It will, of course, be for the courts to decide the guilt or innocence of Mark "Bomber" Thompson, the former star of Essendon – both as player and coach – who yesterday was charged on no fewer than seven counts of drug trafficking and possession. The allegations include trafficking ice and ecstasy, while also having ecstasy, methamphetamine, LSD and Xanax pills in his possession.
Fall: Mark Thompson seen exiting the Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Photo: AAP
Few, however, can argue with the theme of much of the coverage of the affair so far, that his has been an extraordinary fall from grace for one who has known the Olympian heights of being involved in five premierships – three with Essendon as player, and two with Geelong as coach – to now being pursued along the street outside the court by a pack of journalists, shouting questions at him as to which way he was going to plead.
Watching the vision, stunned, were so many of Thompsons former colleagues trying to marry up the fine figure they knew so well with the bloke looking like a harried common crim, on the screen. This guy, is the man they knew? Couldnt be!
"I've got no problem in saying; he wasnt the best player in 1993 but he was the most important component of that whole team," Essendon star and fellow Premiership winner Tim Watson said on SEN radio yesterday. "He was an outstanding leader and a great captain around that period of time. He held the whole club together, he was so straight, he was so responsible, he was a great, great leader. Everything was about giving yourself over to the team. The team was greater than any individual … The point is, Im still having great difficulty in being able to marry up that person with that type of behaviour and that charge."
Cameron Mooney, a forward with Geelong who won two Premierships under Thompsons coaching, felt the same.
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"I'm pretty sad to be honest — and I have been for a while, with everything thats gone on, all these stories," he told Macquarie Sports Radio. "This bloke was a father figure for so many of us. A lot of us got to the footy club at 18 or 20 years of age and he was our father for 10 years. He helped us grow as men, taught us to play football and we got the ultimate, two premierships, underneath him. It bloody hurts to see him going on this downward spiral."
Most disturbing however, is that the world of elite sport is littered with such tragic stories. For every sports star who goes on to great things in other fields, using the lessons and notoriety learnt and earnt from sport, as leverage to propel themselves higher, there are at least as many who lose their way.
Do the sports themselves bear any responsibility for the latter type? Indubitably, yes. It was what Shane Gould was talking about several years ago when she noted how elite swimming was geared to getting their best and brightest to the top of Everest, but "there is no-one there, to help you down the other-side".
In recent times, of course, many a champion from her own sport have been notable for earning shocking headlines in the manner in which they have lost their way, but together with Aussie Rules, the ranks of cricket, rugby league, rugby union and soccer have also seen many sad cases of former champions brought low. And yes, I could name many examples from all those sports, but it would just visit pain on people who are generally good souls, but have made a series of bad decisions.
Of those who do head off on the "downward spiral", as Mooney puts it, the common trait, by my observation is a failure of the sports star, once it is all over, to find anything remotely close to the joy that sport gave them, and so often the easy money that came with it.
The answer to that?
There aint one. But recognising the issue, and the responsibility of the sports themselves, and former comrades to reach out, lift up, settle down, and nudge back on to the right path, has to be a start?
Id also note that those who go on the spiral, are – as far as I can see – all but exclusively male. Women do this better. Why? What do they know that the men don't?
Discuss. And tell us!
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Peter FitzSimons is a Herald journalist, columnist and author, based in Sydney. He is also a former Wallabies player.
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