Dr Peter Harcourt’s revelations the AFL retired players due to drug use has cast a shadow over AFL footballers past and present

THE revelations the AFL “retired” players due to drug use has impugned every footballer who has retired or missed a chunk of footy in the past seven years.

DID you play the game yesterday?

You know, trying to guess the names of the players who were drug addicts and who were “retired’’ by the AFL.

Or what about the names of the players who were temporarily withdrawn from competition because they were struggling with their drug activities?

Were they at your club? Who has missed games? What have you heard?

It’s an unfortunate game, but a game nonetheless — and remarkably a game kicked off by the AFL.

Drug use is a serious matter and clearly there are mental health issues with a some players.

But the AFL’s best endeavours in dealing with illicit drug use, as outlined by Dr Peter Harcourt at a Zurich anti-doping lecture, has impugned every player who has retired in the past seven years and every player who has missed a chunk of footy in the same period.

Harcourt let go with all barrels in Zurich, with the apparent imprimatur of former chief executive Andrew Demetriou.

That he says he didn’t know it was being filmed is beside the point.

Harcourt spoke of sending specimen samples of Essendon players to Germany in 2012, of having ‘’wind’’ of issues at Essendon in 2012, which has angered the Bombers, and in a wide-ranging offering, Harcourt explained how the AFL had dealt with players with illicit drug issues.

Harcourt is a good, caring man. He believes in the protection of the game and the protection of the players and is wholly respected by everyone in the football industry.

But his address in Zurich was too candid, to the point of seriously breaching protocol.

The AFL process is already under Federal Court scrutiny and now, before the ASADA-AFL investigation is completed, Harcourt levelled a series of accusations at Essendon.

It raised more questions in a saga with too few answers being given. Specifically, if the AFL is so determined to prioritise the health and wellbeing of the players, why didn’t it raise concerns with the Bombers at the time samples were sent to Germany?

Clearly, it was about catching them at that time, and even after the samples returned negative, should the AFL have then spoken to Essendon about their initial suspicions?

It’s a messy affair.

The AFL ended up hating the so-called ‘’blackest day’’ in Australian sport in February 2013 because it impugned ‘’just about every athlete in the country’’.

Today, the AFL should be hating itself for doing exactly the same thing to every retiree and every player who missed a substantial period of the game in recent times.

In 2012, Lance Franklin, then playing for Hawthorn, missed six games of football with a hamstring injury. He was subjected to fierce rumour and innuendo about drug use. He denied it, the AFL denied it. But the rumours were rampant. So much so, Franklin even addressed them at a press conference.

Now tongues are wagging again.

You could go on. Think of any player who has missed some footy.

Let me be clear. I’m not suggesting Buddy was temporarily withdrawn by the AFL; I’m saying that every players who has missed games is now subject to this type of innuendo.

They shouldn’t be. All players should be filthy.

The Herald Sun is aware of one player who, so besieged by drug use, approached his coach and club and admitted he needed help.

The club worked with him, so did the AFL Players Association. And he remains on an AFL list.

Unlike the naming of the Essendon players in the Herald Sun, who were named in ASADA’s interim report, which the AFL used to deliver penalties to the Bombers, the Herald Sun chose not to report on the said player.

He has a health battle on his hands.

The Essendon players may have one. They certainly aren’t dealing with addiction.

The longer this whole sorry affair continues, the more the game and the players are hurt.

The Essendon governance was poor and they were punished. The AFL’s processes have been noted and criticised. And the Federal Court is playing umpire.

Indeed, it’s a horrible game being played out on so many fronts.

Originally published as Dr Peter Harcourt’s revelations the AFL retired players due to drug use has cast a shadow over AFL footballers past and present