NRL players Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton are the latest professional footballers to earn lame nominations for The Frownlow Medal – and they should know better.
Mitchell and Wighton were arrested in Canberra recently after a fight allegedly broke out between them at a nightclub.
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. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015, while NRL star Manase Fainu is the most recent recipient.
The NSW Origin stars spent the night behind bars, but witnesses claim the incident was nothing more than a scuffle between two friends. Not worth an arrest, and not worth a nomination for the most prestigious award in Australian sport.
The pair were celebrating Wighton’s 30th birthday before police arrived at the club and arrested them both. They have been charged with offences such as fight in a public place and fail to comply with an exclusion direction, affray, and resist territory public official. They were both on their way to camp to prepare for the Indigenous All Stars game.
The pair should know better, because their previous Frownlow nominations are far more impressive.
Wighton came close to winning the medal in 2018 after being arrested and stood down from the NRL for many games after assaulting multiple men at a nightclub. Mitchell, meanwhile, was nominated for a previous pub fight and for a COVID-19 lockdown breach which involved firearms.
If Wighton or Mitchell plan to take home any silverware this year, they are really going to have to pick up their act.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 