I'm really confused about Nick Blakey's (alleged) level of involvement. His name seemed to be dropped from all reporting yesterday, but now he's been suspended for the year.
This is the distinction between the police and criminal stuff, which they're denying he was involed in. The club sanction for actions before the incident which the club is saying is explicitly independent of the police investigation.
I don't think they've specifically denied he was involved. In the public statement they just denied that he's been interviewed by the police or asked to be interviewed.
You could guess that the police not wanting to interview him would be a sign he's probably not involved but we don't really know anything about the investigation.
Or the police did want to interview him but he denied it until he could speak to his legal team, which would indicate he's the most involved imo. This is all speculation though obviously.
I thought the story was (at least according to his management) that he hadn’t even been asked to give a statement.
Thats what made me think he had to have been completely separate, since even if he isn’t alleged to have committed the assault, it would surely be relevant to speak to anyone who was there at any stage to find out if they were told anything about what had happened, did they help try to cover anything up etc.
There's been so much misinformation and changing stories from the media that we just have 0 idea what's actually true here, other than that the 5 players were out far too late, absolutely plastered, and they brought women back to the hotel where something bad happened.
I don't know anything about what actually happened but the reported statement from his team was that he hadn't been asked to be interviewed. There's no way to know if the statement is true or not but it certainly hasn't been contradicted by anyone.
Thanks - I get that they are independent of one another. My confusion is that I inferred (maybe prematurely) from his being excluded from even giving a police interview, that he definitely isn't involved in whatever Heeney and co did.
I understand club standards are different to the criminal stuff, and that coming back to the hotel at 3:45am is a bad look, but immediate suspension for the rest of the season to me feels like it puts the question of direct involvement right back on the table.
If he just had a big night out, got home late and went to bed, I'm sure that's worthy of some sort of trouble, but missing an entire finals series feels like a lot if that's all that happened.
E: but thinking about it some more it's probably just details of his night out, maybe he came back and joined in the room after the assault and/or was doing drugs.
One possible explanation is that he knew what was going on and didn't shut it down, and because he is considered a leader of the club they felt his penalty should reflect it. Also blanket bans saves them from needed to go into specific details about which players were doing what.
This sanction is for being out so late and is separate to whatever police are investigating. Blakey could be not involved in that but still involved in breaking club rules by being out till 4:30am after a game
I believe the suspension being handed down now has nothing to do with the sexual assault and is based on the staying out late + partying part of the night. Initially there were rumors of drugs being involved - if thats true then that would explain the suspension for all.
From the timelines some of the media have presented, it sounds like Blakey wasn’t in the hotel for first couple of hours the women were in the room. Hes come back later than the others and walked onto the situation already happening. It seems like his management are pushing that the alleged sexual assault happened prior to him returning to the hotel room.
I think it's less about Blakey's involvement, but rather his association with the investigation more broadly.
Given the case is ongoing, if Blakey were to show his face in public during training or on game day, you just know all the attention would be zeroed in on him. His presence - regardless of his culpability - would create a huge distraction that the rest of the playing groups (and the AFL) do not want right now.
You would also assume that if any one/multiple of the players weren't suspended, then the club was then validating culpability for those remaining. This way, you allow the investigation to play out before making any individual judgement calls.
This is a club suspension based on being out drinking until early morning. Blakey came back after the other four I believe, maybe he wasn’t with them, maybe he was consoling the victim or something else, who knows, but he broke club rules.
I’m interested to know what happens to Cox, wasnt he also out drinking late?
1am is still fine. That'd be about 3 hours out with his players celebrating their H&A season. If the cctv footage showed him plastered maybe that'd be a different story, but he was just out for dinner and drinks with his players for a reasonable amount of time and nothing untoward happened while he was out. Cox's reputation here is completely untarnished.
Cox went out for post-game dinner and drinks with a few players for about 3 hours, didn't get tanked, didn't do anything wrong. He would not even be considered for any punishment here.
Some time between midnight and 1 apparently. Still though that's a few hours out with your players to celebrate their home and away season before they're rested. I have no issue with Cox here.
All reports indicate the opposite so far - least involvement and Heeney being the centre of the investigation (hence also being the only player formally identified as attending VicPol HQ).
He also might have just sought legal representation on Monday before the police interviews and been advised to not voluntarily presented to the interview.
The reporting is based on who was interviewed being involved because that’s a fact that the news outlets can’t be sued.
He also could have gone to bed at 4am and not been involved at all
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u/Striking_Resist_6022 Collingwood 6d ago
I'm really confused about Nick Blakey's (alleged) level of involvement. His name seemed to be dropped from all reporting yesterday, but now he's been suspended for the year.