Ex-AFL player Rhys Mathieson breaks silence after three-year drug ban
A former AFL player has spoken out on the social media post that made him a wanted man and led to a three-year ban from the game.
Rhys Mathieson has spoken out after he was slapped with a three-year ban from playing football after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.
The former Brisbane Lions player returned a positive test last year playing for Wilston Grange in the QAFL with reports stating he had tested positive to banned anabolic steroid oxymetholone.
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The 28-year-old did not play football this year because he had been provisionally suspended — now he has been banned until August 10, 2027, but can begin training in June 2027.
After news of his ban surfaced on Wednesday, Mathieson lifted the lid on exactly what unfolded in the latest episode of his podcast Rip Through It.
“Before we get started I don’t want this to be a feel sorry for me or I’m a victim in this. I take full responsibility for what happened,” Mathieson says.
“This is why I’d like to tell the story because some things just didn’t add up, but at the same time I fully agree with whatever we went through but some bizarre events happened.”
The 72-game former Lions midfielder says after hanging up the boots he pursued his bodybuilding dream and wanted to transform his body.
“When the trades didn’t go through, I thought ‘Look I am going to follow my passion, the dream is sort of over for footy now. So I’m going to follow my next passion which was bodybuilding’,” Mathieson says.
“So when I stepped into that world I had a lot of friends who were already in there and some mates who were quite big or whatever.
“I dived into a lot of gym supplements, I mean a lot – a lot of them. And some you would just buy off the shelves or whatever and some of the boys had their own and I was willing to, you know, put anything, sort of, in my body to transform.
“I liked the science behind transforming your body. I really have a passion for it, I like to see these guys competing.
“Once I started doing it I fell in love with it.
“I fell in love with the timings of meals and supplements and vitamins and pre workouts and all these proteins. All this stuff that I wasn’t allowed to have in AFL.
“I thought I am going to have a crazy pre-workout now and all this stuff and I am aware it is banned.
“But at the same point I am only getting ready for local footy. These guys (I’m playing against), you know, they drink beers before the game, they go out the night before the game.
“I am going to take whatever pre-workout. I am going to take whatever substance I want. I am going to be OK.”
After signing with Wilson Grange, Mathieson says he underwent medicals and had blood tests done with co-host and fellow former AFL player Mitch Robinson saying everything looked sweet aside from some “small traces”.
“If anything it was the pre-workout and everything like that you know,” Mathieson says.
“All these local footy players I see them using pre-workout on game day to fire them up and whatever, but they never get tested.
“I got my bloods tested full well knowing what I had put in my body, I want to be right to play. I’ve been in the system, I know what’s banned and I know if I’m going to be in trouble here.
“I wasn’t shying away from that, but what I was doing was taking measures to make sure that I was able to play in a fair state.
“Which I thought I was (but it) turns out I wasn’t, judging off their tests.”
Mathieson says a photo posted by the AFL in April 2024 showing off his body transformation is what really got the ball rolling.
“I remember this day vividly, we were at the cafe underneath our apartment and the AFL posted a throwback of your transformation,” Robinson says.
Mathieson added: “That’s what made it go bananas.”
The former Lions midfielder says he got tested on August 10th, a week after testers knocked on his parents’ door. He says he didn’t find out the results of the tests for four months.
“If I thought I would get done, I just wouldn’t have played,” he said.
“The door knock made me get my bloods done just to make sure. Doctor said there was ‘nothing out of the ordinary here, looks fine to me’.
“Got them done, thought I’m safe to play this week. I know they’re going to test me but I’m going to be okay.
“Rock up to the game and who do I see for a random test … ASADA. No other players got tested, just me.”
Robinson added: “It was as targeted as it gets mate.”
Mathieson played out the remainder of the 2024 season with no communication from ASADA regarding his test results until long after the season had come to an end.
“It wasn’t until November, I was in New Zealand on a holiday and I got a phone call telling me I had tested positive to an illegal substance on game day,” he said.
“What followed was another door knock.
“My girlfriend called me saying there were people pounding the door down and I was like ‘what do you want me to do, I’m in New Zealand?’. Turns out it was ASADA.”
Robinson says despite the repeated knocks on the door, the men wouldn’t say who they were or why they were there.
“What they wanted was my phone. If I didn’t hand it over you’re facing a fine or potential jail time,” Mathieson says.
“So I handed my phone over, I’m in a four-hour meeting with them. I was asking them questions about where my phone was going and who was going to be looking at it.
“I didn’t get any answers to it. They took my phone away and downloaded everything off it and then gave it back to me at the gym.
“We then had another meeting to review what had been on my phone and I had to tell them what I see. I was honest through it.”
Mathieson says he requested his B sample to be tested with the results coming back a week later showing the same results as the A sample.
“To me I’m thinking ‘why did the first one take four months and you let me play a full season but the second one I can get results within a week?’,” he said.
“I just couldn’t work it out. I thought I’d be waiting another four months. Week later result is in and I thought ‘mmm that’s a bit fishy’.”
Mathieson had been training as a bodybuilder since finishing his AFL career and had been documenting his journey on social media, adding more than 10kg of muscle to his frame.
He came under the AFL’s anti-doping code in 2024 because he tested positive to a performance-enhancing substances within 12 months of retiring from the AFL.
He avoided a maximum four-year ban with his suspension reduced to three years as Mathieson admitted to intentionally using the substance for non-football reasons.
His ban ends on August 10, 2027 but he can return to training in June 2027.
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