Neitz Left To Hope That Truth Will Triumph
The Age
Tuesday February 9, 1999
Football, to its credit, has done much for the cause of racial tolerance.
The code's relatively swift recognition of the issue and recent determination to face up to its responsibilities as a force for greater social good has been commendable.
Bigotry, as confronted by football, albeit clumsily at first, at the very least moved into sharper public focus as a result. Debated by the community so that attitudes have been questioned and, for some, understanding gained.
People have also been hurt along the way, though, and right now David Neitz is hurting. Acutely.
Neitz was stunned last Friday to hear that he had been accused of threatening a person outside the Station Hotel in late January with racist and anti-semitic abuse.
Yes, he remembered an aggressive exchange with Doron Sternfein on the night in question.
``I should have swallowed my pride and ignored him. I regret that I didn't," Neitz says now of a remark sent his way that momentarily allowed anger to eclipse his celebratory spirit. Neitz was with friends enjoying a night out for his 24th birthday.
That he didn't utter anything like a racist remark has now been confirmed, by Sternfein no less, after the two were brought together to discuss the matter by Melbourne last Saturday.
In a statement released by the club shortly after the meeting, Sternfein declared: ``I now firmly believe that David Neitz did not make any racial comment towards myself, and now consider the matter closed."
Which, as Neitz sees it, is fine for Sternfein but not such a rosy outcome for himself. Mud does stick, after all.
``It's been something that has hurt me deeply. To be portrayed as a racist, when I don't think like that and people who know me know I feel very strongly about the issue ... I feel very bitter," Neitz said yesterday.
``Things have been said and before the truth emerged people were making up their minds, forming opinions about me that the truth won't necessarily change. That part of it has been devastating, not just for me but my family.
``The person has since said I didn't say anything racist or anti-semitic, and that might be all right for him but it's not over so quickly for me. I'm living with the awkward feeling that I have to explain myself, defend myself to people as if I did say something wrong."
It was this urge to scrub away the merest hint of a stain on his character that prompted Neitz to speak at length with club president Joseph Gutnick on Sunday night and to address his teammates before training last night.
``I'm innocent but I needed to say something to them about it," he says.
If, among the emotions which have darkened his mood over recent days, there has been some light it has shone from the support of past and present teammates, a number of them Jewish.
``To hear friends say that they couldn't believe I would say anything like that ... If there has been a positive, that is it.
``But it all seems so pointless and yet it's rocked my world."
© 1999 The Age