BACK FOR THE FINALS
You can bet on it
A SHATTERED Jaidyn Stephenson says his on-field performance was not at all compromised by the bets he placed across three Collingwood matches he played in.
The Collingwood gun was yesterday rubbed out for the rest of the regular season and slapped with a $20,000 fine for having three bets across three Magpies matches.
He will return if, as expected, Collingwood makes the finals this year.
Stephenson (pictured) said the guilt and remorse led to him self-reporting to Magpies football manager Geoff Walsh on May 19.
The 20-year-old’s bets — three losing multi-bets on three Collingwood games — included games against the Western Bulldogs (Round 4), Essendon (Round 6) and St Kilda (Round 9). The bets totalled $36. When asked yesterday whether his bets had affected his performance in any of the three games, Stephenson replied: “Not at all. I didn’t think about them when I was out there.
“At the time obviously I didn’t think about the bigger picture and the long-term consequences.”
The 2018 Rising Star winner said the whole incident had started with a bet while “sitting on the couch with a mate”.
“Impacting on the integrity of the game I now realise is just not acceptable and I hope others can learn from my mistakes,” he said.
“After the third one [bet] I thought this was actually accumulating to something that could be a lot bigger and I just got a really guilty conscience.
“I spoke to Walshy [Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh] to seek out his advice.
“And I said ‘I have made a mistake here. I’m really guilty and I regret it. What can I do from here?’
“He said we’d take it to the AFL and I was pretty happy with that.”
Stephenson denied that he had ever bet on any other AFL games.
He also said the extent of his gambling was otherwise restricted to a few wagers on the horses during the festivities of the Melbourne spring carnival.
He said the enormity of the suspension had already sunk in.He said the whole incident had made him more determined in feature in Collingwood’s September campaign.
“Ten weeks is a long time and I can come back and play the first week of finals but I hope the team’s going well there,” he said.
“It will be a tough spot to get back to in the end.
“It could end up being a 14week penalty, but I know in the 10 weeks I’ll be out I’ll be working hard on the track and doing everything I can to prepare myself to play again.”