New chapter in season of shame

Stephen Milne may be playing his final AFL season. Source: Getty Images

JUST eight days ago Stephen Milne was lauded as a statesman holding court with the AFL to discuss preventive measures to minimise crowd abuse.

Today he is accused of four counts of rape, yet another figure turning the spotlight on the code as it suffers through its never-ending Season of Shame.

No doubt the resilient 33-year-old will try to let his football do the talking as he has in 267 games and 559 goals.

That record is good enough to have him statistically behind only greats Leigh Matthews and Kevin Bartlett as a goalkicking small forward.

Yet the question must be asked despite all those goals: is Milne's AFL career now on borrowed time?

Has he played his last game of AFL football?

St Kilda now has enough evidence to stand down Milne indefinitely ahead of a court case that experts predict is as many as two years into the future.

St Kilda AFL player Stephen Milne has been charged with rape.

In 2004 Milne faced a recommendation to charge the Saint with rape, but he was never actually charged with that offence.

Now he faces four rape charges at a club which has already shown it has a no-tolerance policy in relation to offences against women.

Jason Gram was stood down after repeatedly breaking protocols, and Andrew Lovett's rape allegations were the last straw after repeated misbehaviour.

Given those precedents, is a St Kilda club trying to transform itself with a new squeaky-clean "No Dickheads" policy prepared to stand by Milne?

Andrew Demetriou's strong statement last year over the presumption of innocence for Liam Jurrah while he continued to play after being charged with serious offences will give Milne some strong backing.

As should the continued presence in Collingwood's backline of Marley Williams despite charges of grievous bodily harm.

Yet football clubs are places of expediency, even if that creates double-standards.

If Milne was a 22-year-old superstar rather a 33-year-old almost certainly in his last season, would St Kilda be more determined to keep him playing?

If the Saints were heading for another of those Grand Final charges rather than in a rebuilding mode with multiple small forwards on their list would they be more prepared to stand by Milne at all costs?

They are all impossible questions to answer, as St Kilda tries to balance the AFL's respect and responsibility policy, the alleged victim's pain, Milne's presumption of innocence, and the demand that the Saints take this issue seriously.

Whatever St Kilda decides, there is another hammer blow for the AFL as a code.

First salary cap deceit, then tanking, then a peptides scandal which has spread to four clubs.

Now a nine-year old rape charge.

It means the AFL must bid a hasty retreat from the moral high ground that saw it once favourably compared to codes like the NRL.

This case might hark from 2004, but even then it was the murky intersection of club politics and favours and interference that allegedly saw any potential justice postponed.

Now it has come sweeping back in from the cold, plunging St Kilda into controversy and the game into a new level of turmoil.

Milne should be allowed to play on this season under the presumption of innocence, but not even 18 goals in 10 games are likely to save him at season's end.

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