Under-age footballers and netballers from Echuca-Moama’s three clubs came together this week in a show of unity for a confronting presentation from the Pat Cronin Foundation.
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Foundation speaker Ben O’Toole took centre stage at the Moama Bowling Club to give a chilling re-count of the events that led to the death of 19-year-old Pat Cronin in April, 2016.
Mr O’Toole also shared his story, one with a much happier ending, with the group at the event, which was co-ordinated by Moama Football Netball Club junior coach Rob Hogan.
“It was great to see so much engagement in the room. Hopefully everyone takes something away from it,” Mr Hogan said.
He said the three clubs attempted to organise a visit from the organisation in the middle of last year, which was interrupted by COVID-19 complications.
“They contacted me a month or so ago to say they were coming up this way, so we decided to organise something,” Mr Hogan said.
He said the timing was perfect, being just a month out from the start of the winter sports season.
Pat Cronin was killed after he was struck from behind in a pub brawl after he was enjoying a night out with friends following his first senior football match.
His parents, Matt and Robyn Cronin, started the foundation in memory of their son — with the aim of helping young Australians make wise decisions and end senseless violence that devastated communities and families.
Mr O’Toole, who spoke on behalf of the foundation at the Moama event, was also the victim of a one-punch, or “coward punch”, attack.
He took on the role of speaking on behalf of the foundation when Pat’s parents found the role was becoming too draining.
“At one point they were standing up in front of crowds to tell Pat’s story, until it became just too difficult,” Mr O’Toole said.
“That’s one of the reasons that they asked me to do this. So they could keep telling his story.
“The reason they asked me to tell this story is that I went through something very similar to this.”
Mr O’Toole spoke at Echuca College and Rochester Secondary School prior to his bowling club address and has spent almost four years working with the Pat Cronin Foundation.
Before that he was a speaker with the Step Back Think organisation.
He was assaulted in 2007 and seven years later started speaking about unprovoked and cowardly attacks on unsuspecting victims.
The man who assaulted Mr O’Toole was charged with a variety of assault offences and given a nine-month intensive corrections order.
The perpetrator of the attack on Pat Cronin was a Muay Thai boxer, who was charged with manslaughter and received an eight-year prison sentence.
Mr O’Toole shared his story and that of Pat Cronin.
“I was out with my mates for my 22nd birthday and thought I was untouchable. I wasn’t big, not strong and I wasn’t looking for trouble,” Mr O’Toole said.
“It was just a night on the town with all the boys from my old high school.”
He explained as the night was wrapping up he and a mate walked to the cab rank.
“I told him to get in the first one and I would get the next one, because we lived on opposite sides of Geelong,” Mr O’Toole said.
“Then I spotted a 7-Eleven store across the road. I decided I wanted something to eat before calling it a night.”
Standing outside the store eating his meat pie a man walked past him, who he had seen earlier in the evening.
“For some reason he had already had a go at me earlier in the night. I didn’t react at that point, but the second time I responded and he knocked the food out of my hand, called me some names and told me again what he thought of me.
“I wasn’t going to fight, but I wanted to argue.
“We argued until he got sick of arguing and he walked away.
“Thinking that everything was done I relaxed and was watching my phone.
“He and a friend had stopped 20m away and before I could think what was happening his friend took a swing and hit me in the face.
“When he hit me I went down, the side of my scull hit the ground so hard that I was unconscious instantly.”
He told the gathering that being unconscious was probably what saved his life.
“Unlike Pat, who never fell to the ground and wasn’t knocked out, I had the choice of just going home with a sore head taken away from me.
“Someone decided for me, they called an ambulance. I went to Geelong hospital and then they flew me to Melbourne.
“Doctors operated on me and I got another chance.
“They did an unreal job and I got to wake up the next afternoon, with no idea of what had happened and why I wasn’t in my own bed,” he said.
He said he was initially angry, then sad and certainly did not feel like he does now.
“I didn’t feel any gratitude. I couldn’t drive my car, go out for a beer with mates, I couldn’t work and I had to move back in with my mum,” he said.
“A lot of people told me how lucky I was, but I just didn’t see it.
“Six weeks later the surgeon who brought me back to life told me something which changed my outlook.
“He said, ‘I need to tell you two things. The first is that you walked in here and second, is you are talking. I didn’t think you would be able to do either of those things ever again when I operated on you’.
“I smiled and nodded and pretended it was a pretty normal conversation. Then all of a sudden I started to realise that these people saying how lucky I was were right.
“Nine years later I am still talking about it. I am lucky I still have the choice as to whether I stand up and talk about this.
“This is a heavy and confronting, uncomfortable type of topic, but it is important,” he said.
He said for some people hearing stories like this would be a turning point, but it would not be the case for everyone.
“Next time you can feel anger boiling up and you are thinking about what you are going to do. Maybe it will make a difference,” he said.
“One thing we do know is that knowledge does not always affect behaviour.”
An example of that was provided by the powerful speaker, when Mr O’Toole described a Melbourne Cricket Ground incident several years ago where a man in the crowd at an AFL match started throwing punches and knocked two people to the ground.
“He was a mate of Pat Cronin, someone who had lived the situation. Yet, in that moment whatever was going on with him was too much for him to control.
“He later rang Pat’s father to apologise.
“If anyone was going to know the right thing to do it was him,” Mr O’Toole said.
The night that Pat Cronin was hit, his attacker was standing at the bar — not involved in the altercation.
"He is a big unit, he knows how to fight and throw punches.
“I look back and think what were his mates doing and could they have done anything to turn it around?
“Sometimes mates cannot make the right decision. You should be there for them to make that decision for them,” he said.
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