AFL greats Matthew Lloyd and Nathan Brown have called for the Western Bulldogs to remove Lachie Hunter from his role as vice-captain after his alleged drink driving crash.
The 25-year-old had his license immediately suspended for 12 moths after the incident and was hit wit ha $1600 fine for breaching Victoria's social distancing laws.
While he has been dealt with by the law, the Bulldogs are still yet to hand down their own sanctions to the talented midfielder, with columnist Damian Barrett telling the AFL Sunday Footy Show that Hunter could be banned from playing matches, along with a financial sanction from the club.
According to Lloyd, the club keeping Hunter in a leadership role would cause a serious issue of double-standards down the line if he was forced to deal with another teammate's misconduct.
"The law will deal with him in one sense, but from the vice-captaincy perspective I don't think he can be vice-captain again. I think you lose trust," Lloyd told the AFL Sunday Footy Show.
"I think he would have lost trust from some of his teammates. What happens is, him and (Bulldogs captain) Marcus Bontempelli and whoever else is in the leadership group will have to deal with so many situations throughout the year.
"If Lachie Hunter is sitting there listening to some of those, that player will be thinking in his own mind, 'How is Lachie Hunter deciding on what my fate may be, when he's done what he's done?'.
"He's best just to go back and play footy and to try and win the respect back from his teammates throughout this year."
Brown went a step further, suggesting that Hunter should be pro-active and voluntarily step down from the role, as opposed to forcing the club to make that call.
"Everyone you speak to thinks Lachie Hunter is a great fella, a great footballer and he's very popular," he said.
"One thing he has lacked is leadership in this instance and he's done the wrong thing.
"With the vice-captaincy, you can either have it or not, it doesn't really mean you've got to play good football, but before he's taken out of the vice-captaincy, I think Lachie Hunter needs to go to the club and (give up the vice-captaincy), without (Bontempelli) having to make the decision.
"I think the best thing Lachie Hunter could do is say I'm going to give up the vice-captaincy."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/matthew-lloyd-nathan-brown-call-for-lachie-hunter-to-be-stripped-of-vice-captaincy-western-bulldogs-after-alcohol-related-crash/6f76c97b-4dbf-414c-ad1d-3d6073742181
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