Former rugby league player Les Mara has won a place in The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame alongside some of the greatest footballers to have laced up their boots in Australia.
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 Talatau Amone 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.
Mara was a crafty five-eighth for the Balmain Tigers, South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Newtown Jets. He was thought to be the mastermind of a syndicate responsible for the importation of more than 20 kilograms of cocaine into Australia from South America, and reportedly paid off baggage handlers to help him move his product.
For years police thought he was hiding out in a far-flung corner of South America or Ireland, but he was actually enjoying the good life in the idyllic beachside town of Callala Bay on the NSW South Coast. He was eventually arrested in 2006.
During the court case into the arrest, Mara’s lawyer urged the judge to take into account many factors, including the fact that
“…Mr Mara was a first-grade footballer, he played for various clubs in Sydney in the 70s and early 80s…” as if being a footballer afforded him a degree of integrity. The Frownlow Medal proves that being a high-profile athlete certainly doesn’t imply integrity.
Further evidence is the rumour that Mara beat the stuffing out of fellow Rugby League player Ricky Montgomery in Lithgow jail.
Jason Williams assaulted one of his Cronulla Sharks teammates at a nightclub in the early 2000s and was jailed for four months to earn a spot in the hall of fame.
He was initially charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. Even though the charges were later withdrawn, he’d already served time behind bars and was dropped by the Sharks.
Former AFL player Andrew Lovett makes history with his second induction into the hall of fame. This feat might seem impossible but Lovett has a history of violent behaviour. He was jailed for eight months in 2022 and this is how he earned induction into the hall of fame. He was found guilty of a prolonged campaign of physical and psychological violence against his then girlfriend which included knocking her unconscious, choking, kicking and sending abusive messages. Ironically, the woman was a police officer who worked with victims of domestic violence.
As far back as 2011, the former Bombers player was charged with rape.
Another former AFL player will join Lovett in the hall of fame for assault. Jeff Farmer was a noted goal kicker for the Demons in three seasons, was an All-Australian in 2000 and was nominated for the AFL Rising Star award in 1996. He is also the first Indigenous player to kick 400 goals in the AFL.
Despite this, he may be remembered for the off-field incidents. He was involved in a nightclub fight in Subiaco, assault of a security guard at a club in Perth, and criminal damage – this time he smashed a car mirror after being ejected from Burswood Casino.
In 2022, he was also inducted into the WA Football Hall of Fame.
NRL star James Roberts earns his induction due to volume. He was nominated for the medal in 2016, 2017, 2019 and twice in 2021, and was released by almost every club he represented – even though he was good enough to play for NSW.
Earlier this year Roberts was charged with alleged possession of drugs and cash suspected of being illegally obtained after a vehicle stop by police in Sydney’s east.
He was handed two court attendance notices after allegedly being found in possession of marijuana and possessing unlawfully obtained goods pertaining to $1400 cash.
Jimmy the Jet was already on a 15-month conditional release order after he pleaded guilty to breaching an AVO by repeatedly calling his estranged partner.
His previous indiscretions include breaching his contract at South Sydney, off-field scandals at Penrith, arrested for public nuisance, accused of abusing a female bartender, fighting with security guards and being accused of pulling a woman’s hair at a nightclub.
In between these scandals he went to rehab in Thailand, but that didn’t appear to work.
Chris Caruana is one of the tragic but common stories of professional sport. He played for the North Sydney Bears in the ARL and the Rabbitohs in the NRL. He recently admitted to a devastating ice addiction which left him homeless and on the brink of suicide.
The former outside back says he was so addicted to the drug that he went without food and without sleep for up to two weeks. He also admitted to spending about $3000 per week on the addiction and that this led to two attempts to take his own life.
‘It’s a very, very nasty drug. It took away a part of my soul which I’ve got back. But longest I’ve – was you know, I was awake for was probably 12 days – the longest I didn’t eat was probably 14 days. I lost probably 24 kilos in 12 months,’ he told the media in 2023.
The final inductee for 2024 is former rugby league player Smokin’ Joe Kilroy. Kilroy was sent to Wacol Correctional Centre in 1989 after he and his wife Debbie were caught selling drugs to undercover police. Joe spent three years in prison and likened the experience to the BoysTown facility in Beaudesert, which he was sent to as a child and where he regularly suffered abuse.
Kilroy displayed enormous talent and it was enough to win him a place in the original Broncos team and the successful Queensland State of Origin team in 1998. However, his prison sentence ruined his career and he only played one more game for the Broncos upon his release from prison in 1991.
The inductees joined fellow nominees for the medal and the hall of fame for a night of debauchery and unrestricted hedonism, and might need another 12 months to recover.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 