Sharp reminder drugs can lead to slippery slope on which dreams are crushed

BEN SHARP would be a great guest speaker for any rugby league club this winter but sadly he can’t make it — he’s doing nine years for armed robbery, ROBERT CRADDOCK reports.

BEN SHARP would be a great guest speaker for any rugby league club this winter but sadly he can’t make it — he’s doing nine years for armed robbery.

In 2004, a teenage Sharp left Melbourne for AFL club the West Coast Eagles looking like the ambitious, baby-faced, innocent he was.

But in his first months at the club he claimed in court he was urged by a group of senior players to join the Eagles’ cocaine culture and every grand dream he ever had disappeared up his nose.

Three years ago, Sharp and his younger brother used a sawn-off shotgun and a pistol during a robbery of a van driver who had $290,000 in takings from three McDonald’s restaurants in Melbourne.

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Sharp was trying to feed his $200-a-day addiction that started with cocaine and expanded with other drugs such as ice. A couple of months ago, Sharp was sentenced to nine years’ jail, his fall from junior star to jailbird a sad reminder of the perils of cocaine addiction.

Cocaine stories have been everywhere in rugby league in recent days after Roosters back Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Sharks chief executive Damian Keogh were charged with possessing the drug and New Zealand captain Jesse Bromwich and Kevin Proctor were alleged to consume it after meeting a man in Canberra’s city centre after Friday’s Test match against Australia.

Jesse Bromwich in action for New Zealand on Friday night.

“It’s only cocaine. It’s everywhere,’’ has been a phrase uttered frequently around the rugby league scene over the weekend but the game simply cannot tolerate such dismissive rubbish.

No doubt Sharp heard the same words when he was starting his tortured journey.

For rugby league, the road ahead is a minefield. The game is on trial here as much as the players.

The Titans on Sunday indicated they would complain about the lack of supervision of representative players. Seriously? Proctor is 28, not 18.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg sounded furious on the weekend, with his showcase representative weekend hijacked by the dramas. So he should be.

Sad ironies were everywhere. Keogh is chief executive of the club that was stalked by drug allegations for three years. He cleaned up the place. And now this.

Proctor came to the Gold Coast Titans partially because they were cutting ties with Greg Bird after a potholer journey which included cocaine charges that were eventually thrown out of court.

Kevin Proctor has stood down as Titans co-captain. File photo

The recklessness of some modern sportspeople with regard to all matters concerning drugs is astounding — and that does not even mean taking them.

The other drug story over the weekend was Olympic swimmers Madeline Groves, Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Jarrod Poort facing major suspensions for missing three drug tests in the one year.

Former athletes like John Steffensen say it is not that hard. Just set an alarm in your phone for drug-testing day and make sure you get there.

Three chances is enough for anyone. Fraser-Holmes claims that he was late arriving for the test because of dinner at his mother’s house so he has put his entire swimming future at risk rather than sneak away early.

She must make a great pavlova.