THE Eagles Angels, Manly's female celebrity supporter group, celebrated 10 years last week - and their most outspoken member is still very angry about the treatment of their favourite player, Brett Stewart. And if he decided to leave the NRL, you get the feeling they'd understand. Wendy Harmer and the Eagles Angels had shreds torn off them for daring to back Stewart. ''The attacks on the Eagles Angels were nothing compared with what Brett Stewart went through,'' she said. Harmer's fury was re-ignited after the publication of an article in last week's Good Weekend, which detailed what a sick criminal the father of the girl at the centre of the Stewart rape allegations is. He manipulated her and her mother and defrauded others. But more than that, he has forever ruined the reputation of a good man - Stewart. "The attacks on Brett were just horrifying - and the worst part of it was that it was a pack mentality. People just jumped into him and one attack was worse than the next. There were very few members of the media on radio, TV or print who could say that they didn't join in. It's a huge problem in Australia. And the accusations were harsh. If there are two things that a man would never want to be accused of, it's rape and being a paedophile - Brett was accused of the first and there were plenty of people wanting to take it a step further because the girl was not 18. The mob mentality was just disgusting. You know, mud sticks in a big way, and I am just amazed that Brett is able to play football still - let alone to the level that he has reached. The courage that young man has displayed, I'm just amazed. He was the subject of blanket condemnation like I have rarely seen it before.'' The article made particular mention of the ABC program Media Watch. That show attacked a story I broke on Nine News as the story was unfolding. Media Watch accused me of trying to run a smear campaign against the father of the so-called victim. The truth of the matter is I was interested in telling the truth about the situation. Good Weekend wrote: ''The ABC's Media Watch did not query where those stories came from, but it did attack Channel Nine for raising Nero's [real name altered to a pseudonym for legal reasons] history of fraud. It suggested the Manly club was running a smear campaign. A somewhat defamatory comment still on the Media Watch website reflects the thinking that many of us would have shared at the time: ''Shame on anyone who thinks that it is okay to start a smear campaign against the father of the alleged victim. This is typical, a player sexually assaults someone, the club covers it up using a smear campaign.'' Well, Media Watch is still carrying that embarrassing report and you can view the pompous and unresearched mutterings of their host online to this day. How he and those who produced the program on that night were not sacked is a mystery. Stewart and the Eagles should have taken legal action against them - they successfully sued News Ltd. For the record, no one from the club fed any kind of story about the father to me. Nor did I have a particularly close relationship with Brett Stewart, his brother Glenn or his family. The father of the girl was handing his phone number out to the media and backgrounding journos off the record from moment one of the story, and that just smelt bad. ''I don't know if any amount of money or apologies can make up for what was done to Brett,'' Harmer said. The most telling point of the whole sorry saga is that the jury took less than an hour to reach a verdict: not guilty.
Stewart's suitors
When I raised St George Illawarra's renewed interest in Brett Stewart with him a couple of weeks back I was told the deal with Manly was just about done and only the fine details needed sorting. Now there is interest from overseas. It would be a massive call from Stewart to leave the club that has been a huge part of his life - he has that real ''one-club player'' feel about him. Stewart took a financial hit because of his legal case and the subsequent loss of sponsors. He also could afford himself a degree of anonymity if he was living in London or anywhere in Europe. At the core of his issue with Manly is that he wants a four-year deal to finish his career. I'm hearing he would start working with Diabetes Australia as part of his new Manly deal - it's likely that will be his job after football. Those who know Stewart say he starts missing the northern beaches once he crosses the Harbour Bridge. I mentioned Matt Cooper would have to call it quits for that to even have a slight hope of happening. Cooper has said he wants to play on but some in the club don't want that to happen.
