News How two minutes of Sweet Caroline ruined remorseful Bulldog's career

[TOTTO]

Far out. I’m sick of this crap. What do you want the club to do? What those players did was undefendable. Even if DT went to extremes to capture the photos, it was still on a freakin verandah naked. How dumb are Elliot and Fine!

If I was a board member, I’d be pretty pissed! You just can’t do those things anymore. It’s not 1985, it’s 2018. Players need to grow up and take responsibility for their actions. If you play for our club just know you’re gonna have a target in your back, don’t let us the supporters down. The only way to shut everyone up is to win premierships! And this goes out to the coaching staff and team managers as well.

They did nothing but party at a private function , I say they did nothing wrong.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

They did nothing but party at a private function , I say they did nothing wrong.

It wasn't private, end of discussion.

 

[TOTTO]

It wasn't private, end of discussion.

Because of the Media lol.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Because of the Media lol.

Doesn't matted how bs it is, the club should've done more to protect the players or the players should've just not fucked around so much.

 

[Kaz]

Because of the Media lol.

umm

No.

They went out on a balcony/walkway/verandah, which is public.

 

[dogwhisperer]

They did nothing but party at a private function , I say they did nothing wrong.

Don’t give the media any chance to take photos. You wanna take your pants off? All they had to do was move two meters from the verandah and into that private room and they can do what they want.

Even though I think the coaching staff who were present at the event should of done more not to let it happen, it was only a 2 minute naked dance. By the time the coaching staff would tell them to put their clothes back on, it would of been too late and the photos would have been snapped. It’s no ones fault but the players. Players need to be accountable for their actions, they are not babies!

Anyone blaming the board for what happened needs to give themselves an uppercut. You just can’t justify the players actions and try to defend it. As much as we think it was no big deal, including myself, unfortunately you just can’t defend those actions. We got screwed, you don’t dwell on it and let it drag and fight it, you just get on with business and try to win a comp. This is how you get back at them. You win games and you let everyone know that we are the bulldogs and nothing will break us!

The 2004 GF was the sweetest revenge for all the crap that went on for two years before that. That premiership shut everyone up!

 

[D- voice]

Asipeli Fine would give anything to get them back – those two minutes that changed everything.

“It did break me,” Fine said. “Seeing all that stuff, making fun of that moment, the song being played – it got really annoying, especially on social media. I pretty much deactivated for a couple of weeks. I just couldn’t handle it.

“They took it out of context. It was a two-minute thing from all of the hours we were there. It was pretty much spur of the moment. I can’t get it back.”

Fine mess: Asipeli Fine is looking for a club after being dropped for 2019 by the Bulldogs.Dominic Lorrimer

The two minutes Fine refers to what unfolded during Canterbury’s Mad Monday celebrations in early September. The Bulldogs gathered at the Harbour View Hotel at the Rocks for their traditional season-ending bonding session. The majority of the players rarely drink during the premiership campaign but, with their season over, took the opportunity to let off some steam.

“It was a long season and we get that one time to let our hair down, especially with a couple of guys we won’t play with again,” Fine said.

“We thought we were in a safe environment because it was a private function. It’s meant to just be a group of us and no one from the public around, especially cameras and that.

“Things panned out different.”

In the thick of the action: Asipeli Fine takes on the Panthers in round eight of last season.NRL Imagery

Unbeknown to the Bulldogs, their skylarking was being captured for posterity via the telephoto lenses of a media outlet. Fine and teammate Adam Elliott woke up the next morning to find themselves splashed across the front page of The Daily Telegraph, dancing nude to the strains of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline.

“I’ve woken up when my missus called me,” Fine said. “She said, 'You’re all over the news'. I’ve seen the pictures and I just thought, how could they have taken those pictures from street level, you can’t see up there?

“She knows what I’m like, I’m pretty quiet, I keep to myself. She knew straight away when she saw the news that my head space would be pretty crap.

Of course you get emotional when you have your rear end on the news.

Asipeli Fine
“Everyone got emotional. Of course you get emotional when you have your rear end on the news.

“To have just a one or two-minute thing, it made me look like I’ve been in a bad light my whole playing career.

“Most of all, I felt bad for my parents. Within the Tongan community, everyone talks. The last thing I wanted is for people to say that my parents raised me wrong.

“That’s what really broke me. My dad went quiet for a couple of days. It was pretty heartbreaking.”

Fine was not a public figure before this. His NRL career had consisted of just 13 appearances for Wests Tigers and Canterbury. Still living with his parents and his grandmother at the age of 26, he was building a footballing career with the responsibility of being the main breadwinner for his family. It was Fine’s way of paying back his parents for all the sacrifices they made to give him and his sister a better life after they arrived from Tonga in 1989.

“Once I played footy, I put the emphasis on me to pay back my parents and make sure I look after them,” he said.

“I’ve been the main [income earner] in the household for ages now. I felt like I’ve let my family down without footy being there, because that was the main income.”

In isolation, the fallout from Mad Monday was enough to leave Fine at breaking point. Yet a few days later, worse was to come. Playing for Canterbury’s NSW Cup side, the former Tongan international was involved in a sickening collision that left him with a dislocated hip and fractured pelvis. Medicos described the injuries as akin to those sustained in a car accident and the initial prognosis was they were career-ending.

Down and out: Fine is carried off after suffering a serious injury late in the season.NRL Imagery

The timing couldn’t be worse: the Mad Monday incident continued to make headlines; Fine was in hospital as his Bulldogs NSW Cup side marched towards grand final glory; and his contract was about to expire.

“Mentally, I was pretty much living in hell on Earth,” Fine said.

The Bulldogs recently released their 29-man squad for next season. Fine wasn’t a part of it. He remains clubless, but is adamant his career isn’t over. The rugged forward has stunned doctors with the speed of his recovery, resulting in him being available for pre-season training if a club is prepared to give him another opportunity.

In the interim, he is putting his certificate IV in community services to good use; last week he was back in Belmore to help run a clinic for disabled children.

“It’s encouraging to be able to show the public how much of a wonderful man he is,” said Fine’s high-profile lawyer, Elias Tabchouri.

“The fact is that two minutes of locker-room antics, essentially in a situation where he had no idea anyone was watching, have led to his family suffering substantially, him suffering substantially and, ultimately, jeopardising his future.”

Most of all, Fine doesn’t want what happened on that Monday night in September to be how he is remembered.

“Now the situation I’m in with no club, it’s affected my footy career,” he said. “I would give everything to have it back; just to save my family the embarrassment.

“I just need that opportunity [to play football] again and I’ll take it with both hands.”

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ho...0QsAtE0Px-lXlyX1ojUk7ebGvi70eg_RgwpzodZBB1asE

Common Bulldogs do something...where there is a will there is a way.
This is the way to built great spirit, harmony and true Loyalty !!!
United we stand Divided we fall !!!
F..k The corrupt News Ltd & NRL

 

[GrogDog]

This just highlights how far these scumbag, motherless, journo pieces of shite will go and hide behind the "Just doing my job" line. Quite possibly a scenario could have occurred out of this that a great sounding nice bloke could have taken his life due to his world being intentional destroyed all for some clicks on an internet news page. The news article, injury and contract running out is a massive hit to anyone let alone a young bloke. Something needs to be done about media's blind articles affecting peoples lives, how is this any different to social media bullying which gets lots of air time....

Maybe we should build a war chest up and offer a reward to anyone who can give photographic evidence of these media fuk wits doing shite and destroy their lives. Maybe it will make them back the fuk off! Like how EDTV finished up if anyone watched it.

 

[TOTTO]

No one is blaming the board of what happened , the board is weak by not defending these players its suppose to be a family club ,family always stick up for each other.

 

[dogwhisperer]

No one is blaming the board of what happened , the board is weak by not defending these players its suppose to be a family club ,family always stick up for each other.

What do you want them to do? Tell the media about the disgrace of the media? It’s a lose lose situation. What the players did was wrong, you can’t cover that up! We can’t beat the NRL and the media, it’s a losing battle mate. How do we know that the NRL really fined the dogs, we don’t know that for sure, could be all media publicity to keep everyone happy, making it look like they fined us. I’ve never seen any NRL club fight the NRL and the media about bad publicity and come out winners. The media is a roaring beast that no one can take on. Did we ever get an apology for coffs harbour? Did the real truth ever come out? You can’t beat the media or the NRL. None of our boards have stood up to anything. Did we ever take the NRL to court for being over the cap in 2002? We could of, it’s called restriction of trade. Old boards or new boards, they can’t take on higher authority and win. It just never happens! The best and only thing to do is copp it and move on and focus to what is happening on the field.

You know the thing that really astounds me is when we want to believe what the media says, then we believe it, and when we don’t think the media is reporting things correctly then we don’t believe it. When all along we don’t know shit about what really happens behind closed doors, either at the NRL or at the dogs. We say the media reports bullshit, yet when it suits us then we believe what they write.

You don’t think behind close doors they comforted Elliot? If they didn’t care about player welfare he wouldn’t even be on the training paddock in offseason training. He looks fit, happy and healthy. I suggest everyone stop sooking and move on.

I can’t wait until the works of this new board start reaping rewards. I’ll be the first one to say I told you so. But by then everyone will be on the bandwagon praising them like typical hypocrites.

 

[KiwiDog7]

Surely someone like Eels or Warriors will pick him up
Handy player

 

[Wahesh]

My friends Karma exists in EVERY facet of our world. Every one of them.

 

[steeliz]

Yeh I bet these journos feel like shit now putting a bloke out of work , not sure why fine does not go down the defamation line and claim punitive damages as he cannot secure a new contract in light of this debacle

I bet they don't.

They got a story, got a by-line and sold more newspapers.

Collateral damage they don't care about. If they did they would have printed the FULL truth not a one sided version.

 

[TOTTO]

What do you want them to do? Tell the media about the disgrace of the media? It’s a lose lose situation. What the players did was wrong, you can’t cover that up! We can’t beat the NRL and the media, it’s a losing battle mate. How do we know that the NRL really fined the dogs, we don’t know that for sure, could be all media publicity to keep everyone happy, making it look like they fined us. I’ve never seen any NRL club fight the NRL and the media about bad publicity and come out winners. The media is a roaring beast that no one can take on. Did we ever get an apology for coffs harbour? Did the real truth ever come out? You can’t beat the media or the NRL. None of our boards have stood up to anything. Did we ever take the NRL to court for being over the cap in 2002? We could of, it’s called restriction of trade. Old boards or new boards, they can’t take on higher authority and win. It just never happens! The best and only thing to do is copp it and move on and focus to what is happening on the field.

You know the thing that really astounds me is when we want to believe what the media says, then we believe it, and when we don’t think the media is reporting things correctly then we don’t believe it. When all along we don’t know shit about what really happens behind closed doors, either at the NRL or at the dogs. We say the media reports bullshit, yet when it suits us then we believe what they write.

You don’t think behind close doors they comforted Elliot? If they didn’t care about player welfare he wouldn’t even be on the training paddock in offseason training. He looks fit, happy and healthy. I suggest everyone stop sooking and move on.

I can’t wait until the works of this new board start reaping rewards. I’ll be the first one to say I told you so. But by then everyone will be on the bandwagon praising them like typical hypocrites.

The board now is no better than the previous and in my own opinion we wont have success with them in charge.

 

[dogwhisperer]

The board now is no better than the previous and in my own opinion we wont have success with them in charge.

Who would you like to see on the board then?

Also, I’d like to know what you’re basing your opinion on? Are you basing it on Mad Monday? Because if you are then that has little bearing on our performance on the field.

What you don’t like our strategies of developing pathways for junior development with a number of regional areas? Never saw the old board doing that

 

[Dogs2004]

I bet they don't.

They got a story, got a by-line and sold more newspapers.

Collateral damage they don't care about. If they did they would have printed the FULL truth not a one sided version.

Agree fake news sells

 

[steeliz]

Agree fake news sells

No such thing as news and reporters anymore.

Now we have opinions for sale and commentators masquerading as news.

 

[Punchbowl Dog]

What do you want them to do? Tell the media about the disgrace of the media? It’s a lose lose situation. What the players did was wrong, you can’t cover that up! We can’t beat the NRL and the media, it’s a losing battle mate. How do we know that the NRL really fined the dogs, we don’t know that for sure, could be all media publicity to keep everyone happy, making it look like they fined us. I’ve never seen any NRL club fight the NRL and the media about bad publicity and come out winners. The media is a roaring beast that no one can take on. Did we ever get an apology for coffs harbour? Did the real truth ever come out? You can’t beat the media or the NRL. None of our boards have stood up to anything. Did we ever take the NRL to court for being over the cap in 2002? We could of, it’s called restriction of trade. Old boards or new boards, they can’t take on higher authority and win. It just never happens! The best and only thing to do is copp it and move on and focus to what is happening on the field.

You know the thing that really astounds me is when we want to believe what the media says, then we believe it, and when we don’t think the media is reporting things correctly then we don’t believe it. When all along we don’t know shit about what really happens behind closed doors, either at the NRL or at the dogs. We say the media reports bullshit, yet when it suits us then we believe what they write.

You don’t think behind close doors they comforted Elliot? If they didn’t care about player welfare he wouldn’t even be on the training paddock in offseason training. He looks fit, happy and healthy. I suggest everyone stop sooking and move on.

I can’t wait until the works of this new board start reaping rewards. I’ll be the first one to say I told you so. But by then everyone will be on the bandwagon praising them like typical hypocrites.

You make too much sense for a kennel poster

 

[Doglover]

Not a great look but how does this compare to the Jack Wighton incident? Who got hurt or whose life was in danger?

 

[David holland]

Met this bloke at the hospital a couple yrs back, good fella who was polite under extreme circumstances as he was on his own injured seeking medical treatment, not a club rep in sight to assist him duty of care not at Liverpool hospital