DEATH OF A FOOTY HERO WORSHIPPER

FROM the time Gary Ablett came to Melbourne almost 20 years ago to play AFL
football, he had trouble coping with the pressures of the big city. It led
him to seek refuge in the bush, in God and in temporary retirement. And it
was a scene to which he introduced an inexperienced young woman ­ and it
took only five days to kill her.

Alisha Horan's family and friends told the Melbourne Coroner's Court that
until she met Ablett the 20-year-old from Geelong had never used hard drugs
and had little experience of life.

But she was infatuated with the home-town football hero who was almost
twice her age.

Within days of meeting Ms Horan, Ablett offered to take her to Melbourne
for a night at a plush hotel.

The night extended to almost a week in which the pair embarked on a binge
of drinking, partying and drug-taking.

By the end of that week in February last year, Ms Horan was dead.

Yesterday State Coroner Noreen Toohey said Ms Horan was "partying out of
her league" during her time with Ablett.

She also said Ablett had failed in his responsibility as a high-profile
sportsman and that he might have saved her life had he not himself been
affected by alcohol and, probably, drugs.

She said Ms Horan died of a drug overdose, and added that Ablett should
have known what was happening to her and should have protected her.

She stopped short of directly attributing Ms Horan's death to anything
Ablett did or didn't do.

She did, however, paint a picture of a much older, vastly more experienced
man introducing a relatively innocent young woman, who was obsessed with
him, to a situation that killed her.

In evidence, the former champion footballer was portrayed as clinging
desperately to the last vestiges of his fame.

The Coroner heard that Ms Horan, a barmaid at a Geelong nightclub, was
invited by Ablett to Melbourne for a night at the Park Hyatt hotel where
Ablett had free accommodation.

The night extended to five nights and the young woman, who had never used
hard drugs, came into contact, through Ablett, with Clayton Brown, a man
described in court as being well known on the drug scene.

For five days, Ablett and Ms Horan partied and socialised. They drank vast
amounts of alcohol and, according to toxicology reports, Ms Horan took a
variety of illicit drugs, some of them probably for the first time.

Ablett invited Brown to his room where Ms Toohey said it was "more likely
than not" he provided drugs to Ms Horan.

In interviews with police, Ablett said he had seen Ms Horan take a green
pill, he presumed to be a "green Mitsubishi", a variety of ecstasy.

The coroner found that Ms Horan's body also contained traces of heroin and
amphetamines, although Ablett, who was with her almost constantly, said he
didn't see her take anything other than the ecstasy.

In fact, Ablett didn't see, or couldn't remember, or refused to say, much
at all ­ his behaviour in the case was seen as the flip side of a great career.

In the end he constantly failed to fulfil his off-field obligations and his
on-field form suffered until he finally called a halt.

The football public, however, didn't want to let him go and sightings of
him playing in country leagues and even having a dabble with soccer took on
Elvis Presley-like dimensions.

After this latest episode, the comparison with the rock star, whose binges
killed him, seems even more relevant.