Bad streak

By Bridget Brady
THE Pearcedale Football Club is outraged and has suspended two of its players after the second bout of unruly end-of-season behaviour in as many years.
The club has been banned from the Baxter Tavern Hotel after one player streaked in front of other customers while celebrating the end of the football season at the hotel on Sunday afternoon.
A player also urinated in an outside ashtray.
The manager on duty at the Baxter Tavern Hotel, who did not want to be named, said about 20 players were celebrating at the hotel on Sunday, and when they arrived she laid down the law and explained what she expected of them and warned it would be “home time” if they played up.
The manager said she had to reiterate her requests to the players several times as they got louder and started to misbehave. After the urinating and streaking incidents the players left about 2pm.
“I stood at the head of the table and said the whole of the Pearcedale Football Club is now no longer welcome at the Baxter Tavern Hotel,” the manager said.
“I gave them the benefit of the doubt. When they said they were from the Pearcedale Football Club I cringed but thought, no, after the Warrnambool incident you surely won’t misbehave.
“In hindsight I made the wrong decision. It affected my staff, my customers and it destroyed my business that day. The antics were out of line.”
Pearcedale Football Club president Steve Green said the club and community were devastated by the incident.
“This is so disappointing…by all accounts it was a very civilised event until the behaviour of two people at the end changed all of that, and have now brought the whole club into disrepute,” Mr Green said.
“Two players have been suspended from the club and pending further investigation we expect to take action against other senior players in the next week.”
Last year about 20 players were involved in an end-of-season football trip at Warrnambool that resulted in trashed motel rooms. The Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League (MPNFL) placed the club on a $10,000 bond for five years.
Since then Mr Green said players had participated in a Look After Your Mates program in partnership with the MPNFL, which he said players had responded well to.
Pearcedale Football Club secretary Karen Halket said the club had experienced some difficult times over the past few years and the focus this year was “building a future together”.
“It’s all about building up young players, building up appropriate behaviour and building a strong family-focused club where this behaviour is unacceptable,” she said.
“Despite it being a very difficult season on-field where the senior plays won just two matches, we’ve been proud of the way they have dealt with that as a team until this incident.”
General manager of the MPNFL, Ian Benson, said the league had received a complaint from the hotel and would wait to assess the actions taken by the Pearcedale Football Club before completing their own investigation on the matter.