Aussie Rules icon Barry Cable MBE has been inducted into The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame in 2024 alongside Pele and a host of other footballing heroes.
Cable achieved the rare honour in the same year that he was thrown out of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, West Australian Football Hall of Fame and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. The North Melbourne star founded many charitable organisations but will be remembered for the sinister actions which earned him his Frownlow honours.
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 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.
Cable was accused by multiple women of sexually touching them in the 1960s and 70s. The cases are still being investigated and Cable denies the allegations, but in 2023 a judge in Western Australia found that he had engaged in grooming behaviour and sexually abused a female for several years. The victim was awarded more than $800,000 in damages for historical sexual offences. It is unlikely she will receive the money, however, as Cable declared bankruptcy prior to the trial.
Willis ‘Pele’ Meehan did not reach the heights of his namesake, but has achieved the greatest honour in Australian sport with his Frownlow induction.
Meehan threw away his talent, like so many other inductees. He was compared to some of the best forwards in the sport but only played one game for the Roosters before disappearing.
He headbutted a man and stole his watch outside the Star casino in Sydney in 2014. He then assaulted a taxi driver and stole his coin pouch in 2015, which lost him his NRL contract.
He resurfaced in 2023.
This time, he was charged with breaking into a building materials store and stealing nine sets of keys, cash, two iPads, tools, batteries and a tool bag. In the same year, he was charged with possessing a hand gun and defrauding the government. He’s also been charged with drug possession.
He really wanted this induction.
When questioned by police about the most recent break in, it is believed he told them he was planning something ‘epic’ for the Frownlow awards night and that ‘the boys ’ll love it’. Fellow nominees are said to be very excited.
AFL and NRL players dominated the inductees yet again this year:
Danny Wicks NRL
Wicks was nominated for the award after spending eighteen months in prison, during 2011-2012, for trafficking drugs.
The former Dragons, Knights and Eels player was arrested for supplying prohibited drugs and possession of prohibited drugs in 2009. At the time of his arrest, Wicks was believed to be near the top of a drug supply ring.
Clinton Jones AFL
Jones used a cigarette lighter to set fire to the costume of short-statured entertainer Blake Johnston during a Mad Monday celebration in 2013.
If setting fire to someone is not strange enough, in the aftermath of the incident the AFL chief at the time, Andrew Demetriou, apologised to the St Kilda player, who then said,
“I have accepted his apology.”
Jake Stringer AFL
Stringer was involved in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, according to his partner at the time, Abby Gilmore. Gilmore revealed the alleged affair in the media and claimed that it happened while she was pregnant.
Apparently the relationship had the blessing of the girl’s parents, who were Bulldogs fans.
In addition, Gilmore claims she only found out when seeing texts from the girl, as well as from other women with whom Stringer was involved. The messages included naked photos of the Bulldog and proof he had been cheating for four months.
Stringer is a great role model for other reasons.
He later confessed to a gambling addiction during his career, with Gilmore claiming that his gambling losses exceeded $100,000 before their separation. She also believes her former partner did not get the help he needed at the Western Bulldogs.
The Essendon player might be disappointed to learn that while gambling is strongly encouraged at the awards night for The Frownlow Medal and hall of fame, the event is strictly adults only.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 