Stu Dew has a loo blue
Ex-Suns staff tied to leaking vid of coach peeing in public
AN embarrassing video clip of popular Gold Coast Suns coach Stuart Dew urinating on a city pub wall is understood to have been leaked by people close to disgruntled ex-Suns staffers.
The clip shows Dew urinating against a pub wall during a booze-up with club officials at the Miami Tavern Shark Bar.
Multiple club sources confirmed on Monday it was filmed by Suns general manager of football Jon Haines.
The bar is owned by billionaire pokies king Bruce Mathieson, whose wife Jill is the Suns’ No.1 female ticket holder.
Urinating in public is a criminal offence that can result in conviction and carries a $533.80 penalty in Queensland if committed in the vicinity of a licensed premises.
But despite Suns CEO Mark Evans being made aware of the incident several months ago, it is understood no action was taken against Dew or the staffer who filmed the clip.
Evans confirmed the incident when contacted on Monday, but did not comment further.
A Suns statement said: “This is phone footage from two years ago that was unfortunately shared via a private what’s app group involving a small number of work colleagues. Everyone involved is embarrassed and regrets what happened.
“The club was aware of the video and has cautioned the employees about both the behaviour and the filming and distribution of the vision. It was clearly inappropriate.”
In the footage, several voices are heard heckling Dew.
One woman jokingly asks if
he played for the Canterbury Bulldogs, which has been embroiled in a spate of off-field dramas in recent years. Dew finishes urinating, turns to the camera and smiles awkwardly.
It is understood a senior staffer who filmed the footage distributed it to a group of friends on a social media platform, during the revelry.
Realising his error the next morning, the staffer asked everyone who received the video to delete it. But the footage had already leaked out.
The video was circulated this week by disgruntled sources close to ex-Suns staffers made redundant recently.
The AFL and NRL have previously cracked down on identical offences. In 2008, Blues bad boy Brendan Fevola was fined $10,000 by Carlton for urinating in public. Exrugby league star Willie Mason was hit with a $2000 sanction by the Roosters for a pub incident the following year
It comes at a sensitive time for the AFL and Queensland government, as the code prepares for a historic grand final at the Gabba next month while battling claims of double standards and special treatment over COVID-19 border closures.
An entourage of 400 AFL officials and stakeholders, including league boss Gillon McLachlan, were let loose on the Sunshine State last Tuesday after a contentious 14-day quarantine stint at a luxury Gold Coast resort.
Dew, 41, signed a twoyear contract extension with the beleaguered Suns in July. The $250m AFL expansion club has never finished higher than 12th in a 10-year existence but started promisingly in 2020.