Bulldog4life
04-07-2015, 01:21 PM
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/afl-footballers-and-their-party-drugs-shame-exposed/story-fnpp4dl6-1227427378200
PICTURE an inner-city nightclub, the queue 100 deep while inside enthusiasts grind to the beat of Runaway by Gelantis, when suddenly a group of five very fit and very recognisable men in their early 20s arrives.
Far from joining the madding crowd of “randoms” outside, they are ushered in by musclebound sycophants desperate for their patronage in the knowledge they qualify as celebrities and that means business.
Free drinks aren’t a problem, although the drink-card days of the 1980s and ’90s are old hat, replaced by an assortment of party drugs of which Amy Winehouse would be proud.
And just as Amy did to her ultimate detriment, these young men often indulge.
It normally involves moving away from the riffraff into celebrity booths where cocaine or ecstasy are readily available.
The AFL-friendly environments are said to be considerate enough to provide private rooms for the cutting and consumption of coke, otherwise it will involve a trip to the powder room where like-minded souls will be on hands and knees snorting for their country.
The scene painted above has taken place every week of 2015 in football-mad Melbourne and will continue for the rest of this year and every one afterwards that you and I are lucky enough to witness.
It will reach its zenith from September to October when holiday time begins and on a good night, or Sunday morning at one notorious city haunt, you can witness a drug-taking equivalent of a feeding the penguins moment at Phillip Island, where hunger overcomes shyness and inhibitions are dropped.
Welcome to the social world of some AFL footballers, their bravado matched by their bulging wallets, their fear of exposure minimal courtesy of a drugs code most find laughable.
If unlucky enough to be busted on the average two tests that occur a year, they still have a second chance and then self-reporting as further back-up.
In most cases they will escape without the telltale hangovers that come from a night at the drip tray or the skin-fold problems caused by a dozen pots of Carlton and United Breweries finest product.
At least they’re the lucky ones and not the present-day AFL star said to have recently booked into a rehab centre, something that goes with the territory in the US where you haven’t truly earned your celebrity stripes until becoming acquainted with a clinic named after the wife of a former US president (Betty Ford).
But not something we are used to in a country that remains relatively naive in the ways of party pharmaceuticals.
And it goes far deeper than just the players. Take a lie-detector into an AFL press box tonight and try not to get kicked to death in the stampede.
In fact, while you are at it turn up at AFL House at the start of play Monday morning and you can be assured of some interesting polygraph activity.
It is just the way of the world, the society we now live in, but one where footballers are held to far greater account than the average garden variety citizen.
Why, because they are paid more, because they acquire instant fame when their number is read out on draft night, or because they are so-called role models?
Read all of the above as young men try to escape the ever-suffocating life of an AFL footballer, one that is growing less enjoyable by the seasons as club demands grow along with expectations of those who pay their hard-earned to go and watch their heroes do battle each week.
Speak to Dustin Fletcher, Paul Chapman and Drew Petrie, all with at least 15 seasons to their name, and all three will assure you the game has grown into a sterilised business, one where your every public move is scrutinised.
“Bad luck”, claim many of the public who believe it goes with the territory. You want to get paid heaps for exploiting your God-given talents then learn to live with what comes with it. Fletcher said in an interview with this newspaper recently that the best days of his 400-game career were the early days back in the 1990s.
“When I first started, ‘Bomber’ Thompson lived near me in Greenvale and I used to get a lift in with him. After a game you could have a drink and relax and you would come in and do rehab on a Monday. To be honest, I did enjoy it more back then. You could go about your footy and not have to worry about all the other stuff,” Fletcher, 40, said.
Chapman, 33, and one of the most decorated players in the game over 279 matches, believes the intensity of the AFL world and the length of a season could see players pushing for less rather than more.
“I agree with Dustin that the game has lost some of its appeal as a player. The length of the pre-season and the scrutiny you are under just keep growing. Maybe you could see players actually accept less money and in return play a 17-round home and away season with a shorter pre-season, “ he said.
To casual observers, drug-taking in the AFL is hardly a recent phenomenon with the West Coast Eagles playing in two Grand Finals a decade ago despite a drug culture that has sadly taken a few prisoners in the time since.
It remains one of football’s great untold stories despite a Ben Cousins biography that highlighted his addiction to methamphetamine. Back in those days the rumours would float across the Nullabor that Cousins and a handful of other Eagles were serious users.
Everyone seemed to have a story yet the AFL and its drug arm either didn’t want to listen or didn’t target the said participants at the right time.
It didn’t seem that hard, just wait for a Friday night game and hit them at the soonest available time afterwards.
But just like Lance Armstrong the authorities were more Inspector Clouseau than Sherlock Holmes. In fact the AFL under Andrew Demetriou went in the other direction, proudly beating their chests at the lack of evidence to suggest there was a drug culture within.
A lame three-strike policy was introduced, arguably with best intentions (the more cynical would claim it was designed to ensure there weren’t too many positive tests) and hopefully now will be overhauled.
So what happened back in the day, when men such as former Geelong 198-game player and now entertaining media performer Bill Brownless played?
“Our drug was beer. We just didn’t see drugs. And that was over 13 years in the 1980s and ’90s, never anything. But the pressure on them now to come up physically each week and then perform is getting to unrealistic levels,” Brownless said.
“I’m not a drug-taker and would never encourage it but there is a part of me that can see why an AFL player does it. You would need to ask someone who has done both, what is better, a massive hangover or the alternative? I would never see drug use when I went out but now I’m becoming better educated.
“We all need to be better educated, particularly when you have kids. I don’t think three strikes is working because it is an epidemic out there.
“Drug use would have to be the No. 1 worry for club CEOs and club boards. But most of them aren’t in the right age group. You will have clubs appointing people solely for that reason.”
In Brownless’s day, cocaine was something we associated with Columbian drug lords such as the late Pablo Escobar rather than hot nightspots of the time like the Tunnel or Billboard. Marijuana was a chance to appear during a night on the tiles, with speed beginning to raise its ugly head while heroin was viewed as an evil and dumbing substance that required a needle for injection.
In the 1980s you were more likely to find players using performance-enhancing drugs in the form of steroids rather than so-called party drugs.
In a 1990 book titled The Black and White Diaries, written by Brian Taylor and this author, a VFL best and fairest winner in the 1980s was prepared to go on the record about his steroid use, on the proviso that others, including two of the highest-profile players in the game, were also named. His name wasn’t used on legal advice.
Just as is the case today with the unnamed Gold Coast 11 who were lagged to the police by king rat Karmichael Hunt, legal advice ensures some level of anonymity, something that wasn’t available to Harley Bennell when pictorial evidence showed him allegedly snorting speed.
To gain a better insight into drug use from a player’s perspective, the Herald Sun interviewed someone who came through the system, who has partied with the best of them even if his buzz came through a glass rather than a $20 note. As is the case in an AFL world where figures are increasingly jumping at shadows, he spoke under the guise of anonymity.
“Not all but the higher-profile players can get their drugs for free. People like to big note, say ‘Hey, I gave such and such to so and so last night’. It gives them a sick sense of importance,” the player said.
“And while drug use is becoming more prevalent, it isn’t something that is widely spoken about within a club. You don’t want anything getting back to the club so you find two or three like-minded souls, blokes you can trust.
“What percentage of blokes at an AFL club would take drugs? I couldn’t tell you but it’s massive in the off-season, when with all the pressure they just go berserk. She’s right on in October. Mostly cocaine. I don’t think the AFL is too serious about catching them either.
“I got tested twice in a year, both times on Fridays. I said to the testers why are you testing me now? Once you got tested you knew you were free to get on for the weekend as Ben Cousins would say. Party time. So why wouldn’t you test on Mondays? I reckon the AFL does it for the stats although I will say do they do target the same blokes who they reckon would be using. But even then they are still testing them on a Thursday-Friday, so they aren’t having a real go.
“Some people do it every now and then and some can’t have a good night without it. What I will say is the club I was at, some of the blokes doing it were big names. But you know what? They were good people and I learnt from that you can’t judge just say because they take drugs they are a bad person.”
So how do you prevent “good people” from going down a path which is both illegal and potentially life-threatening? The above player in question, who now plays suburban football, says it comes down to education. And early education.
“You can do all the education you want but that’s not going to stop those who are already doing it. You have to get them early, the TAC Cup and AIS kids, get to them before they have done it. Once they have done it you won’t stop them. There are players on it who consistently surprise you and they take it because they pull up better after a big night.”
A present day AFL star just booked into to rehab. I wouldn't be surprised now who it was.
PICTURE an inner-city nightclub, the queue 100 deep while inside enthusiasts grind to the beat of Runaway by Gelantis, when suddenly a group of five very fit and very recognisable men in their early 20s arrives.
Far from joining the madding crowd of “randoms” outside, they are ushered in by musclebound sycophants desperate for their patronage in the knowledge they qualify as celebrities and that means business.
Free drinks aren’t a problem, although the drink-card days of the 1980s and ’90s are old hat, replaced by an assortment of party drugs of which Amy Winehouse would be proud.
And just as Amy did to her ultimate detriment, these young men often indulge.
It normally involves moving away from the riffraff into celebrity booths where cocaine or ecstasy are readily available.
The AFL-friendly environments are said to be considerate enough to provide private rooms for the cutting and consumption of coke, otherwise it will involve a trip to the powder room where like-minded souls will be on hands and knees snorting for their country.
The scene painted above has taken place every week of 2015 in football-mad Melbourne and will continue for the rest of this year and every one afterwards that you and I are lucky enough to witness.
It will reach its zenith from September to October when holiday time begins and on a good night, or Sunday morning at one notorious city haunt, you can witness a drug-taking equivalent of a feeding the penguins moment at Phillip Island, where hunger overcomes shyness and inhibitions are dropped.
Welcome to the social world of some AFL footballers, their bravado matched by their bulging wallets, their fear of exposure minimal courtesy of a drugs code most find laughable.
If unlucky enough to be busted on the average two tests that occur a year, they still have a second chance and then self-reporting as further back-up.
In most cases they will escape without the telltale hangovers that come from a night at the drip tray or the skin-fold problems caused by a dozen pots of Carlton and United Breweries finest product.
At least they’re the lucky ones and not the present-day AFL star said to have recently booked into a rehab centre, something that goes with the territory in the US where you haven’t truly earned your celebrity stripes until becoming acquainted with a clinic named after the wife of a former US president (Betty Ford).
But not something we are used to in a country that remains relatively naive in the ways of party pharmaceuticals.
And it goes far deeper than just the players. Take a lie-detector into an AFL press box tonight and try not to get kicked to death in the stampede.
In fact, while you are at it turn up at AFL House at the start of play Monday morning and you can be assured of some interesting polygraph activity.
It is just the way of the world, the society we now live in, but one where footballers are held to far greater account than the average garden variety citizen.
Why, because they are paid more, because they acquire instant fame when their number is read out on draft night, or because they are so-called role models?
Read all of the above as young men try to escape the ever-suffocating life of an AFL footballer, one that is growing less enjoyable by the seasons as club demands grow along with expectations of those who pay their hard-earned to go and watch their heroes do battle each week.
Speak to Dustin Fletcher, Paul Chapman and Drew Petrie, all with at least 15 seasons to their name, and all three will assure you the game has grown into a sterilised business, one where your every public move is scrutinised.
“Bad luck”, claim many of the public who believe it goes with the territory. You want to get paid heaps for exploiting your God-given talents then learn to live with what comes with it. Fletcher said in an interview with this newspaper recently that the best days of his 400-game career were the early days back in the 1990s.
“When I first started, ‘Bomber’ Thompson lived near me in Greenvale and I used to get a lift in with him. After a game you could have a drink and relax and you would come in and do rehab on a Monday. To be honest, I did enjoy it more back then. You could go about your footy and not have to worry about all the other stuff,” Fletcher, 40, said.
Chapman, 33, and one of the most decorated players in the game over 279 matches, believes the intensity of the AFL world and the length of a season could see players pushing for less rather than more.
“I agree with Dustin that the game has lost some of its appeal as a player. The length of the pre-season and the scrutiny you are under just keep growing. Maybe you could see players actually accept less money and in return play a 17-round home and away season with a shorter pre-season, “ he said.
To casual observers, drug-taking in the AFL is hardly a recent phenomenon with the West Coast Eagles playing in two Grand Finals a decade ago despite a drug culture that has sadly taken a few prisoners in the time since.
It remains one of football’s great untold stories despite a Ben Cousins biography that highlighted his addiction to methamphetamine. Back in those days the rumours would float across the Nullabor that Cousins and a handful of other Eagles were serious users.
Everyone seemed to have a story yet the AFL and its drug arm either didn’t want to listen or didn’t target the said participants at the right time.
It didn’t seem that hard, just wait for a Friday night game and hit them at the soonest available time afterwards.
But just like Lance Armstrong the authorities were more Inspector Clouseau than Sherlock Holmes. In fact the AFL under Andrew Demetriou went in the other direction, proudly beating their chests at the lack of evidence to suggest there was a drug culture within.
A lame three-strike policy was introduced, arguably with best intentions (the more cynical would claim it was designed to ensure there weren’t too many positive tests) and hopefully now will be overhauled.
So what happened back in the day, when men such as former Geelong 198-game player and now entertaining media performer Bill Brownless played?
“Our drug was beer. We just didn’t see drugs. And that was over 13 years in the 1980s and ’90s, never anything. But the pressure on them now to come up physically each week and then perform is getting to unrealistic levels,” Brownless said.
“I’m not a drug-taker and would never encourage it but there is a part of me that can see why an AFL player does it. You would need to ask someone who has done both, what is better, a massive hangover or the alternative? I would never see drug use when I went out but now I’m becoming better educated.
“We all need to be better educated, particularly when you have kids. I don’t think three strikes is working because it is an epidemic out there.
“Drug use would have to be the No. 1 worry for club CEOs and club boards. But most of them aren’t in the right age group. You will have clubs appointing people solely for that reason.”
In Brownless’s day, cocaine was something we associated with Columbian drug lords such as the late Pablo Escobar rather than hot nightspots of the time like the Tunnel or Billboard. Marijuana was a chance to appear during a night on the tiles, with speed beginning to raise its ugly head while heroin was viewed as an evil and dumbing substance that required a needle for injection.
In the 1980s you were more likely to find players using performance-enhancing drugs in the form of steroids rather than so-called party drugs.
In a 1990 book titled The Black and White Diaries, written by Brian Taylor and this author, a VFL best and fairest winner in the 1980s was prepared to go on the record about his steroid use, on the proviso that others, including two of the highest-profile players in the game, were also named. His name wasn’t used on legal advice.
Just as is the case today with the unnamed Gold Coast 11 who were lagged to the police by king rat Karmichael Hunt, legal advice ensures some level of anonymity, something that wasn’t available to Harley Bennell when pictorial evidence showed him allegedly snorting speed.
To gain a better insight into drug use from a player’s perspective, the Herald Sun interviewed someone who came through the system, who has partied with the best of them even if his buzz came through a glass rather than a $20 note. As is the case in an AFL world where figures are increasingly jumping at shadows, he spoke under the guise of anonymity.
“Not all but the higher-profile players can get their drugs for free. People like to big note, say ‘Hey, I gave such and such to so and so last night’. It gives them a sick sense of importance,” the player said.
“And while drug use is becoming more prevalent, it isn’t something that is widely spoken about within a club. You don’t want anything getting back to the club so you find two or three like-minded souls, blokes you can trust.
“What percentage of blokes at an AFL club would take drugs? I couldn’t tell you but it’s massive in the off-season, when with all the pressure they just go berserk. She’s right on in October. Mostly cocaine. I don’t think the AFL is too serious about catching them either.
“I got tested twice in a year, both times on Fridays. I said to the testers why are you testing me now? Once you got tested you knew you were free to get on for the weekend as Ben Cousins would say. Party time. So why wouldn’t you test on Mondays? I reckon the AFL does it for the stats although I will say do they do target the same blokes who they reckon would be using. But even then they are still testing them on a Thursday-Friday, so they aren’t having a real go.
“Some people do it every now and then and some can’t have a good night without it. What I will say is the club I was at, some of the blokes doing it were big names. But you know what? They were good people and I learnt from that you can’t judge just say because they take drugs they are a bad person.”
So how do you prevent “good people” from going down a path which is both illegal and potentially life-threatening? The above player in question, who now plays suburban football, says it comes down to education. And early education.
“You can do all the education you want but that’s not going to stop those who are already doing it. You have to get them early, the TAC Cup and AIS kids, get to them before they have done it. Once they have done it you won’t stop them. There are players on it who consistently surprise you and they take it because they pull up better after a big night.”
A present day AFL star just booked into to rehab. I wouldn't be surprised now who it was.