A former footy star has opened up about the sexual abuse he suffered as a boy that was the precursor to a life of addiction and depression.
Rod ‘Rocket’ Owen, who starred for St Kilda Football Club in the 1980s after debuting as a 16-year-old, revealed in an interview with the ABC he was sexually abused by two team managers while playing for the club’s Little League team.
Owen struggled with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions during his career but said it was the death of his father when he was playing his first season of VFL football that affected him most deeply.
‘When he died, I died too,’ he said.
‘I didn’t care if I lived or died. I’d walk down the street and wish I wasn’t here.’
Owen became the 11th youngest player in VFL history when he made his debut for the Saints in 1983.
Former AFL star Rod ‘Rocket’ Owen (pictured at 16 in his first official club photo after signing for St Kilda) has revealed he was sexually abused by a Little League club manager
He debuted alongside Tony Lockett, the game’s all-time leading goal scorer, and many who coached and played alongside Owen at the time said he was the superior talent.
Owen’s Saints career began as a kid with the club’s Little League team, but in 1976 and 1977 he and several other players on the team were abused by the then-team manager and his assistant.
The abusers, Albert Briggs and Darrell Ray, used their positions as teachers at Beaumaris Primary School and St Kilda to find their victims.
Owen was nine-years-old when he was abused inside the famed MCG’s change rooms.
Briggs, who was given a life membership at the club, has since passed away while Ray pleaded guilty in 2001 to 27 counts of indecently assaulting 19 boys at the school.
Owen, now 54, says his fractured childhood of abuse and loss laid the platform for an adulthood of addiction, depression and suicidal thoughts.
He played 60 AFL games during his 10-year career with St Kilda and didn’t experience his first win until game 17 in 1986 – three years after his debut.
His early days with the Saints were plagued with injury and he missed the entire 1985 season.
Owen (pictured with partner Kylie, who he met in 2016) spiralled into drug addiction and depression as he suffered to cope with the childhood abuse
Owen, now 54, is pictured above with his youngest daughter Zoe in 2003. He would go on wild benders despite being a doting dad to two girls
Constant use of drugs – including amphetamines, cocaine, morphine, endone and oxycontin – and alcoholism saw Owen miss training sessions and matches during his formative years.
The club reportedly offered him speed tablets to attempt to calm him down before games, something Owen said had the opposite effect and instead gave him a sense of ‘invincibility’.
By the age of 23, Owen had racked up a $150,000 gambling debt — 10 times his annual pay packet for much of his career.
Four-day drinking sessions would begin Friday afternoon, continue right through the weekend and carry on into Monday.
There are also reports of his infamous 63-day bender.
‘I know I’m insane. I know I’m on another planet. I know you’re sick of me,’ Owen once tearfully said to his teammates.
After eight seasons with the Saints, Owen was traded to the Melbourne Demons, where he played nine games in 1991.
A fresh start north with his young family saw him play a further nine games with the Brisbane Bears the following season.
At the end of the 1992 season, his AFL career was over at the age of 25.
The talented footballer (pictured in 1986) attempted to take his own life several times after suffering an injury-plagued career
Owen and Ms Clarke (pictured) have been sober for two years after both hitting ‘rock bottom’
Owen’s life continued to spiral out of control in the years that followed.
The benders continued, despite being a doting dad to daughters Layla and Zoe, 21.
Owen was sentenced to nine months in jail in 2000 after assaulting his boss.
In 2016, he met his current partner Kylie Clarke. The pair both suffered serious drug addiction, which Rod called a ‘downhill spiral to hell’.
Two serious surgeries saw him become addicted to painkillers including Endone and OxyContin, and his relationship with his two daughters continued to deteriorate.
It took a three-month stay at rehab in 2018 to turn his life around.
Together, Owen and Ms Clarke have been sober for two years and the footy star has been working hard at mending broken relationships.
Owen recently admitted to multiple attempts at taking his life at the height of his drug abuse, something that has shocked St Kilda and the AFL community.
Owen’s abusers, Albert Briggs and Darrell Ray, used their positions as teachers at Beaumaris Primary School and St Kilda to find their victims
Owen’s (pictured with current partner) daughter Zoe has paid a heartfelt tribute to her dad after his devastating secret became public
Following the revelations about the sexual abuse he suffered while playing for the junior team at the club, and the subsequent addictions he’s faced, Saints CEO Matt Finnis apologised on behalf of the club.
He vowed to help Owen through the next stages of his life.
‘I have been talking with Rod about his experiences playing senior football, but my apology and support offered on behalf of the club in that context now feels deficient given this disclosure and his story,’ Mr Finnis told the ABC.
‘That Rod suffered this abuse is so upsetting and that he has carried this terrible burden for so long is heartbreaking.
‘For the club, that some of this happened under the name of the Saints is shattering, and I promise Rod and his family, and our supporters, we will do everything we can to right this wrong.’
Owen’s daughter Zoe has paid a heartfelt tribute to her dad after his devastating secret became public.
‘Your story is finally being told and I’m so happy & proud of you,’ she captioned a throwback snap as of her as a little girl with her dad on Saturday.
‘This is the perfect example of why you should never judge someone on who they are before taking the time to hear what they’ve gone through to end up as they have. if yourself or someone you know may be hiding their pain through substances please reassure them that it doesn’t make the days ahead any brighter and there are always other ways.
‘I always here to talk to anyone, you’ll always be a superstar in my eyes Dad.’
If you or anyone you know needs support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.
