TonyK
CibbuanoSaints sack Lovett
February 16th 2010 04:13
ST KILDA has sacked recruit Andrew Lovett a day after he was charged by police with one count of rape.
Saints chief executive Michael Nettlefold said the decision to terminate Lovett's contract was not because of the criminal charge laid against him.
“During Andrew’s short tenure with the Club, on a number of occasions he engaged in actions that were failures to comply with our standards of expected behavioral conduct," Nettlefold said.
"These failures related to his training commitments and a failure to contact Club Officials in a situation where he should have done so."
"We simply could not ignore such breaches. Nor could we ignore the damage being done to St Kilda’s reputation and decided unanimously as a Club to terminate Andrew Lovett’s employment with the Saints."
The former Essendon speedster joined St Kilda on a three-year, $1 million contract during October's trade period.
Just six weeks after the Saints gave up pick 16 in the national draft to acquire Lovett, the 27-year-old was arrested and charged with being drunk in a public place.
Then on Christmas Eve he was accused of raping a Port Melbourne woman after drinking with a teammate at a Richmond Hotel.
St Kilda immediately reacted to the allegations by suspending him indefinitely.
A two-month investigation by detectives from the South Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit resulted in Lovett being charged on Monday.
He will appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon admitted the decision to trade for Lovett had backfired.
"We went through what we believed to be due diligence or research and referencing and at the end of that made a reasonable or unanimous decision - match committee, list management and coaches - to trade (for) Andrew," Lyon said.
"It's easy to sit here in hindsight (and say we shouldn't have recruited him) but I'm certainly not saying it's been a positive outcome."
"As a coach and a team what we need is to focus on our actions and prepare and the AFL season continues but we're one short."
"Undeniably this has been a negative start (to the season). It's not something we could've foreseen."
"You try and prepare for challenges thrown up, this is one that's been put in front of us and that we'll deal with."
"We feel we're mentally strong, a tough group, a resilient group and this will certainly galvanise us.''
The Saints refused to comment on whether Lovett's contract would be paid out.
Saints chief executive Michael Nettlefold said the decision to terminate Lovett's contract was not because of the criminal charge laid against him.
“During Andrew’s short tenure with the Club, on a number of occasions he engaged in actions that were failures to comply with our standards of expected behavioral conduct," Nettlefold said.
"These failures related to his training commitments and a failure to contact Club Officials in a situation where he should have done so."
"We simply could not ignore such breaches. Nor could we ignore the damage being done to St Kilda’s reputation and decided unanimously as a Club to terminate Andrew Lovett’s employment with the Saints."
The former Essendon speedster joined St Kilda on a three-year, $1 million contract during October's trade period.
Just six weeks after the Saints gave up pick 16 in the national draft to acquire Lovett, the 27-year-old was arrested and charged with being drunk in a public place.
Then on Christmas Eve he was accused of raping a Port Melbourne woman after drinking with a teammate at a Richmond Hotel.
St Kilda immediately reacted to the allegations by suspending him indefinitely.
A two-month investigation by detectives from the South Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit resulted in Lovett being charged on Monday.
He will appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday.
St Kilda coach Ross Lyon admitted the decision to trade for Lovett had backfired.
"We went through what we believed to be due diligence or research and referencing and at the end of that made a reasonable or unanimous decision - match committee, list management and coaches - to trade (for) Andrew," Lyon said.
"It's easy to sit here in hindsight (and say we shouldn't have recruited him) but I'm certainly not saying it's been a positive outcome."
"As a coach and a team what we need is to focus on our actions and prepare and the AFL season continues but we're one short."
"Undeniably this has been a negative start (to the season). It's not something we could've foreseen."
"You try and prepare for challenges thrown up, this is one that's been put in front of us and that we'll deal with."
"We feel we're mentally strong, a tough group, a resilient group and this will certainly galvanise us.''
The Saints refused to comment on whether Lovett's contract would be paid out.
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