AFL 25: Michael Warner lists the 25 biggest scandals to rock the AFL this century
A game adored by millions, yet footy often seems to find itself engulfed in scandal. Michael Warner lists the 25 biggest shocks and sagas to hit the AFL this century.
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For a game adored by millions, scandals in the AFL are inevitable. Since the turn of the century, dozens of controversies have made their way onto the front pages of the nation’s newspapers. As part of the Herald Sun’s ‘25 series, we list the biggest off-field scandals and sagas to taint the code since 2000.
1. ESSENDON DRUGS SAGA
Footy’s greatest scandal broke on February 5, 2013 when Essendon coach James Hird, president David Evans and chief executive Ian Robson fronted a snap press conference at AFL House in Docklands to “self-report” the club’s use of “exotic substances” during the 2012 season. It was the beginning of a four-year saga that would rip the game to shreds, destroy lifelong friendships and expose the seedy underbelly of the AFL’s justice system. The Bombers were smashed – first by being removed from the 2013 finals under a contentious deal with the AFL – and later in 2015 when 34 of its players were wiped out for doping by the international Court of Arbitration for Sport, forcing the league to strip Jobe Watson of his 2012 Brownlow Medal. The drugs saga took its darkest turn in 2017 when exiled Essendon coach James Hird attempted to take his own life. Essendon has never fully recovered.
2. WAYNE CAREY AFFAIR
Carey was the king of football, leading North Melbourne to premiership glory in 1996 and 1999, before a secret affair with Kelli Stevens, the wife of teammate Anthony Stevens, blew his career and the Kangaroos apart in March 2002. The affair was exposed after the pair were seen together in a toilet during a party at teammate Glenn Archer’s home. Carey quit the Roos at a teary press conference and shifted to play for Adelaide, but his game was never the same. Tensions over the scandal have lingered ever since. When Stevens’ son River was drafted by North last year, Kelli implored the football world to move on from the saga: “The past is where it belongs … behind us.” Carey said in 2022 that the affair had “haunted” him for the past 20 years.
3. WEST COAST ILLICIT DRUGS CRISIS
A culture of rampant illicit drug abuse at the Eagles exploded into public view after the club’s 2006 premiership triumph, headlined by the fall of drug-addled pin-up boy Ben Cousins. A top-secret AFL report into the crisis, later obtained by the Herald Sun, laid bare the toxic nature of the drug-fuelled crisis and the club’s attempts to cover it up. Cocaine, speed, ice, ecstasy, marijuana and prescription drugs were abused by multiple Eagles players from as early as 1998. In an incident during an end-of-season trip to Las Vegas, midfielder Chad Fletcher was strapped to a hospital bed after collapsing and “flat-lining”. Inexplicably, the Eagles were never punished by the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute. The scandal also exposed serious flaws with the game’s so-called three-strikes illicit drugs testing policy.
4. ALISHA HORAN DIES
The football world was rocked in February 2000 by the tragic drug overdose of Geelong barmaid Alisha Horan in room 1265 at Melbourne’s Park Hyatt Hotel. She died from a lethal cocktail of alcohol, ecstasy, amphetamines and heroin after a drug-fuelled bender with Cats great Gary Ablett Sr. Ablett was later convicted and fined for possession and use of heroin and ecstasy. Horan’s family has never forgiven Ablett, who was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame five years later amid furore over whether it was appropriate. Ablett said in 2020: “I can’t tell you how much that shattered me, how much it broke me as a person. It still grieves me to this day.”
5. CARLTON SALARY CAP SCANDAL
Carlton was brought to its knees in 2002 after an AFL investigation found the club guilty of systemic salary cap cheating. Through brazen under-the-table cash payments or elaborate company trust structures, Blues players pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars outside the rules. Carlton was fined almost $1 million and stripped of two seasons of prized draft selections. Then-AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson declared that Carlton “deserved everything they got, and arguably, some more”.
6. MELBOURNE TANKING SAGA
An AFL probe into claims Melbourne had deliberately lost matches in 2009 to secure the first two picks in the national draft was launched in 2012 after ex-Demon Brock McLean blew the whistle on national television. The AFL announced its findings in February 2013, declaring that Melbourne had not “tanked” to lose matches. Instead, the club was fined $500,000 and coach Dean Bailey and footy boss Chris Connolly were suspended for the lesser charge of conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game. The AFL’s then deputy chief, Gillon McLachlan, who led the probe, famously declared: “I actually don’t know what the definition of tanking is.” But in 2019, the Herald Sun published 80 pages of secret AFL integrity unit transcripts, exposing how multiple club officials had indeed confessed to a conspiracy to lose matches, including a stunning confession from Bailey. “What was said to me was, if I win games I would get sacked,” he said. “I was threatened … it was a terrible thing.”
7. HAWTHORN RACISM REPORT
Shocking claims a young Indigenous Hawks player and his partner were pressured by club officials to terminate a pregnancy amid a subculture of racism at Hawthorn during the club’s golden premiership era of 2008-15 were first aired by the ABC in grand final week 2022, triggering an eight-month AFL investigation. But the probe fizzled out with league boss Gillon McLachlan revealing at a snap press conference in May 2023 that the league had struck a deal with lawyers for the Indigenous players in which “no adverse findings have been made against any of the individuals against whom allegations have been made”. The dispute was later settled out of court.
8. EDDIE MCGUIRE’S KING KONG GAFFE
Praised for his immediate response after Adam Goodes was called an “ape” by a 13-year-old girl at a match between Sydney and Collingwood in 2013, McGuire’s goodwill faded just days later after a shocking gaffe on Triple M radio. While live on air, McGuire suggested the Swans legend be used to promote the King Kong musical. Goodes, who would go on to win Australian of the Year in 2014, was devastated, while the Swans demanded action from the AFL. McGuire apologised and conceded he “was on heavy-duty painkillers” when he made the comments, but was not punished by the league. The gaffe was a part of a chain of events that culminated in the booing of Goodes by crowds across the country. The dual Brownlow-medallist never fully engaged with the game he dominated post his 2015 retirement.
9. “DO BETTER”
Collingwood’s decision during the 2020 season to commission a report into historic allegations of racism at the club blew up spectacularly in its face. The club initially kept the “Do Better” report (which found there had been a culture of “systemic racism” at the Pies) under wraps before it was leaked to the Herald Sun in February 2021. At a hastily convened press conference, McGuire claimed it was an “historic and proud day”. But he resigned days later amid a firestorm in an emotional end to his 22-year reign at the helm of the game’s biggest club.
10. CROWS PRE-SEASON CAMP
Adelaide’s devastating loss to Richmond in the 2017 grand final was the driver behind a toxic pre-season camp held by the club in Queensland in January 2018 where players were subjected to extreme physical, mental and alleged cultural abuse. Claims of what transpired including players being blindfolded, tied to trees and subjected to personal taunts triggered an AFL integrity unit investigation. The Crows were ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, but a series of participants – including champion Eddie Betts and Josh Jenkins – have since confirmed the trauma some in the group suffered. The Crows have not made finals since.
11. AFL EXECUTIVE RESIGNATIONS
In July 2017, two married AFL executives – Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss – were forced out of head office for “inappropriate” sexual relationships with younger female staffers. “They are separate matters and distressing to a number of people,” McLachlan said at a press conference at AFL House. League chairman Richard Goyder later said: “I often say to people, has a problem ever sorted itself out by sweeping it under the carpet? They don’t.
“If we hadn’t made that decision, the ongoing (media coverage) … can you imagine? Clearly the two guys and the AFL made the right decision, otherwise it would be a bleeding sore. It was just the right thing to do.” Lethlean and Simkiss both apologised for their conduct.
12. CROWS SALARY CAP RORTS
In December 2012, a salary cap cheating scandal erupted at Adelaide, surrounding secret agreements struck between Crows chiefs and star forward Kurt Tippett, which had not been disclosed in copies of contracts submitted to the AFL. Crows chief executive Steven Trigg was fined $50,000 and suspended for six months while Adelaide was fined $300,000 and lost selections across two national drafts. Tippett was also fined and banned for 11 matches.
13. LACHIE WHITFIELD SAGA
Expansion club GWS Giants was fined and stripped of draft points in 2016 after it was claimed club officials had helped rising star Lachie Whitfield hide from testers after using illicit drugs. The bombshell story was leaked in August 2016 just days after veteran administrator Graeme “Gubby” Allan was parachuted into the top job in Collingwood’s football department over the demoted Neil Balme. Allan, Whitfield and Craig Lambert all accepted sanctions for conduct prejudicial to the AFL.
14. ST KILDA SCHOOLGIRL
A group of St Kilda players were humiliated in 2010 when a teenager, dubbed the “St Kilda schoolgirl”, released a series of explicit photos of them on the internet. She was ordered by the Federal Court to stop publishing the images before top player manager Ricky Nixon was sensationally stripped of his agent accreditation after admitting to “inappropriate dealings” with the girl.
15. TALIA BROTHERS LEAKING CASE
Claims the 2015 elimination final at the MCG between Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs was compromised by the leaking “game sensitive” information triggered a 63-day AFL integrity unit investigation. The case surrounded allegations disaffected Dogs defender Michael Talia had leaked parts of the game plan to his brother, star Crows defender Daniel Talia, in the days before the match. Talia and the Crows were ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, but secret documents later exposed the Dogs’ fury at the league’s handling of the probe and its exoneration of the brothers.
16. ROOF-TILER RORT
Greater Western Sydney was sensationally caught out in 2011 after the Herald Sun revealed the club had secretly employed the roof-tiler father of star recruit Tom Scully on a six-year contract worth $680,000 to help lure his son away from the Melbourne Football Club.
The Giants were forced to include Phil Scully’s wages in its salary cap after the AFL found that his hiring as a recruiter was directly related to Tom’s decision to quit the Demons after just two seasons. Tom said his father’s offer only came after he’d already agreed to play for GWS.
17. DEMONS IN HELL
Melbourne’s glorious 2021 premiership was soon overshadowed by allegations of cultural and illicit drug issues. The Dees went to war with former president Glen Bartlett, who had been forced out abruptly in April 2021. The crisis escalated in 2024 when a former club doctor sensationally admitted to conducting “off the books” illicit drug tests – authorised by the AFL – to help players evade detection on match days, before Demons utility Joel Smith was charged and later suspended for almost five years for cocaine trafficking. The Bartlett dispute was settled out of court.
18. THE RAT PACK
Despite their on-field feats, a series of off-field incidents involving Collingwood players led to the coining of the infamous “Rat Pack” moniker. The group’s core members included Alan Didak, Heath Shaw, Dane Swan and Ben Johnson. The most serious incident came in 2007 when Didak was found to have been a passenger in a car with Hells Angels bikie Christopher Wayne Hudson just days before Hudson went on a shooting rampage through Melbourne’s CBD killing one person. Didak and Shaw were together the next year when Shaw crashed his ute into two parked cars while nearly three times over the legal limit. The pair initially lied to the club about Didak’s involvement before backflipping. “Didak will be accused of the Kennedy shooting next,” McGuire famously declared before it was confirmed he had indeed been a passenger in the car.
19. LUKE’S LEWD IMAGE
Just this year Carlton was forced into damage control after a “dick pic” was posted on president Luke Sayers’ social media account tagging a high-ranking female executive at Bupa, one of Carlton’s major sponsors. After two weeks of silence, the AFL announced it had investigated the incident, clearing Sayers of breaching league rules, saying his X account had been compromised. But Sayers quit anyway “to continue to prioritise time with his family”. It remains unclear who gained access to Sayers’ account and why, but the former PwC boss has continually protested his innocence: “I did not post the image, either deliberately or accidentally.”
20. SUN BURN
An explosive Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission investigation in 2014 lifted the lid on widespread illicit drug abuse at the Gold Coast Suns. Star code-hopper Karmichael Hunt had confessed to police how he would party for days without sleep and hide cocaine in his golf bag. A dozen Suns players were implicated. In 2015, Suns star Harley Bennell was at centre of another major drug furore after photos emerged of him in a Tasmanian hotel with white lines of powder.
21. FALL OF BRENDAN FEVOLA
Champion Carlton forward Brendan Fevola disgraced himself at the 2009 Brownlow Medal count at Crown casino after becoming heavily intoxicated. His antics included giving Chris Judd a “pressure-point” hold, knocking a beer out of Adam Cooney’s hand and kissing Ryan O’Keefe. It was the end of the road for Fevola at the Blues, and he moved to Brisbane where his AFL career fizzled out. Fevola battled demons with gambling and drinking, but escaped penalty in 2010 after taking a nude photo of model Lara Bingle in the shower. He’s since rehabilitated his life and is a co-host of a popular FM breakfast radio show.
22. UMPIRE BET INVESTIGATION
The AFL was rocked in November 2022 when the home of AFL umpire Michael Pell was raided by Victoria Police over allegations he was part of a Brownlow Medal betting syndicate. The bombshell probe centred on bets related to alleged Brownlow voting leaks from games where he officiated. Pell was stood down by the AFL and hasn’t umpired an official game since. But more than two years later, it’s still unclear whether charges will be laid.
23. JAIDYN STEPHENSON BETS BAN
Collingwood young gun Jaidyn Stephenson was slapped with the heaviest gambling sanction in the game’s history in 2019 after admitting to placing $36 worth of bets on three Magpies matches in which he was involved. Stephenson was suspended for 10 matches, fined $20,000 by the AFL and gave up $50,000 in match payments.
24. PIES DRUG SHOCK
Collingwood teammates Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas were wiped out for two years after testing positive to banned muscle-boosting drug clenbuterol in 2015. The duo had been partying at the St Kilda Festival where they had taken cocaine laced with the substance. In 2018, promising Pies youngster Sam Murray tested positive for cocaine on match day after taking the drug midweek. He copped an 18-month ban and never played again for the club.
25. CARO DROWNING JIBE
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire issued an “unreserved apology” in June 2016 after joking live on Triple M radio about drowning female football journalist Caroline Wilson.
“I reckon we should start a campaign for a one-person slide next year,” McGuire said of the Big Freeze event at the MCG, where celebrities plunge into ice to raise money for motor neurone disease. “Caroline Wilson, I’ll put in the $10,000 straight away, make it $20,000, and if she stays under, $50,000.” Fellow broadcasters Danny Frawley and James Brayshaw also apologised for comments made during the exchange.
Originally published as AFL 25: Michael Warner lists the 25 biggest scandals to rock the AFL this century
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