Drugs in the AFL

Drug abuse, shady dealings rampant among football's finest
Andrew Rule
March 11, 2007

ELITE footballers are young, rich and often act as if they are above the law, but they are not invincible. A high-flying AFL premiership player learned that the hard way last spring when he nearly died in an American hospital.

The strange circumstances surrounding a super-fit professional athlete being revived after "flatlining" is a story most football insiders know — but none talk about it publicly.

"Mate, it's right, but they'd hang me off the grandstand if I went on the record," a respected former player and official told The Sunday Age. "It's such a small world, football."

Like several other well-placed sources who confirmed the story, he made it clear that the game's unwritten code of silence was in this case reinforced with corporate spin and implied threats of reprisals against anyone who broke ranks.

The perceived risk of lawsuits has smothered all but the most oblique references to the mysterious medical emergency that could have ended with the player coming home in a coffin. Instead, he spent several days in hospital before being able to travel — and did not rejoin his teammates.

There are potent reasons for such an explosive scandal to stay "in club". The AFL and its 16 clubs have much at stake: multimillion-dollar sponsorships could evaporate if the lucrative AFL "brand" is damaged with one burst of bad publicity. And publicity could not get much worse than exposure of what really happened in that Las Vegas hospital five months ago.

On the record, players and club officials go along with the club's cryptic explanation dismissing the incident as a routine medical matter. Off it, insiders have told friends and relatives their man overdosed.

It fits a pattern of misbehaviour by AFL players and a tendency for clubs to cover up for those considered too valuable to lose — at the expense, sometimes, of lesser lights axed to protect sponsorships and the game's lucrative brand image.

The spectre of substance abuse hangs over the Las Vegas episode as it hangs over other strange incidents — the arrest, for instance, of Geelong's Steve Johnson in Wangaratta this year after worried householders called police when he staggered into their yard late at night and allegedly tried to drink from a bottle of suntan oil on their patio.

Then there is the weird behaviour of Carlton's Brendan Fevola in attacking an Irish barman, recently eclipsed by Eagles midfielder Daniel Kerr's bizarre late-night attack on a Perth taxi driver outside a hospital where he had taken a friend from a nightspot after a sudden bout of illness. Kerr is unlucky like that — his girlfriend was already in hospital after suffering a seizure.

Kerr's erratic lifestyle is notorious even in a city where footballers' excesses are mostly forgiven by adoring fans, some of whom run AFL clubs. The sort of fans who supported Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins when he left his car on a busy highway and bolted to avoid a booze bus — and when he was found unconscious near Melbourne's casino after another long night.

A young woman who went out with Kerr has told close friends she was shocked because he could not remember where he was — or who he was sleeping with — after he woke from "a big night".

Kerr asked her one summer night to pick him up from a party where he had been involved in a fight. When she arrived he looked at her blankly and said, "Who are you? Are you my lift?" She stopped seeing him after that.

Another regular at Perth's nightspots said Kerr "is constantly out of it and makes no secret of it. He sits around in bars and slurs his words. He doesn't recognise you from one day to the next."

One of Kerr's teammates narrowly escaped being caught in a police raid on the Red Sea bar on December 16 last year, where he had been drinking with members of the Coffin Cheaters bikie gang.

A well-known former Eagle was close to a champion dubbed "the Cocaine Kid" — and shared his taste in drugs.

"Girls I know used to go around to his house and he would be snorting coke off the coffee table," the woman said.

There was a sinister element to the big man's edgy lifestyle: neighbours saw people visiting him at all hours and were relieved when he moved out.

For all their on-field success, the Eagles have the worst reputation for drug and alcohol-fuelled misbehaviour. Other clubs have troubles — some of them inherited when they take on problem players "released" by original clubs — but the Eagles are notorious for flying too high.

"Drugs are rife at West Coast," a former club official declares. "At first the club didn't want to believe it. Now they say, 'Our blokes do it but they're no worse than any other club'. They are kidding themselves."

One cocaine-using player told him more than half the team were "into it". Worse, at least two club stars were "into the super, whizzbang stuff" so heavily that their supplier gives them other drugs to mask the effects of post-game binges. The supplier, he says, is a supporter keen to trade A-list "party" drugs to rub shoulders with A-list players. The person is not, as some might assume, well-known Perth identity John Kizon, though Kizon's socialising with players has long caused heartburn for the club.

West Coast was warned about the Kizon connection in 2001 when a police source told the club of taped conversations linking Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins and the since-disgraced Michael Gardiner with underworld figures. (Gardiner was sacked by the Eagles after causing a high-speed car crash while drunk.)

The charismatic and calculating Kizon, a convicted heroin trafficker and former boxer from Fitzroy, was a friend of the late Alphonse Gangitano — he flew to Melbourne to be a pallbearer at his funeral after Gangitano was shot in early 1998 — and is close to the powerful Coffin Cheaters gang.

In Perth he is admired by some, feared by many. It was inevitable he would make contact with local heroes the Eagles. Gangsters and stars often find each other.

In grand final week 2001, police saw Kizon meet Gardiner and Cousins at the Crown Casino complex; the three drank together at Fidel's Cigar Bar later that night.

Despite warnings, the two players did not distance themselves from Kizon; they were seen drinking with his Melbourne friends after an Eagles-Carlton game in early 2002.

The Carlton connection is interesting. The Moran family, which lost three members in Melbourne's underworld war, was closely connected to Carlton for three generations.

One of the Blues' great finals players reputedly played under the influence of drugs — "his eyes would be rolling around like mad", recalls a contemporary — and later became a dealer among younger players. He saw a Carlton player at a nightclub during the finals in the late 1990s and, while commiserating with him for being dropped from the side, slipped the embarrassed player some drugs. He is still reputed to deal to players and is not the only one.

Three years ago, Carlton recruits Laurence Angwin and Karl Norman were exiled from AFL football for turning up to a morning "recovery" session under the influence of ecstasy. Angwin now plays in Cairns, Norman in country Victoria.

Carlton is quick to discredit Angwin's claims that AFL players in Melbourne introduced him to ecstasy. "There would have been eight blokes (Carlton players) there that day who wouldn't have passed a test. Five out of the nine in the leadership group couldn't make eye contact with us when they called us in because they'd been out with us," he said.

Angwin's point is backed by a former AFL coach of impeccable character and high standing. He tells the story of a Crows star (with reputed shady connections) taking a fishing tackle box on a team trip. Inside were not hooks and sinkers, just dozens of brightly coloured pills. Drugs.

That might disappoint some club officials, but it won't shock them. They are now coping with a relentless rise in drug use and clubs are getting nervous.

There already is a quiet move to reverse the collateral damage done by the push against drinking. A former coach says some clubs are quietly reviving the practice of having a few drinks after a game, just like the old days.

But it's hard for some to go back after walking the wild side. One All-Australian player who made too much of his days in the sun boasted to a club official: "You haven't lived until you've had (a beauty queen) snort coke off your d---." The beauty is doing well, the player's career is in ruins.

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Sheahan: AFL must act on drugs
March 14, 2007 12:00am

MIKE Sheahan writes: It was prominent player manager Ricky Nixon who first rang the warning bells.

Way back in November 1999 he confronted a collection of AFL officials and club administrators with the revelation of illicit drugs in football.

Nixon, then the most influential of all the player managers, told a cross-section of all the relevant groups in football at a post-season conference he had evidence of cocaine abuse among players.

The then AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson grimly confirmed to the Herald Sun a week later: "As a result of the conference, we will be expanding (the drug awareness and testing programs) to include other social drugs including cocaine."

Less than three years later, this newspaper carried a second blunt warning from a second player manager, Craig Kelly, about the extent of the problem among players.

The former Sydney Swan, Dale Lewis, joined the debate, suggesting widespread drug use among players.

He made the mistake of suggesting 75 per cent of players had either used illicit substances or experimented with them, and was subjected to extraordinary public ridicule.

He has since refused to even utter the word "Panadol". The message was lost in the witch-hunt.

Late last year, it was reported that a premiership player almost died on a recent players' trip to Las Vegas. The report didn't mention drugs, but the industry soon knew exactly who had done exactly what.

The player supposedly is West Coast's 2006 premiership player Chad Fletcher, commonly believed to have almost died after an episode with an illicit substance that put him in hospital.

Two players from a Victorian-based AFL club in Las Vegas at the time are understood to hold first-hand information about the incident.

On February 17, when the so-called betting scandal broke, the Herald Sun carried a comment piece headed: "Bet your house on drugs being a major issue, too". The article said in part: "A premiership player almost died in the US late last year, and, if drugs weren't involved, then Las Vegas is in Europe."

The drugs issue finally erupted at the weekend when The Sunday Age ran a story on its front page. Again, no name, but an extremely colourful backgrounder by an investigative journalist with excellent credibility.

Finally, it was on the public agenda.

So, where to from here?

The AFL would seem to have no alternative to an inquiry.

The AFL boasts about its drug-testing regime, yet so many people in and around the game can't get their heads round the paucity of positive results.

Recently retired Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss has changed his mind on the issue.

He told 3AW's Sports Today last night he feared drugs were a far bigger problem than he thought not long ago.

The players have found cracks in the system.

The AFL has an obligation to be seen to be doing something, and the AFL Players' Association has an even greater imperative: the welfare of its members.

Neither has yet said anything meaningful on the subject.

Hopefully, both will before flat-lining has an even more dramatic result than the scare that occurred in Las Vegas a few months ago.

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Eagles stand firm over drug claims
Caroline Wilson
March 15, 2007

Chad Fletcher: in hospital in Las Vegas due to alcohol, says West Coast.
Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

WEST Coast moved further into damage control yesterday as disturbing allegations regarding the club's issues with illegal drug use among its players continued to dominate the AFL industry.

While the reigning premier launched its season in Perth amid suggestions the club had failed to tackle off-field problems, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and his deputy, Adrian Anderson, insisted the competition was continuing to battle its perceived problem with illegal drugs.

Demetriou, who has asked all 16 clubs to attend next month's chief executives' meeting armed with suggestions and possible solutions to the game's off-field problems and — primarily — the illegal drug-use issue, is understood to have privately welcomed ongoing speculation regarding the Chad Fletcher incident.

In a series of developments yesterday:

■Eagles chairman Dalton Gooding refused to comment on a suggestion that champion midfielder Ben Cousins had moved back home with his parents.

■Demetriou called upon witnesses to come forward with any evidence regarding Fletcher's so-called near-death experience during an off-season trip to Las Vegas.

■Collingwood officially questioned Josh Fraser and Nick Maxwell, who denied witnessing Fletcher's collapse.

■Both Fletcher's manager and Gooding offered a revised version of the Fletcher incident claiming it was alcohol and not drug related.

In December it was reported that Fletcher's reaction to a vaccine for yellow fever had put him in hospital for four days. Fletcher and his teammates celebrated their grand final win in Las Vegas before many flew to South America.

"I was sick and lost some weight, but that was it," Fletcher said. "I was overseas and didn't know anyone so I took some precautions. Then I came home because I didn't want to eat the food in South America after already being sick." Yesterday Gooding acknowledged that the Fletcher incident was alcohol-fuelled. "Chad Fletcher did get sick in Vegas on a private players' trip," Gooding told the West Australian. "We understand the sickness was alcohol-related. He spent three days in hospital. The club is completely denying that there was any drug involvement."

Both Gooding and Fletcher's manager Colin Young insisted yesterday that US toxicology reports had cleared the player of illegal drug use. Young and Gooding both suggested the player had had an allergic reaction to a yellow fever vaccination mixed with the adverse effects of a bottle of vodka.

Two Collingwood footballers, Fraser and Maxwell, briefly socialised with a group of Eagles players in Las Vegas but yesterday told their club that they were not with the West Coast footballers the night Fletcher became ill.

Rumours that Fraser and Maxwell had allegedly witnessed illegal drug use among several premiership players after being invited to an Eagles' hotel room were rejected by the Collingwood players. They did not report socialising with the Eagles but a behind-the-scenes slanging match was sparked between the two clubs, with Eagles officials insisting that illegal drugs has become a major issue for the entire competition.

Meanwhile, The Age understands deposed West Coast captain Cousins has moved home with his parents who have become increasingly concerned with the 28-year-old's off-field lifestyle.

Cousins, the 2005 Brownlow medallist, lost the club captaincy after running away from a breathalyser unit just over one year ago and was arrested in Melbourne late last year after a drunken incident outside Crown Casino.

Neither Cousins' father Bryan, nor Gooding, returned calls. However Gooding, when asked by the West Australian whether the champion midfielder had been subject to parental intervention, said: "These are very private matters and I'm not going to comment either way on that."

West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett, who last month recommended the club fine another star midfielder Daniel Kerr after the player assaulted a taxi driver and hand a suspended game suspension over the player, did not return calls yesterday.

Kerr has been involved in several off-field incidents but has never been disciplined by the club apart from financial penalties. Demetriou threatened to over-rule the club if it continued to go soft on Kerr.

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Roos' alarm over drugs
TIM MORRISSEY, SYDNEY
March 15, 2007 01:15am

PAUL Roos fears that it could take a death in the AFL for players to realise the dangers of taking illicit drugs.

The Swans' coach raised his concerns yesterday after Brisbane premiership captain Michael Voss acknowledged that illicit drug use among AFL players is a serious problem according to anecdotal evidence and rumour.

Roos too admits he's heard rumblings, including the alarming story of a player having to be revived at a Las Vegas hospital during an end of year footy trip last October.

The player's heart is rumoured to have stopped or as they say flatlined, possibly as a result of taking illicit drugs. Two Victorian-based AFL players are understood to have been present at the time of the episode.

The incident, which the player's club explained as a routine medical matter, comes after the AFL last year went to court to stop the media from naming three players who had tested twice to illicit drugs in out-of-competition checks.

"It's a massive, massive issue and I just hope it doesn't get to the point where someone has to die in order for players to take it seriously," Roos said.

"If all the rumours are true then clearly we are at this point."

Voss said it was time for the AFL to revisit its three-strikes-and-you're-out policy for illicit drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine - aka "ice".

"Where there is smoke, there is fire, there are just so many stories about now for it to be wrong," Voss said. "We have all heard them and I think the AFL has to get a better picture of what is going on out there by really ramping up the testing."

However, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson doesn't think the problem of illicit drug use is a "bigger issue for footballers" than the rest of society.

"The testing we have done indicates that the use of illicit drugs by footballers is less than what takes place in society," he said.

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Roos calls for drug use naming
Tim Morrissey
March 15, 2007 11:00pm

PAUL Roos believes the AFL should name players caught using illicit drugs instead of allowing them to hide behind the league's current drug code.

The Swans coach is concerned that the AFL's campaign against illicit drug use is too soft after the league revealed on Wednesday that 24 players had tested positive between February 2005 and August 2006.

The number will probably increase when results from the past six months of testing are added.

However, under the league's three-strikes-and-you're-out policy, even a club doesn't find out if one of its players has an illicit drug problem until a third failure of a drug test.

Roos says the AFL's policy makes it too easy for the clubs to ignore their responsibility to help players overcome drug problems.

"I think that naming players is part of it," Roos said.

"At the moment it's like everyone is hiding behind the fact we've got no information, we don't know anyone involved.

"At least if someone tests positive and it comes out, you can then address it with your own players and help that particular player."

Fellow coaches Neil Craig (Adelaide) and Mark Williams (Port Adelaide) are divided on whether drug testing should be a club issue rather than an AFL one.

Craig is prepared to endorse any plan that allows the 16 AFL clubs to test their players, but Williams says the AFL tests – 750 in the past 18 months – will keep the game clean.

Both coaches say it would be naive to suggest every Crows and Power player is drug free and clear of temptation to use social drugs.

"You can never be absolutely sure," Craig said.

"With 600-odd AFL players, if you think (drugs) are definitely not a problem or issue, you are naive."

As the use of illicit or "social" drugs – rather than performance-enhancing drugs – blackened the pre-season, Craig and Williams yesterday endorsed the AFL's drug testing and education programs.

Craig said he saw the possibility of AFL clubs following the lead of Australian rugby league teams in ordering in-house drug tests, but Williams said that role belonged to the AFL.

"That's their job and I'm very happy to support what they do," he said.

"The AFL do a great job with it. Without doubt the AFL tests our players more than any other sport in the world, so you have to say that is terrific."

Both Craig and Williams said they had no evidence or concern with drugs at their clubs.

"But it would be ridiculous to say it couldn't have happened or it wouldn't happen or it won't happen in the future," Williams said of the Power.

His feedback from the team's leadership group strengthens his belief Port is drug free.

Port captain Warren Tredrea was more assertive, saying: "I know for a fact the guys at our group choose not to go down that (drugs) road."

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West Coast boss admits: We have a drug problem
16th March 2007, 7:00 WST

Eagles chairman Dalton Gooding last night confirmed the worst fears of the club’s supporters when he admitted it had an illicit drug problem.

In a startlingly frank statement, Mr Gooding conceded he still didn’t know exactly what had happened to midfielder Chad Fletcher in Las Vegas and that 2005 Brownlow Medal runner-up Daniel Kerr had an alcohol problem.

His statements are sure to rock Australian football circles, where speculation has been rife for several years about players indulging in drugs.

Mr Gooding, who is a highly respected businessman, said Kerr and Fletcher had undergone lifechanging experiences and revealed chief executive Trevor Nisbett had individually interviewed all Eagles players, threatening them with sanctions ranging from heavy fines to suspensions without pay if they continued to re-offend with drugs or alcohol.

He denied West Coast was a “pillpopping footy club” and although he refused to say how many players were known to use drugs, he admitted the club had a “very small minority”.

“We believe and what we’ve found out in the last several months is that we do have a small instance of alcohol and drug abuse,” Mr Gooding said.

“It’s a real focus for our board to get on top of that. We’ve implemented some counselling, some training programs and are getting some outside consultants to help us.

“We’re not shying away from the issue. The players are very much aware of what will happen to them if they re-offend in any way to do with alcohol and any issue to do with illicit drugs.”

Mr Gooding again said the Eagles believed Fletcher’s serious illness while on a players’ trip in Las Vegas, in which he is believed to have almost died, was alcohol-induced.

But he conceded the club did not know the full circumstances of the incident and could not be sure it was not drug-related.

“There was a lot of speculation but certainly from our discussions with Chad, it was certainly a life-changing experience for him,” Mr Gooding said. When questioned whether the club had asked Fletcher directly whether he had had a drug overdose, Mr Gooding said: “I haven’t asked the question to him direct.”

He said the club could not fully investigate the matter because it included private medical evidence between Fletcher and his doctors.

On Wednesday, Fletcher’s manager Colin Young said medical documents and toxicology reports from when Fletcher was treated in the US proved that he had no traces of a drug in his system other than alcohol.

Mr Gooding also talked of the problems faced by Kerr, who was fined $1800 last month after an altercation with a taxi driver.

Mr Gooding said Kerr did not have a problem with drugs, but admitted he had alcohol issues.

“It’s been a life-changing experience for Daniel,” he said. “Daniel does have an alcohol problem on the odd occasion — he’s got to work on that himself.”

Mr Gooding also said former captain Ben Cousins had not used up the “last chance” Mr Nisbett had warned him with last year following his decision to jump from his car and run from a booze bus.

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EDITORIAL: AFL risks dropping the ball on illicit drugs
March 18, 2007

Predictably,we were damned by the usual suspects.

THE surprise is not that young sportsmen with too much money and time on their hands indulge in illicit drugs. The surprise is that it has taken so long for an open secret inside the game to be made public — largely as a result of this newspaper's investigation last week.

The fact is — as football insiders will admit privately — that The Sunday Age revealed little that wasn't known to those same insiders: we gathered well-known facts, added some fresh ones, substantiated them and published.

Predictably, we were damned by the usual suspects: those with vested interests in maintaining the fiction that all elite footballers are exemplary, law-abiding citizens. But this backlash was short-lived and a little faint-hearted because — with the genie now safely out of the bottle — other branches of the media rushed to follow the story. In our sports-mad country, the public wants to know about famous footballers as much as it wants to know about film stars.

For the players concerned (and there are more than the West Coast Eagles so far named) this is the dark side of the rock-star status the game's elite enjoys. The bad news for them, their families, their clubs and even the AFL, is that illicit drugs (unlike gambling) are exactly that … illegal. Those that use them, regardless of how well they chase a football, are breaking the law and risk being charged and convicted.

Because of their prominence, their popularity and their pay packets, elite footballers run an extra risk — public disgrace. If they do the crime they must be prepared to do the time. For the clubs or the AFL to suggest otherwise is a variation of shooting the messenger.

There are several points to be made. As football clubs keep reminding us, young players are part of society and reflect it. Test enough young people and you will get positive results for illicit drugs. One does not need to be a civil liberties zealot to see something unfair about testing footballers merely because of their occupation. Imagine the outcry if such tests applied to other groups: lawyers, politicians or even those paragons of virtue, journalists. However, in the real world of big-time sport, money sets the rules.

When AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was first asked his reaction to this newspaper's revelations about illicit drug use by players, his reflex response was that if reporters could name names they should hand the information to the authorities. Demetriou is, deservedly, well regarded inside and outside the game he administers and which he once played. If every footballer used him as a role model, the game would not now have a drug scandal swirling around it.

Though the mess is not of his making, Demetriou and his people have to clean it up. Because of massive sponsorships that come with national media exposure, AFL football is a billion-dollar brand, easily damaged. Regardless of private views about the moral, legal and health issues of illicit drug use, those who run the AFL are keenly aware of the need to protect the brand. It comes down to looking after the core business, and a little about closing ranks. Everyone connected with the game, from the AFL to the cheer squad, should face the fact that some footballers will always be players.

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Drugs and danger stalk AFL's finest
Andrew Rule
March 18, 2007

THE West Coast Eagles should not delude themselves that "eastern staters" are out to get them or their football code. If that were the case, please explain the kind action of a Melbourne soccer player who rescued a dazed and confused Ben Cousins from a street corner last December, hours before the Brownlow medallist was photographed unconscious outside Crown Casino and later taken into custody by police.

It happened a little after 2 am on Saturday December 2, when the good samaritan stopped at a traffic light near the casino and saw a young man standing in the street, "shivering".

"I asked him if he was all right and he walked towards the car and I realised it was Ben Cousins," he told The Sunday Age yesterday.

Cousins is renowned for being able to run all day — and a long way at night to avoid a booze bus — but this time the iron man of the midfield could hardly move.

Cousins was so "out of it", the social soccer player — and Rules fan — later told friends, that he offered him a lift to get him off the street for fear he would be run over. Cousins waved a $50 note and mumbled that he wanted to go "back to" Eve nightclub, a few hundred metres away, and threw himself into the back seat of the car.

The 30-year-old driver, who does not want to be identified, says he was shocked and concerned at Cousins' distressed condition. "He was sweating and paranoid. He had his hands over his face and was looking around as if he was frightened someone was chasing him. He said someone had hit him — he pulled up his shirt and showed me his stomach. He was jumping all over the back seat. I think I can tell the difference between being drunk and drugs and I'd say he was tripping out bad — his brain was fried on some hard-core stuff, I'd say."

Cousins was aware of his condition and concerned about being recognised, the driver said. "I had a girl with me who didn't recognise him until I said his name and then he said, 'No, no. It's not me!' He stayed in the car about five minutes, talking. I really gave it to him. I said, 'What are you doing, ruining your career, mate?' And he said, 'No drugs, no drugs, I don't want that.' "

The driver took him to the nightclub from where, Cousins had claimed, he had been "chased" earlier. "I don't know if someone really chased him or not," he said. When the driver politely refused his offer of payment, Cousins thrust a $10 note at him, got out and walked unsteadily towards the casino.

That was the last the driver saw of him until a photograph of his famous passenger appeared in the newspapers two days later. Someone had caught Cousins "asleep" on the ground near the casino before the police came and locked him up for four hours.

He still has the $10 as a memento of his brush with celebrity.

The friendly soccer player is not the only person who likes being around famous sports people.

According to a former head of the Victorian drug squad, John McKoy, footballers can be victims of the appeal they hold for "ordinary" people, including some of the most ordinary of all — drug dealers and gangsters.

Mr McKoy, who spent 11 years in the drug squad before retiring as a detective chief inspector in 2000, said elite footballers had to be careful because drug dealers liked to cultivate high-profile people.

"They target celebrities like footballers and entertainers."

He said the link between footballers and drugs went back a long way. "In the past, detectives came across some prominent footballers on the fringe of major drug investigations" Mr McKoy said.

"We didn't pursue them any more vigorously than anyone else."

But he confirmed persistent rumours that some players crossed the line. A well-known Collingwood player acted as a bodyguard and standover man for an amphetamines dealer who was later killed in a road crash. And a failed league ruckman became a drug dealer who for years displayed more speed

in his hip pocket than he had ever shown in the forward pocket.

Another former drug squad detective was astonished to discover that several players in a suburban football competition in which he had played and later coached took ecstasy and amphetamines at weekends.

"When I returned to my club to coach after five years away, I found out that a lot of players were on the stuff on Saturday nights and would be awake all weekend. I'd be going to work at the drug squad Monday to Friday to catch blokes like Mokbel and the Morans and players in my own comp were buying their product."

Former AFL coach Damian Drum, now a Victorian state MP, warned the AFL three years ago that substance abuse was part of a hedonistic lifestyle that threatened to wreck young players' lives.

"I wrote a three-page letter to (AFL chief executive) Andrew Demetriou after the Canterbury Bulldogs (sex assault) case, warning him that our boys would be next," Mr Drum told The Sunday Age."Most of them have too much money and time on their hands. While they are playing they are treated like gods and then they're tossed aside. It's not good for them.

"It's an unhealthy lifestyle in the present — and it doesn't prepare them for the future. We can't make them all work, but we could at least make them qualified."

Players should be either full-time students or learn a trade so that they come out with a qualification — and the AFL should look at the US college sports scholarship system as a model.

"In America, sports scholarship holders have to get up early and do their academic work until early afternoon, then they meet their coaches and then they train. After dinner, they study again. Of about 80 at each college, only three or so make it to the top level — but they all have a qualification to go on with."

Being educated meant players and athletes would mix with people outside the hothouse of elite sport, which would inject "a sense of reality" into players' lives.

Young players, especially, can be left in a vacuum and have to kill time outside training hours in any way they like. The result, says Mr Drum wryly, is that "the only qualification they get is a degree in PlayStation 3".

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The 30-year-old driver, who does not want to be identified, says he was shocked and concerned at Cousins' distressed condition. "He was sweating and paranoid. He had his hands over his face and was looking around as if he was frightened someone was chasing him.

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Drug rumours swirl around suspended Cousins
March 20, 2007 - 1:05PM

Ben Cousins, left, after West Coast's 2006 AFL grand final triumph over the Sydney Swans.
Photo: Vince Caligiuri


West Coast captain Ben Cousins has been suspended indefinitely by the AFL club after failing to attend training yesterday.

"Ben has failed to fulfil his commitments as a professional member of the West Coast Eagles team to such a degree that his current situation is untenable," the club said in a statement.

"When Ben has addressed his ability to commit to the required level, his situation will be reviewed.

"It is with great sadness and regret that the club has been forced to take this action against a much-loved champion who has served this club with great distinction for more than a decade."

Cousins will be suspended from the club entirely, which means he will not be able to train with his teammates or play with WAFL side East Fremantle.

Club chairman Dalton Gooding said the suspension could last for up to a year, depending on when Cousins was ready to overcome his issues and play football again.

"It will depend entirely on when we believe Ben is in an appropriate condition to come back to the club once he has overcome his private and personal issues," Gooding said.

"That may be weeks, it may be months, it may be a year.''

Gooding said Cousins had been given time to deal with private issues.

"Ben has got a number of private and personal issues he needs to deal with," he said.

"Over the past few weeks those issues have come to the surface and it's time that Ben was suspended from the club to go away and try and tackle these personal and private issues head on."

Asked if the issues were drug-related, Gooding said: "Very personal and private issues and our club is prepared to work with Ben.

"He's one of our great players and it's a very sad day for our club and our history, and we have a duty of care for all employees of our club, and we'll work closely with Ben and his family to help him overcome these private and personal issues.''

Gooding said Cousins was drug-tested yesterday, but those results would not be known for several weeks.

Cousins, 28, was stripped of the West Coast captaincy last year after he fled from a police booze bus.

Four months ago, the 2005 Brownlow medallist was arrested in Melbourne for being drunk outside Crown Casino.

He was also questioned by police in May 2005 over a Perth nightclub brawl involving gangster John Kizon, with whom he and former teammate Michael Gardiner had socialised.

In 2002 Cousins was involved in a fight with teammate Daniel Kerr outside a Perth nightclub and, during the same post-season celebrations, Cousins broke his arm.

Despite his litany of off-field troubles, Cousins remains West Coast's most-decorated player and an enormously popular figure in Perth.

In addition to his Brownlow medal victory, he has won four West Coast best and fairest awards, is a six-time All-Australian and was voted the 2005 Most Valuable Player by the AFL Players Association.

He captained the Eagles 104 times from 2001-05.

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Bent Mk2 said:

The only think I'm surprised to hear about all this is that we're hearing about it. Its been common knowledge but never spoken about...the media MUST have known about it for years...so why decide to 'expose' it now?

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Cleaned out Cousins
DAMIAN BARRETT, MELBOURNE
March 21, 2007 01:15am

WEST Coast officials ordered Ben Cousins to Subiaco Oval on Monday afternoon to be drug-tested.

The ultimatum came after Cousins failed to attend two compulsory training sessions that day, and with AFL-assigned drug testers demanding his presence.

Less than 24 hours later, the Eagles indefinitely suspended Cousins, citing a need for him to address "private and personal" matters.

West Coast chairman Dalton Gooding said Cousins would not be allowed to return until he had cleaned up his act, which had been a problem for several years and has included brushes with the police.

"It will depend entirely when we believe Ben is in an appropriate condition," Gooding said of Cousins' suspension.

Only last Thursday, Gooding admitted the Eagles had an alcohol and drug problem and indicated that the club's board would have zero tolerance for players' poor behaviour.

The drug testers had targeted the troubled midfielder and two other Eagles.

Cousins' demise comes after team-mate Daniel Kerr recently faced assault charges and fellow Eagle Chad Fletcher nearly died in Las Vegas on an end-of-2006-season players' trip.

Other developments on a day that confirmed growing suspicions West Coast officials were struggling to deal with their many troubled players included:

THE strong possibility Cousins will be suspended without pay, which may cost him a large chunk of his purported $800,000 contract.

COUSINS being banned from training with the Eagles as well as playing with his WAFL-aligned club until he proved to the board he had recovered,

EAGLES players Andrew Embley, last year's Norm Smith medallist in the club's premiership, and Daniel Chick had been involved in a fight on the weekend. "I am aware, and there was an altercation between those two players . . . over Ben Cousins and a domestic issue," Gooding said.

COUSINS had recently split with his long-term girlfriend;

COUSINS was seen in a dazed state at an Eagles' family day on Sunday,

COUSINS' Melbourne manager Ricky Nixon pleading with the football industry to support him,

COUSINS' father Bryan believed to be angry, confused and saddened with Ben's predicament and distressed by the club's inability to identify his son's personal issues. Gooding would not reveal Cousins' problems.

Cousins may be made aware of Monday's drug test results as soon as today but, under the AFL's, illicit drugs policy, his club's officials will not be told, unless it is a third strike.

Only the player and his club's doctor are formally told of a positive test.

Cousins had been absent from the Eagles' Monday morning training hitout as well as a weights session that afternoon.

West Coast has long held major concerns with Cousins' connections with Perth underworld figures.

Also, in February of last year, Cousins abandoned his car near a booze bus and escaped police by sprinting away and then wading in a nearby river.

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McGuire criticises drug policy
March 21, 2007 - 5:49PM

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has criticised the AFL's drug code because it keeps clubs in the dark over whether players have tested positive.

The first or second time a player tests positive to an illicit substance only his club doctor and the AFL's medical officer are informed.

Clubs are only informed if and when their players have tested positive a third time, when the players are publicly named.

Players who test positive three times are sent to the tribunal and face suspensions of up to 12 games.

If players test positive to drugs on a match-day they fall under the World Anti-Doping Agency drug code, which means they face bans of up to two years even if they test positive to so-called recreational drugs.

Asked about the allegations of drug use at West Coast and Ben Cousins' suspension while he deals with his personal issues, McGuire said the current drug code made it difficult for officials to know if they had a problem at their clubs.

"One of the issues I have with the first strike, second strike, third strike rule is I wouldn't know, I couldn't tell you if we had a drug problem at Collingwood," McGuire said on the Nine Network, of which he is the chief executive.

"And I'm the president of the club.

"That frustrates me on a number of reasons.

"I have daily contact and love these blokes more than any other official in the AFL or anywhere else.

"I understand we have to do this to test them out of season, so it's a double-edged sword - if we don't let them have their anonymity then maybe we can't do the testing which is what happens everywhere else.

"We'd like to think there is a balance there."

McGuire wanted to believe Collingwood were drug-free for the sake of the club's supporters, sponsors and future players.

"If I'm recruiting kids who are 17, 18 years of age I want to be able to look their parents in the eye and tell them `We are putting your kid into a culture of a club which will make him a better person'," he said.

McGuire said Cousins' fall from grace was the problem the AFL had to have if it was to help its players.

"This might have had to happen because Ben has been a supreme athlete, a wonderful footballer, and now his world has just fallen apart on him," he said.

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Cousins has a drug problem

March 22, 2007


WEST Coast star Ben Cousins has a drug problem, his father confirmed tonight.

Former Victorian Football League player Bryan Cousins, the father and manager of the suspended Eagles player, said his son's problem related to "substance abuse".

West Coast has suspended Cousins indefinitely so he can deal with personal problems, but it did so without confirming the former club captain had a drug problem.

Bryan Cousins made his admission in a prepared statement read to Channel 10 in Perth tonight.

"I am making this statement today, not on behalf of Ben, but as a father on behalf of his son," Cousins said.

"We are working closely with Ben and I have been with him today, and he has told me in due course he will make his own statement.

"Ben's problem relates to substance abuse, and he faces a great challenge.

"Our family understands that this is a problem faced by so many other Australian families.

"We are also aware that there is no simple answer to the problem, and, in the process of overcoming it, there are going to be obstacles and hurdles, some of which we may stumble at.

"I would also like to say that we have been overwhelmed by the support that has been extended to both Ben and to our family.

"We acknowledge the public scrutiny that comes with the opportunities and priveleges that Ben has had, but I ask now with the issues that Ben faces, that my son be given the privacy and the opportunity that he needs to deal with this problem.

"I particularly ask that of the media.

"Ben, you are not alone with this challenge.

"Your family, your friends, your fans and your footy club want you to overcome this issue and win in the same manner in which you have done throughout your whole career."

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No players on ice? Don't be naive, says top Swan
March 23, 2007 - 6:45AM

Sydney Swans captain Leo Barry says it would be naive to believe no AFL players are using the illegal drug methamphetamine, also known as ice.

"Ice is more of an epidemic right now in society than heroin and a lot of people have come unstuck under its influence," Barry told News Limited newspapers.

Illegal drug use was back on the sport agenda after the West Coast Eagles were forced to admit last week that a small group of their players had problems with drugs and alcohol.

"Hopefully, everything that happened recently highlights the fact it is a responsibility of the clubs to keep educating the players and keep on reinforcing the dangers of illicit drugs," Barry said.

"It not only affects the player personally but also the club and the fans so there's a huge amount of people it can impact."

On Tuesday, the Eagles dropped another bombshell, announcing they had suspended indefinitely star Ben Cousins after he missed two training sessions.

Cousins' family last night announced he's suffering from substance abuse and is reportedly considering treatment at a drug and alcohol clinic in Arizona in the US.

AAP

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