NOT EVEN A BOOMERANG CAN BRING BACK GRIFFITHS’ CAREER

FOR Scots who lost their way on the path to righteousness, criminal justice used to mean one thing. A boat to Botany Bay. Between 1787 and 1868, 8,000 men, women and children were banished to Australia for offences which, these days, wouldn’t land them a £100 fine. Dunbar cotton weaver Margaret Gordon was punished after ‘being found in an indecent situation with a man named Holmes’ and for ‘refusing to give up her pipe’. William Balleny was sentenced to life transportation in 1825 and received 25 lashes in Tasmania for ‘pretending to be Catholic to escape going to church’. Now, here we are in 2022. And Australia is still acting as a penal colony for Scots guilty of a criminal waste of talent. Leigh Griffiths turns 32 next Saturday. And his career appears to be resting in the last-chance saloon. Five years ago Griffiths (right) was banging two unstoppable Scotland free-kicks past Joe Hart in a World Cup qualifier at Hampden. As recently as April last year, he scored his final Celtic goal in a 1-1 draw in Aberdeen. This morning the striker makes his debut for Mandurah City, a semi-professional outfit in the West Australia State League — the third tier of Aussie football. No one disputes that Griffiths has had his demons to deal with. There was a brush with depression and time out of the game. Yet so many of his more recent problems have been entirely self-inflicted. Loan spells with Dundee and Falkirk last season delivered a paltry five goals in 29 appearances. A period of training with Livingston came to nothing. Despite talks with curious managers, no one seems willing to take the gamble on damaged goods. A flight to Australia suggests his career is now heading only one way. Even a boomerang can’t bring him back now.