Caught on video: Drunken, foolish Aussies in Hong Kong

Drunken Australians behaving badly in Lan Kwai Fong (LKF)?

Sadly, that is nothing new among expats or tourists in Hong Kong’s popular nightspot.

But a video posted on YouTube showing players from a popular Australia football club jumping on taxis, harassing drivers and sliding down the street on a plastic bin lid, has sparked a storm in the Australian media.

Even by Hong Kong’s standards, the behavior of members of the Western Bulldogs AFL team is pretty appalling.

The video, uploaded last October and filmed during the team’s end-of-season trip (yet only making the mainstream media this week), shows several players congregating on D’Aguilar St in front of Al’s Diner and Bar George.

Despite AFL players being regarded for the physical prowess, many of the Bulldogs team in the video are wearing flashing pink bunny ears.  One man, obviously keen to show off his athletic abilities, climbs on the back of a taxi and does the ‘worm’ on the roof and down the hood of the vehicle.

In part of the off-field action, another player -- identified by Australian media as Jarrad Grant -- jumps on a stationary taxi. His teammate, the former winner of the AFL’s prize for the season’s best player, Adam Cooney, grabs a plastic bin lid and slides headfirst down the crowded street.

Bulldogs CEO Simon Garlick described the club as being “extremely disappointed” in the behavior and said it could have serious consequences for the players involved, according to local Australian media.

Image issues during China push?

The incident follows a pretty embarrassing 12 months for the AFL in terms of player behavior.  Last week, four players from 2010 runners-up St Kilda were banned by the club for an apparent drug and alcohol-related incident during a pre-season camp in the New Zealand city of Queenstown.

In recent months, that same club  has been embroiled in a nude picture scandal, tagged 'Dickileaks,' that involved the team’s captain and several other players.

The AFL has embarked on a push of the sport into China, playing an exhibition match in Shanghai late last year.

But it needn’t worry too much about the LKF incident seriously impacting the image of the football code.

One local media site in Hong Kong described the incident as “Australian rugby players” behaving drunkenly in LKF.

It seems Australians already have quite the reputation.