A photo taken later that night by a teammate shows a large lump and bruise had developed on the player’s forehead.
A top Auckland woman footballer was whacked in the head with a drumstick by the Danny Doolans drummer.
The 22-year-old admitted that she may have provoked the incident at the Good Spirits Hospitality-owned bar.
She said she had been tapping on the drummer’s kit at the break and during a live performance and was asked to stop doing so. It was soon after that that the musician reacted by striking her with a drumstick.
“I put my hands up, and there was a break in the music, so I was just playing on the drums, just with my hands.
“Me, and one of the other girls, we both did it, and it was funny in the moment – I just didn’t really think.
“I hit them one more time with my hand ... Then he just whacked me.
“I just didn’t believe it ... Even if I pushed a whole drum set over, he still can’t be hitting me like that.”
Good Spirits Hospitality operations manager Jaime Dutton told the Herald: "I can confirm the incident happened and we have replied to the customer involved.
“It is never acceptable for anyone, staff or patron, to strike another under any circumstance.
“It is very unfortunate that this happened; we hope to see the patron back at Danny’s soon,” Dutton said.
The woman acknowledged that she should not have touched the equipment during the performance – particularly while intoxicated – but she was distressed by the physical response from the drummer.
“When it happened, I just went outside, because I was really upset, because my head hurt.
“Most of my friends didn’t really see how hard it was. They just thought [the drummer] touched my head – they didn’t understand that he whacked me.
“Then the next morning, when we realised that one of us had the video, everyone was like ‘as if that happened’.“
The player said that the following day, she emailed the bar about the incident and attached the video.
Danny Doolans allegedly responded to the player: “For transparency, we are aware of some tensions during the evening, including interference with band equipment prior to the incident. That being said, this does not excuse what happened, and we are addressing the situation from all sides to ensure it’s handled appropriately and doesn’t happen again.”
She told the Herald she hasn’t heard from Danny Doolans since those communications ended on Tuesday, July 15.
While relieved the whack didn’t lead to any major injury – and she was back on the football pitch soon after – she’s worried for future patrons.
“My main thing with this is just that it doesn’t happen again. There’s clearly something wrong if he thinks that’s acceptable to act like that.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She was named New Zealand’s Best Up and Coming journalist in 2025. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a full-time journalist.
