The Frownlow Medal has responded to vicious rumours surrounding Luke Bateman with an assurance that it offered him nothing but a nomination for the hall of fame.
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 men’s and women’s 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 AFL player Noah Balta 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.
Punters and commentators accused The Frownlow Medal of offering the former NRL player inducements to join the Frownlow family, but these have been strongly refuted.
“The Frownlow Medal and induction into The Frownlow Medal Hall of Frame are the greatest honour any Australia-based footballer can receive. Judges have never offered inducements to footballers in return for their involvement with the award. All players, including Bateman, are nominated for their off-field actions and those actions alone.”
Bateman played a number of seasons for the Canberra Raiders but has recently made headlines with statements to a Senate inquiry investigating gambling industry behaviour. Bateman claims gambling company employees unofficially offered to arrange illicit drugs while cultivating relationships with him as a high-volume punter.
He admitted to a gambling habit and said the inducements made it harder to break away from an addiction that saw him lose tens of thousands of dollars a month at the peak of his addiction. As a high-spending punter, he said he was also offered bonus bets, and invitations to exclusive events with travel, hotels, food and alcohol all paid for.
He did clarify that:
“I was also like a very happy and willing participant of this. No-one was forcing me to do this,” while also claiming that he took drugs with the management team and administration staff of a gambling company.
In an interview with a media outlet, he was also quoted as saying:
“I would say half of the (NRL) team had gambling addictions, probably not to the severity that I had it. As an 18-year-old, that’s what we went and did. As a football team, when we had spare time, it was like let’s go to the races or let’s go down to the pub and have a beer and a bet.”
Bateman may not have been offered any inducements from Frownlow officials, but he will certainly receive lots of requests from fellow nominees in the lead up to the awards night for The Frownlow Medal and The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame, where drugs and gambling are certainly permitted.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 