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Former AFL player unleashes on wheelchair tennis star Dylan Alcott's 'disrespectful' footy comment

Apr. 3, 2021
Former AFL player unleashes on wheelchair tennis star Dylan Alcott's 'disrespectful' footy comment

A former AFL player has unleashed on Dylan Alcott, calling out the wheelchair tennis star for a 'shocking' social media post.

Sam Durdin, who played for the Kangaroos for four seasons until he was released by the club in 2020, didn't mince his words after Alcott tweeted 'legit reckon I could get a kick for North Melbourne at the minute.'

'For a sporting professional who's so vocal about the treatment of people with disabilities this is a shocking comment,' Durdin said.

It followed the Kangaroos' Round Three 128-point drubbing at the hands of the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.

Another footy fan agreed with Durdin on Twitter, labelling Alcott's tongue in cheek comment 'disgraceful' and 'totally disrespectful.'

After three rounds the struggling Kangaroos remain winless in 2021, with their next chance to make amends against the Adelaide Crows on April 11.

Alcott, who won the wheelchair men's quad singles title at the Australian Open in Melbourne Park earlier this year, has long been a passionate advocate for disabled athletes.

He was vocal in his criticism after US tennis officials initially cancelled the tournament for wheelchair players last year.

'Just got announced that the US Open will go ahead WITHOUT wheelchair tennis.. Players weren't consulted,' Alcott tweeted last June following the controversial announcement.

'I thought I did enough to qualify - 2x champion, number 1 in the world. But unfortunately I missed the only thing that mattered, being able to walk. Disgusting discrimination.

'And please do not tell me I am a 'greater risk' because I am disabled. I am disabled yes but that does not make me SICK. It is blatant discrimination for able bodied people to decide on my behalf what I do with my LIFE AND CAREER just because I am disabled. Not good enough.'

Tournament organisers later announced that wheelchair tennis would be played at Flushing Meadows.

Alcott, a 12-time grand slam champion, lost the men's singles final to Sam Schroder from the Netherlands in three sets last September.

Before he became a force on court, Alcott was a champion basketballer.

He was a key member of the Australian squad who won gold at the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008 and is also a key motivational speaker.

In April last year, Alcott's girlfriend sexologist Chantelle Otten said the sex with the champion Paralympian was the best she had ever experienced.

'This is the healthiest and most pleasurable sex that I've ever had, because it is just so expansive, and it is so erotic, and it is so much beyond the mainstream view of what sexuality is supposed to be,' she explained.

'I think we've both brought things into each other's sexual lives that have not been imaginable, and that have improved us as sexual beings as well.'


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