 with parental permission. It’s younger in other places. But umm… bedtime *IS* at 10 pm for my 17-year-old son lol. How did you know??? He’s actually asleep right now!
To me, even though he is very nearly an adult, he is a CHILD for just a few more months. I would be beyond livid if some old sexxy chick lured him in, if that situation were reversed. Gross.
I will have to blog sometime about the other awful reality here… that of receiving calls from the stinkin’ Air Force and whatnot, trying to RECRUIT MY CHILD. He is a child. Those vultures need to leave MY CHILD alone.
I love my country. I fear my government. Ok, off-topic.
@ Adrienne, I hear you.
@ Jade, I have seen those tweets and it is typical bully boy behaviour. If they don’t like what you are saying they will threaten you, then ridicule and insult you. Whilst totally missing the hypocrisy inherent in what they are saying.
Not the sharpest tools in the shed.
I’ve read in my local newspaper that the girl has also brought similar charges against police officers and other people. clearly she herself is no angel.
But you’re right in questioning why these older men can’t keep their pants zipped and where the heck is her mother, both parents evn, while this foolish young lady is putting herself in danger like this?
I’m thinking money, in the form of payoffs, may be involved.
$$$ may seem like a good idea now, but where will her self respect be when she’s a mother of a 16 year old?
As far as I can gather River, The Girl didn’t “bring” charges against a police officer. He was charged for having sex with a minor after he took her out to a night club and got her drunk and then had sex with her. He was charged because he was in a position of Authority and thus had a duty of care. It is interesting to see that the football players weren’t charged with the same charges. Surely there must be some duty of care issues with this case as she made initial contact with the footballers at her school?
@ Tamara, I am not a fan of the girl either but I cant stand a bully and I can also well remember what I was up to when I was seventeen. So I have come out to stand shoulder to shoulder with her in saying there is something very wrong here. As for the bullying tactics, that can only reflect badly on the club and they need to condemn it very quickly or as you said it looks like they are condoning the bullies.
@Watershedd I rest my case.
Absolutely disgusting! The entire saga. I’m so sick of hearing about these stupid men on the news. Shame on them indeed!
Thank you for posting, this is an interesting case for everyone to consider.
Legally, whatever you think, do you want judges deciding what you can and cant publish, and if so, are there special rules for st Kilda footballers compared to everyone else. 16 is an age of all sorts of parties, imagine the photos of you at that age all over Facebook now. Will we all get the same treatment as the AFL players…could be clogging up the courts in no time.
And then, St Kilda still have not shared the full story of the incident with Milne and Montagna a few years ago, two police officers went public last year saying that information just disappeared, that their was pressure from above coming from the AFL.
Socially, a young girl is pregnant and goes to the club for advice/support/assistance and gets the complete opposite. No surprise to me, but what did they think she should do, crawl away and disappear. Many young girls may have, but one of them has stomped her foot to say, what you did was wrong.
Good on her, she could just send a few pics to every major newspaper in the country and let them decide what to do with them, that would keep her out of trouble and let the media decide what to do with them…I bet they would publish!
The continued attack by the supporters of the players is extremely damaging to their cause. I’m not a fan of the girl at all, but neither do I support the players. The more the supporters spew hatred and defamatory insults the more I question what happened. It’s been happening for a week now, but in the last 24 hours has increased a lot.
Where do these insults come from? Is there more to the story? Do they want all supporters of the girl to go quiet so no one ever speaks up in her deference and we never find the truth?
They’ve even gone to the extent of posting several peoples mobile phone numbers encouraging St Kilda fans to call and abuse them. One of the supporters tweeted that he got a call from a private number threatening to bash him unless he stopped posting in support of the girl.
I’d like to see St Kilda, the AFL and the players call a press conference tomorrow condemning the actions of their supporters. They’ve been very public condemning anything the girl says that they say is false and very quickly as well, so for them to remain quiet on this could be seen as silent support.
I’ve been on the fence with this one. The swaying point is the girl’s age. If it was one of my nieces, I’d be livid.
Whilst River points out that the girl at the centre of this storm may be no angel, the point is that she’s refused to be treated badly and bitten back. I don’t condone the tactics and manipulating a truth, regardless of which side of the fence you’re on will usually result in similar attack from the the opposing side. It’s never an easy fight seeking justice. Naivety -social, sexual, relationship, legal – and on many other levels is making this hard going for this lass. It’s going to some very hard life experience that will last a long time.
i am not even sure i know which latest scandal you are talking about.
i just find it appalling that it seems sports has become totally intoxicated with money and power plays, and the players go completely amok. this is cheered by a crowd who is drooling over the details brought to us by media who cover even the filthiest and most disturbing stories on parties, sex and drug excesses. the players that get punished by clubs and federations or get more press with a public apology are NOT the ones who will have the most damage.
Every new story will only prove that, again and again.
Wow. I’ve only just cottoned onto this. The behaviour of the club is appalling. They are, as you say, bullies. I’m saddened that they can get away with behaviour like this.
I wonder what the story would be if she’d been on the other side of the camera and a football player had published nude photos of her. Anyway, she’s 17. At that age, poor decisions are par for the course, and we don’t know what vulnerabilties lie behind her actions. St Kilda’s response is contemptible. May she come out of this stronger and wiser.
We call that a form of child abuse here in the states. It would be a huge deal here, too, only the adults who exposed themselves to a kid would be charged with something like “child abuse from a person in a position of trust” and that carries a hefty prison sentence…
I hadn’t been keeping up with this story, but wow. Honestly I get so sick to death of hearing about footballers taking advantage of naive women and girls. As stupid as these women or girls are to think that sex with a footballer is something to aspire to, something that may lead to more or a status thing (or whatever) the footballers who take advantage of this and use these women so shamelessly are scum as far as I’m concerned.
And really, how else was a pregnant 16 or 17 year old girl going to get their attention after being sent on her way? Their own arrogance at thinking they can use and abuse anyone they like without consequence is what left them open for this in the first place.
Checking in… hope all is ok because I’ve not seen a bloggy post recently. 🙂
@Miss Ash: it only carries a hefty prison sentence if the person taking advantage of the minor child is NOT a member of a professional sports team. Actually, change that to a money-making member of a pro sports team.
Look at Rothlisberger (or however you spell his name)… Seems things aren’t much different from the States in Tasmania.
I watched 60 Minutes tonight, with the girl’s version of the story, and I’m wondering what everyone’s opinion is now. Her reason for publishing the photos was that she had access to a footballer’s computer. That’s all. The pregnancy was an elaborate lie. Then the affair with the agent. I’m finding it very very hard to have any sympathy for her.