Former AFL player Alan Didak sent a heartfelt text to ex – girlfriend Cassie Lane in an attempt to win her back before the induction ceremony of The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame.
Didak was nominated for his links to organised crime and his role in the Heath Shaw drink driving incident, as well as his now infamous treatment of Lane.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes; the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. Kiwi international Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015 before Corey Norman in 2016 and Tim Simona in 2017.
The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame honours former players and players who received media attention in previous seasons, for similarly scandalous behaviour, and its inductees include Ben Cousins and Julian O’Neill.
Didak met with Hell’s Angels bikie Christopher Hudson in the lead up to the 2007 Melbourne CBD shooting, which Hudson committed.
The former Collingwood star was also a passenger in a car driven by fellow AFL player Heath Shaw when the intoxicated Shaw collided with a parked car. Compounding the problem was that both players initially denied that Didak was the passenger, even calling on other teammates to support them in front of the media.
Both players finally admitted that Didak was the passenger when irrefutable evidence placed him in the car. As a result, he and Shaw were fined and suspended for the remainder of the 2008 AFL season.
Didak then became the unwilling subject of an unflattering expose of the life of an AFL WAG in Lane’s book How to Dress A Dummy.
Lane recalls an intoxicated Didak hurling verbal abuse at her in front of a journalist. She also explains that just after breaking up with the star player, she received a phone call from the Collingwood team psychologist suggesting she move back in with Didak.
The Magpie great has until the end of 2018 to woo his former sweetheart, in time for the announcement of the inductees into The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame.
Image:Nuna
First published in March, 2018.
The Frownlow Medal 