So for those of you who don't know what mad Monday is, you obviously live in a cave without television reception. In any case, for the benefit of those who aren't aware Mad Monday is the Monday after the last game of footie (whatever the code is) where team members head to the
pub (or any number of pubs) and get completely smashed (whilst dressed up like idiots).
Simply turn on the news around the end of the season in September, and chances are you will see some footie star apologising for antics that occurred on this particular day.
The most famous incident from the most reason mad Monday was South Sydney's enforce David Fa'olongo punching the fuck out of his coach Jason Taylor at a Surry Hills pub, however this relatively minor incident is just the tip of the iceberg in a long list of incidents including urinating in public, assaults, more assaults, sexual assault and so on.
In response to this, some pubs have tried to ban mad Monday, and refuse entry to footie players on this particular day. I know this from my own personal experience as believe it or not, I just happen to be a footie player who has fallen victim to an arsehole of a pub manager.. this is what happened.
At our most recent mad Monday in Sydney, a venue which will remain nameless decided to call the police on us, for simply drinking on their premise despite the fact we had done absolutely nothing wrong (aside from duct taping one of our players to a telegraph pole). If they had called the police a little later then this would have been understandable, given by 8.00pm we had committed numerous felonies, however it was 11am.
Thankfully when the police did finally arrive, their anger was solely centred on the pub for wasting their valuable time, and we were allowed to move on to the next pub which just so happened to be a lot more friendly.
Despite this, the intent from the pub manager was to get rid of us, and from discussions with other teams in our local competition, they also faced discrimination from their local pubs. Obviously the pub managers in charge were always last one picked in the schoolyard and have had a chip on their shoulder ever since.
Whilst some may agree with the pubs stance on this behaviour in the interest of the safety of other patrons, one must remember that at 11 am on Monday, pubs are pretty much empty and the only danger footie players pose is to themselves and the coach as it seems.
Furthermore, it is all good for
pubs to ban entry to their venue, however this only forces a bunch of drunken, testosterone fuelled footie players onto the streets, which I can say without questions poses a far more dangerous threat to the public than anything else.
