BRAD OTTENS FINED MAXIMUM $5000 FOR DRINK DRIVING
Ben Jensen 12 September 2006

By Ben Jensen BIG CAT BRAD OTTENS has been fined the maximum $5,000 by the Geelong Football Club, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement. Ottens is expected to face court on summons later this year.

The Club released the following statement this afternoon:

The Geelong Football Club has fined forward Brad Ottens $5,000 and will receive education on the trauma caused by drink driving after being caught exceeding .05. The sanction is the maximum allowed under the AFL player code of conduct.

Half of the fine will be donated to Road Trauma Support Team, an organization that assists people affected by road trauma in Victoria, and the other half will be donated to the AFL players’ association charity fund.

Ottens met with Geelong chief executive Brian Cook and senior coach Mark Thompson on Monday and he also spoke with the club’s leadership group in determining an appropriate punishment.

“There is no excuse for my actions and it is now up to me to win back the respect that I’ve lost from this incident,” Ottens said.

“I am truly sorry and I understand the impact that drink driving has on people’s lives. In the end it is up to me to prove through my actions that I have learnt from this and to help educate others to not make the mistake that I made.”

Ottens will lose his licence for 11 months and will be fined $450 after being found over the limit at 1am on Saturday.

The high price ruckman-forward recruited from Richmond following 2004, is likely to lose his licence and be fined after being caught at more than twice the legal limit for alcohol. He may also miss the club's trip to London to play Port Adelaide next month. The Geelong Football Club has confirmed the indiscretion but refuses to comment on any possible sanction against the maligned player. The TAC, a 'partner' of Geelong, is now unlikely to renew their one year partnership with the club, signed earlier this year after this latest indiscretion.

Ottens was in the eastern suburb of Doncaster, when pulled over by Police around 1:00AM last night, and registered a blood alcohol content of 0.116. Under Victorian law all drivers must be less than 0.05. It is not yet clear whether Ottens was pulled over as part of a random breath test, or due to erratic behaviour on the road, or if Ottens was alone.

Current Geelong football manager Garry Davidson lost his licence earlier in the year, registering 0.075 close to his Highton home in April 2006. Davidson's offence came just one week after the TAC deal was signed, and in his own words was a "gross error of judgment".

It is not the first time Ottens and alcohol have combined to get him into trouble with the law, albeit some years apart. On 14 May 2000 at the age of 20, Ottens was charged with being drunk in a public place following a Saturday night match against Collingwood. Then club Richmond suspended the young Tiger for one match. Ottens was picked up from the police station by then coach Danny Frawley, and was photographed vomiting during a compulsary 'recovery' run the next morning.

Season 2006 was a indifferent for Ottens. Whilst playing every game, he was nursed through the pre-season and did not play in the NAB Cup 'premiership'. He had little impact in the first half dozen rounds, the club easing him and current Captain Steven King into the season with the consequence neither looked fit enough to deserve a place in the AFL side. Ottens certainly had a better year than King, playing several good games, but perhaps somewhat unfairly still hasn't managed to shake the 'maligned' tag he carried across from the Tigers.

IF the club is fair dinkum they'll ban him from travelling to London this October, and while they're at it, make him travel by train whenever he travels to Melbourne or bus when getting to training from Torquay. Somehow we don't see either happening.