Connors: They still don't believe me

Tripped up, but back on his feet: Daniel Connors is tackled by David Armitage during his playing days with Richmond. Picture: Colleen Petch Source: Herald Sun

Daniel Connors says he's back on the straight and narrow and wants another chance at AFL level. Picture: Nicole Garmston Source: Herald Sun

"WHAT happened?'' It's the question Daniel Connors has been asked more than any other since he was sacked by Richmond.

Four months later, the former Tiger wants to set the record straight as he mounts a bid to revive his AFL career.

According to Connors, the day and night in early July that led to his dramatic dismissal hardly warranted a forensic examination.

But he is realistic enough to acknowledge the compulsory 10am training session he and former teammate Dustin Martin missed after taking sleeping pills was enough to crack the wafer-thin ice his career was standing on at Punt Rd.

Speaking to the Herald Sun this week he almost smiles at the irony of it all.

``A lot of it is my fault from the times I have been in trouble, but it's funny that the time I actually didn't do anything wrong was the time I got the a---,'' Connors says.

The beginning of the end for Connors took place on a Tuesday night. Connors says he and Martin had gone to a mate's house to play some pool and darts.

Martin had a couple of bourbon and cokes. Connors, who hadn't touched alcohol since November the previous year, didn't drink.

Connors had lent his car to a friend who was moving house so he and Martin were given a lift back to Connors' Northcote home where they sat up until about 2am watching TV.

It's at this point that Connors took diazepam, a powerful drug used to treat, among other things, anxiety and insomnia.

``I couldn't sleep, that's why I decided to have a sleeping tablet because I knew I needed to get some hours in because we needed to train the next day,'' he says.

"They were prescribed sleeping tablets from the doctor at the club so it wasn't like I wasn't allowed to have them. People say `Why were you taking sleeping tablets that late?', but that's why I took them.

"I've tried a few other sleeping tablets and they hadn't worked so these ones were a bit stronger.''

Connors and Martin, who had taken a non-prescribed sleeping tablet, then went to sleep. Connors set his phone alarm, but it ran out of battery power in the middle of the night and failed to go off.

While their teammates started training, Connors and Martin were still in Northcote pushing up zeds.

"I woke up and me and `Dusty' looked at each other and looked at the time and we realised we'd missed a fair chunk of training,'' Connors said.

"They had tried to ring us. I got down stairs and (assistant coach) Wayne Campbell was in my house. I don't know what he was looking around for. We said we'd slept in and they said, `Get in the car we'll drive you to the club'.''

The pair were put in separate vehicles amid concerns they would use the trip to Richmond to concoct a story.

"When we got the club it was: `You're in one room, you're in the other', but there was nothing really to tell them. We'd just slept in,'' Connors said.

"I was waiting in (football manager) Craig Cameron's office and then `Dimma' (coach Damien Hardwick) came in ranting and raving.

"I pretty much picked up my bag and knew that I was gone so I started walking off. He told me to pretty much get out of there. I knew that I was on my last chance and this was the last straw.

"I just sort of sat down and let it all sink in. It wasn't a great day wondering what I was going to do.''

Connors doesn't want sympathy and doesn't want this interview interpreted as a grasp for pity. He is a man who realises his wrongs, but he rejects the accusation that the penny hadn't dropped.

"It had. I'd been training well and I got back into the side after missing most of the pre-season and I was playing some good footy,'' he says.

"It wasn't as if I went out on the piss and got drunk and belted someone or was pissed the night before training. It was as simple as I slept in and that's what cost me.

"The way that Dimma came in I just knew that there was no point (defending myself). They obviously didn't believe me and even now they still don't believe me that I just slept in. I couldn't plead my case because no one was going to believe me.''

He has been stopped in the street by strangers. Some wish him the best, some call him a d----head.

But now, four months on, Connors is a 24-year-old who simply misses footy.

"I certainly miss that environment and working as a team,'' Connors said.

"The state I was in I thought I didn't need it. I was pretty upset with the whole thing, but now I miss it and I'd definitely rather be doing three-a-day trainings than not doing anything.''

He admits regrets, but says the incident that lead to his demise isn't one of them.

"When I was a lot younger the hiccups I had then were just being young and not knowing how to be a professional,'' Connors said.

"But the last incident that happened there's not much I can really regret. I regret sleeping in and not charging my phone, but it was the earlier ones that had come before, the earlier stuff ups, I regret them.

``This one just happened to be the last one and it was probably the smallest of them all.''

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