Clubless NRL player Paul Carter has been nominated for the 2016 Frownlow Medal after a heavy drinking session forced him to miss a training session and led to his dismissal from the South Sydney club.
The 24-year-old was dismissed from the Gold Coast Titans earlier in his career for repeated drink driving offences, and ran out of chances with the Rabbitohs.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes; the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. The first medal was awarded to Sydney Roosters and New Zealand representative Shaun Kenny-Dowall in 2015.
The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame honours players who received media attention in previous seasons, for similarly scandalous behaviour, and its inductees include Ben Cousins and Todd Carney.
Frownlow honours now seem to be the only thing Carter can salvage from this season or, indeed, his career, unless he follows other Frownlow nominees and inductees to the English Super League.
The wayward footballer will find out in October if he has won this year’s Frownlow Medal. Meanwhile, he has reportedly checked into a Thai drug rehab centre, where he will have plenty of time to watch the DVD of Russell Crowe’s greatest hits, bequeathed to him by the Rabbitohs upon his departure.
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