The Serve

 Dell seems to have been a victim of history. His own and his athletic compatriots. A rampaging drunken footballer isn’t a cliché anymore, it’s a plague. And with Craig Gower and Ben Cousins recently making their delightful drunk contributions to humanity, it’s a plague that doesn’t have an antidote. We’re sick of it.
 

But, I ask you again, what exactly did Wendell do wrong? He didn’t do a runner from a booze bus, he didn’t inappropriately put his hand down the pants of a teenager, he didn’t send lurid phone messages, he didn’t steal a cab and crash it.
 

I can keep going.
 

He didn’t break into a dorm and straddle an unsuspecting female and he didn’t smear fasces all over a hotel room. No, he pushes over a fellow drunk, who by my understanding, had it coming to him much earlier, and he has a chuck. Not a good look, admittedly, but not exactly disgracing the game they play in heaven.
 

So Wendell cops a one match ban. Not at the behest of his captain or coach mind you, but the governing body. This is the same governing body that has failed to impose a curfew or drinking ban, despite the now annual event of player dramas in South Africa. The same code that receives copious amounts of money from an alcohol company as one its major sponsors, subjecting their players to promote one of the more potent forms of drink.
 

A bit hypocritical, don’t you think?
 

Back to Wendell for a moment. Put yourself in his shoes, just for a minute. Because of injury, his next game will be in eight days. Plenty of time to recover from a night out. Some bloke keeps drifting over and wants to strike up a conversation with him. Wendell tolerates him, and tolerates him, and continues to tolerate him. Wendell then asks him, politely, as I understand it, to ease off. The bloke doesn’t. How would you react if you’re trying to have a quiet drink with friends and you keep getting interrupted? Now, be honest - you’d struggle to contain yourself, wouldn’t you? (If you said no to that question you’re either lying, or you’re Deepak Chopra). Oh, and the piece de resistance? He unleashes the evenings takings all over the footpath. Next time you’re in the city late on a Saturday night, take a stroll at around 4am. I’ll bet anything your stroll will look more like a game of hopscotch as you attempt to avoid the aftermath of a collective big night out.
To Wendell’s acclaim, he has admitted guilt, spoken with contrition, and so far copped  his punishment with dignity. The ‘I don’t remember much’ line was his aberration, but here’s a bloke willing to face the music.
 

The other thing: Not only does he receive a one match ban, but he’s sent home on his own in disgrace. Could there be any more shameful image? All for pushing over an idiot and having an up and under.
 

Something is not right.