Player Watch Jack Crisp

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Ex-Cats player sues club over alleged gang rape, failing to protect him from sexual abuse

The Geelong Football Club is being sued by a former footballer who claims he was gang r*ped by three older players at a Cats’ residence for country recruits.

A former Geelong footballer has accused a trio of players of a historic gang rape as he sues the Cats for failing to protect him from sexual abuse.
The ex-player claims he was just 15 or 16 when he was cornered in the shower at the club’s Aberdeen House, a residence for country recruits, and sexually assaulted by three older athletes in the early 1980s.

The man, a prominent Indigenous Elder now in his late 50s, filed Supreme Court action against the Cats this week for a trial by jury, claiming the club had a “duty to take reasonable care of his welfare, safety and supervision” while he was living at the football house as a minor.

“My client has shown a lot of courage and strength in coming forward about his abuse,” said Arnold Thomas & Becker lawyer Angela Di Carluccio.

“He is a proud and well respected Indigenous man who has fought hard in his life to overcome his trauma and to contribute positively to his community.”

The former sportsman, who does not wish to be named, had played for the club’s Under 19s side but left the game soon after the alleged assault.

In documents before the court, he claims the Cats were “vicariously liable for the abuse” because they employed the three alleged perpetrators.

Those three players have not been named in the writ, and have not been added as co-defendants.

“(Geelong FC) placed senior players in a position where they had authority, power, trust, control and the ability to achieve intimacy over the plaintiff, which afforded them the opportunity to abuse (him),” the document states.

“The Plaintiff was vulnerable by reason of his age, displacement from family and dislocation from his home.”

The writ, which has been served to the club, also alleges that Geelong FC failed to protect minors from abuse, to separate minors from adults at Aberdeen House, to supervise the house parent and provide channels to report incidents.

As a result of the alleged assault, the ex-player claims to have suffered a psychiatric injury that led to a loss of earnings and earning capacity, and medical and like expenses.

Ms Di Carluccio said the Cats had “a duty to care for his welfare and safety” while he lived at the property.

“There was a failure to properly supervise Aberdeen House or separate my client from players who were adult men,” she said.

A Geelong FC spokeswoman said the club was unable to comment.

During a recent sale of Aberdeen House, the vendors reported that people in the community would walk up to them and tell them of the Cats’ link to the property, and that they “went to some wild parties here”.

A listing agent selling the home in 2021 told the Geelong Advertiser it was purchased by the club during its 1963 premiership year, and operated as a residence for country players.
Definitely a more serious allegation here. Being gang r*ped is far more serious, although dating back over 40 years won't impact the playing group today.
 

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Crisp is the least of the AFL's worry
It will be overtaken by the Rape allegations against 3 Geelong players

You would think but wouldn't hold your breath
 
Typical Media Shitting on Collingwood as Usual
The best way to handle the media shitting on us is not to give it anything to shit on us about. Most other clubs don't have to deal with media scrutiny because their players don't publicly screw up. For years, Collingwood players have managed to find new ways to attract media attention and this will be the second occasion this year we have been in the media spotlight, and we are only 4 games into the season.

I can't think of a worse time for this to happen given we have lost important players to injury and still waiting for Ginnivan to return to the seniors. It's quite possible that the loss to Brisbane was largely the result of players feeding off Jack's vibes and the negative publicity. It's all very well to blame the Herald Sun etc and there would be few who would argue that it's not an unscrupulous media organisation that thrives on sensationalist nonsense, but the AFL and club's reaction should be more our concern.

If the videos are indeed 10 years old, I doubt that the AFL will take any action and the club certainly should not take the lead in seeking to discipline him. It has already screwed up by condemning De Goey last year before the facts were fully known. Let's hope the club don't see the need to lead on the front foot with this case too.
 

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So long as when an AFL player is caught sharing images of, say, a nude female, I do so hope the Heraldsun attack the female for taking lewd photos of herself.

Highly Doubt That
 
Blaming the person whose intimate images have been shared/leaked without their consent is like blaming someone for being assaulted for walking alone at night. The blame lies solely on the person sharing the images/committing the assault.
AFL has to get their shit together on this stuff and get someone in who knows what they're doing to write some policies and protocols of how to respond. At the moment they're treating of each incident as a PR spot fire which they deal with by punishing the player. It is just encouraging the media and offering no protection to players at all. This shit is going to keep going and rather than protecting the brand their compliance with the media is going to encourage it and thus further damage the brand as well as the players.
 
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AFL has to get their s**t together on this stuff and get someone in who knows what they're doing to write some policies and protocols of how to respond. At the moment they're treating of each incident as a PR spot fire which they deal with by punishing the player. It is just encouraging the media and offering no protection to players at all. This s**t is going to keep going and rather than protecting the brand their compliance with the media is going to encourage it and thus further damage the brand as well as the players.
This is also what I thought of Collingwood’s handling of the De Goey situation.
 
What's happening to Jack is absolutely unacceptable - this is nothing short of brutal humiliating public bullying and the fact that it is being allowed to happen is an indictment on all parties involved. We can say "oh but his an idiot for doing it" but let's be real, it's an open secret that so much lewd/illicit/even despicable behaviour is and always has been, occurring on every level of the AFL ecosystem that is covered up and not reported on (perhaps even condoned!) and yet they've chosen to go after this in a big way, I mean seriously? If any media figures are reading this - screw you.
(Let's also not forget, a similar thing happened to another young star at another club just last year and they didn't pursue it anywhere near as hard).

Put aside the revenge pr0n double standard and the unnecessary dredging up of something that should never have been put on public record, no matter who he is - I've no doubt Jack has matured and learnt a lot since then, and it's incredibly unfair to subject his beautiful young family to this horror show. They may collectively suffer very real serious life consequences because the AFL world has gone out of it's way to sensationalise the private sexual behaviour of a naive young man that's been let down by technology.

As much as I understand it's his mistake and his mistake alone - I think the club should spare no expense in bringing all of these people to justice. I think it's the right thing to do, and it would send 2 messages: 1) that exposing and degrading people like this is absolutely reprehensible and will not be tolerated, and 2) that we the Collingwood Football Club, truly do care about our players and that anyone looking to join us (take note, elite talls) can expect the same care and support.

This is an opportunity to stand for something truly progressive and demonstrate vision, resolve and true leadership - I hope we buck the trend of throwing people under the bus and do the right thing
 
I reckon there won’t be any AFL punishment.

It’s usually the clubs that dish out the punishment to appease the AFL.

The Pies will know his version and still played him on Thursday. They would have left him out/suspended him if they thought he’d done wrong.

That’s my take.
 
I reckon there won’t be any AFL punishment.

It’s usually the clubs that dish out the punishment to appease the AFL.

The Pies will know his version and still played him on Thursday. They would have left him out/suspended him if they thought he’d done wrong.

That’s my take.
I agree with that yes. I want the ****ing grub that posted it brought to justice
 
I reallly hope Crisp is lawyering up and exploring every opportunity he has available to fight back against both the media and potentially the AFL.

I just don't see how the AFL could possibly sanction a victim of a crime based on personal photos taken when they were a teenager nearly a decade ago and not be facing potential legal retaliatory action itself.
 
I reallly hope Crisp is lawyering up and exploring every opportunity he has available to fight back against both the media and potentially the AFL.

I just don't see how the AFL could possibly sanction a victim of a crime based on personal photos taken when they were a teenager nearly a decade ago and not be facing potential legal retaliatory action itself.

That’s the thing, isn’t it?

When the De Goey in Bali saga unfolded, I said that the only thing he did wrong was doing it in public, because had it happened in private between consenting adults, and she hadn’t complained much less gotten on social media and said “nothing to see here”, that would be the end of it.

Well here we have it, behaviour between consenting adults in private. A few out of context photos, of ownerless bags of unknown white powder spliced in by who-knows-who doesn’t change anything.
 

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Player Watch Jack Crisp

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