Former rugby league enforcer Mark Geyer has called for footy players to stay home after Paul Gallen’s wild pub brawl drama took an all too predictable twist.
The former NRL and boxing star was filmed in an ugly brawl with a patron at Shoalhaven Heads Hotel last Friday night, which left Gallen bleeding from the head.
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The 42-year-old denied throwing a punch in the scuffle.
“I didn’t throw a punch,” Gallen told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday night.
“The video doesn’t show the entire situation.
“I’m more disappointed for putting myself in this situation.”
Gallen is an NRL commentator and his colleague Mark Levy was also at the establishment and attempted to de-escalate the melee.
Levy could be heard saying: ‘Stop it. Enough, enough. Gal, stop’ as the NRL player-turned boxer is wrestled to the ground by several men.
And a witness has backed up for the NRL premiership winner and NSW great’s side of the story.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday that Gallen was signing autographs and posing for photos before the incident unfolded.
The witness said: “Everyone loved him and then all of a sudden this happened. No-one was hurt, it was sorted out and everyone went their own way.
“There were no police, there was no drama. Everyone was back at the pub the next day. So there were no issues.”
In a statement released by Channel 9 from Gallen, the former star laid out his side of the incident.
“I was involved in an altercation at the Shoalhaven Hotel last Friday night,” the Nine statement from Gallen reads.
“The patrons were unknown to me or the group I was with.
“The video circulating online does not accurately depict the full set of circumstances which includes me being struck first.
“I didn’t throw a punch.
“I apologise to the owners of the hotel and the other patrons for the incident.”
But the incident does not seem too be an uncommon occurrence for professional athletes and speaking on the issue on Triple M’s Mick & MG in the Morning, Geyer said high-profile stars in any establishment were a target.
“Every time you go to a pub or somewhere where there’s alcohol and other males, the combination of the alcohol and testosterone kind of creates the perfect storm as far as trouble goes,” Geyer said.
“To be honest, sometimes I would look for it because I knew that if I was at a pub and someone was going to pick on me for being at a pub, I’d say ‘stuff you, I’m here having a good time’. But there was no mobile phones (back then).
“The first thing I think of when I hear that audio of Gal is that someone’s there filming that, and so that would be the message would be to all young kids who are playing sport or are high-profile, when you are out at night and you go ‘I’ll just go for one more drink, I’ll just go down to the pub …’, don’t do it. You’re better off going home.
“I’ve learned that lesson. I’m 55 and it’s taken me a long time to realise that most of my best times have happened at home with my mates and my family. But you are a target, you are definitely a target.”
Geyer added a specific time he was singled out at a pub by a group who appeared to be itching for a fight.
“I remember once walking into a pub and I said to my mate, ‘give it two hours, that table over there, you watch them sooner or later start doing something towards us’,” Geyer recounted.
“And blow me down, within an hour and a half, two hours, I had myself in a situation that I shouldn’t have been in. I saw it coming but I didn’t do anything to get rid of it.”
Geyer said in the situation, he was getting beers when one of the blokes came up to him to measure up. 10 minutes later another one of his mates came over to bump into Geyer’s back.
He said that in Gallen’s situation, he has a huge target on his head for all he’s achieved in the sporting realm.
“Everyone will say Gal’s allowed to have a drink, he’s allowed to go out, but you really can’t when you’re that high-profile,” Geyer said.
“He’s a) a rugby league player and b) a boxer, so that’s a double target on Gal’s head because everyone’s going to try and have a go at him. You just can’t put yourself in that situation.”
Geyer is a former Panthers star who played 135-games for the club — 180 first grade games all up with stints at Balmain and the Western Reds over 15 years — as well as Origin for NSW and three internationals for Australia.
Geyer said he’s already warned his 22-year-old son Mavrik, who is following in his footsteps and is a promising Penrith junior.
“I say to him ‘Mav, don’t ever put yourself in a situation that you have no control over, ie. don’t be in a pub or club where there’s other people around and you’re not with a group of friends who can get you out of something because these days mobile phones are like a loaded gun and they will get you in so much trouble, don’t go looking for it’,” Geyer said.
“Do as I say, not as I did.”
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