Former AFL player Heath Culpitt has damaged his chances of entering The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame after he avoided charges in the drug case involving himself and fellow AFL player Jason Roe.

Culpitt allegedly received the drugs which saw Roe charged with selling and possessing a commercial amount of cannabis in the Northern Territory in 2015.

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.

The former Carlton player dismissed suggestions of his guilt and claimed the confusion resulted from a simple semantic misunderstanding.

“My name’s Culpitt, not culprit,” he stated.

“I can see how the cops got mixed up – I mean, literacy levels are not very high up here in the NT and I guess my name’s not very common, but I’m not guilty. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Once the coppers learned where to find the spell check, they let me go.”

The incident and the ensuing confusion caused Culpitt to become refelctive.

“I guess the only downside to all of this is that I might not get into The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame, but I’m not stressed – after all, I just had a toke!”

Image:www.blueseum.org

First published in March, 2018.