Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas says recreational drug use among players was ‘rife’ while he was at the club

Grant Thomas says recreational drug use was ‘rife’ during his time in charge at the Saints. Today, former star Nick Dal Santo responded to his former coach’s claim.

Former St Kilda star Nick Dal Santo is upset he’s been “painted with the brush” after former coach Grant Thomas said recreational drug use was rife among the playing group during his time at the Saints.

Thomas lit the fuse when, speaking on his podcast Sam, Mike and Thommo, the 60-year-old revealed he initially suspected only a few players were using recreational drugs.

However, following his sacking in 2006, Thomas said he had been told the number of players was considerably higher.

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“I would’ve had suspicion maybe one or maybe two (players). But you know what, the worst thing, no more than a week or so after I finished one of the players, we were having a catch up and he told me what had actually been going on, which basically devastated me,” Thomas said.

“He said that it (recreational drug use) was rife — a lot of them.

“Some of the players that were mentioned could’ve dropped me.”

Lenny Hayes, coach Grant Thomas and Nick Dal Santo at St Kilda training in 2006.

Dal Santo, who was drafted in 2001 and played 260 matches for the Saints before finishing his career at North Melbourne, said he was disappointed by Thomas’s claims.

“I would initially think people would look at me and think, ‘he’s a pretty straight sort of guy’,” Dal Santo said.

“I will say I’m extremely disappointed that I’m going to get painted with the brush of possibly being one of those drug takers that you wouldn’t have thought did it.

“I would be shocked if it was “rife” with that playing group. I’m not calling Grant a liar, because if that’s the story he’s been told he has every right to tell it.

“But I look through some of the guys I grew up with since I was 17 and I’m still really close with a big group of them, to say it was rife with that particular group of players, would shock me.”

Shock horror. Dal’s just protecting his teammates and more importantly his brand in the media. That’s ok. He knows the truth. https://t.co/hjViPqyfdm

— Grant Thomas (@Thomo_Grant) February 20, 2019

Speaking on SEN, Dal Santo said he didn’t witness drug use during his career at the Saints.

“I didn’t see it. Yes, we drank ... but I didn’t see drugs. It wasn’t part of our culture with that particular playing group,” he said.

“It would be naive of me to say no one at St Kilda was doing it, but rife makes me think it’s the majority, that’s 20 to 25 players, I can’t see that.

“It’s annoying and frustrating and there’s no need for it to be brought up.”

Thomas coached St Kilda for 123 games and finished with a record of 63-59-1.

He took the club to finals three years in a row between 2004 and 2006 before being sacked after an elimination final loss to Melbourne.

Grant Thomas was sacked by the Saints in 2006.

Thomas went into further detail about the alleged recreational drug use at St Kilda on SEN this morning.

“I had no idea and I prided myself … on how close I was and personal with every single one of the players on the list and you could’ve blown me over with a feather when I found out.

“I thought I knew them but I didn’t know them that well obviously.

“I didn’t know it was sort of just like, ‘What’s the big deal? It happens everywhere’.

“That was in 2006.

“I suppose what the guys do these days is they have some (cocaine) and it’s well accepted amongst the playing group, but it’s a bit startling to people like myself.”

While he hasn’t held a senior coaching role since exiting the Saints, Thomas said he believes the issue of recreational drug use in the AFL would be even worse now than in 2006.

“It would have to be (worse), I would suggest,” he said.

“I’d be amazingly surprised if people have pulled their head in. You hear regularly about different rumours about different players.

“I just find it really disturbing and a great concern and I don’t know that enough is being done about it.”