SO AFL player manager Ricky Nixon is outraged at how the unnamed St Kilda footballers have had their reputations battered in this latest schoolgirl sex scandal.
He thinks someone ought to pay for giving the players a tough week and has his sights aimed directly at the principal of the school where the girl in question is in the middle of her year 12 studies.
Let us stop right there.
Let us ask the question: whose reputation has suffered the most this week?
Sure there were eyebrows raised about the behaviour of the footballers in question, but that was quickly resolved.
The players thought the girl was 18, not 16, and believed she worked for the Australian Institute of Sport and was not a high school student.
So that lets them off the hook.
But what about the girl? We were told that she lied about her age and circumstances, that she had consensual sex with both players and that she had subsequently befriended an AFL player from another club.
Easy to vilify her then, isn't it? The implication is that she is a footy groupie, undeserving of sympathy.
How disgraceful.
I hope her principal is standing by her because she will need all the support she can get - unlike footballers, who have club executives and player managers and plenty of others in their corners looking out for their interests.
Footballers, of course, are valuable commodities; pregnant schoolgirls are just bad news.
Mr Nixon, the players, the clubs and the AFL in general must realise there are all sorts of people affected by the business of football. And there are all sorts of victims.
Let us at least recognise that and work in the same direction.
Regardless of who is to blame here, the important thing is to get the best conclusion for everyone, including the schoolgirl.
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