Sacked podcast: Brock McLean defends AFL’s two strike drug policy
Brock McLean was target-tested by the AFL after his own positive drug test. Having experienced mental health and drug abuse issues throughout his career, the former Blue has defended the AFL’s drug policy. LISTEN NOW
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AFL star Brock McLean has revealed he spent his career binging on drugs and alcohol while battling mental health issues only revealed as bipolar disorder last March.
The 157-game Melbourne and Carlton midfielder said he only recorded a single positive illicit drugs test in 11 seasons despite regular weekend binges that finished hours before he returned to Monday morning training.
McLean finally began working with a psychologist in 2017 but after a suicide attempt spent three days in intensive care in St Vincent’s Hospital.
The former No.5 draft selection, 34, has finally begun taking the correct medication for his bipolar disorder and has sworn off alcohol since last August.
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He told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast he repeatedly abused cocaine, ecstasy and speed during his career, often in 48-hour drug binges without the knowledge of his teammates or club.
But he is finally winning his mental health battle after three years of therapy for issues he says date back to his late teens.
Revealing an extraordinary double life for the first time, McLean said as his mental health spiralled he found escape in alcohol and drugs then attempted to chase that relief again and again.
“I got to the point where I was self-medicating. I wasn’t an alcoholic. But I was an alcohol abuser and I was a drug abuser. Looking back now, how did something even worse not happen? It was mostly cocaine and ecstasy, those were my two vices. It was a way of self-medicating because one point in my life that actually worked.
“I would go on three or four day benders. (It got) to the point where if we played Friday night I would go out Friday night and go through until 3am or 4am Monday morning and then have three or four hours sleep and then go into the club on Monday morning and try to train or fit in as I normally could. I had so much practice I was pretty good at it.”
McLean says despite criticism of the AFL’s two-strikes illicit drug code as ineffective he believes it attempts to help players with mental health issues like his own.
He knows there will be critics of the AFL’s two-strike illicit drugs policy but believes many players who abuse drugs are doing so to escape mental health issues.
McLean was target-tested by AFL officials - meaning regular drug tests after that drugs strike and positive hair tests that detected drug use over off-season periods.
He believes the cocaine flushed through his system in less than a day, allowing him to escape detection.
“I hear comments saying it’s sad to see the players are hiding behind the mental health issue,” he said.
“I can only speak for myself. I had a massive mental health issue and that’s why I chose to use drugs and alcohol to deal with that. I can understand where they are coming from in saying we need to be harder.
“(Two) strikes gives people freedom to move but talking from my own experience, it's in place or a good reason to try to help players address their mental health issues and address why they are using drugs. It's not as simple as saying one strike and you are out.”
In his early years at second club Carlton as he attempted to rejuvenate a stuttering career he tried to lose weight to help his running ability but dropping from a playing of weight of 85kg to 83kg saw him develop that eating order.
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“My diet was so regimented, stripping fat off meat and making sure I weighed food,” he said.
“It got to the point where I needed junk food or a binge so like alcohol I would go on a food binge and eat shit. I would eat my dinner and say, “I feel like something naughty”, and go out and get some chocolate, then I would be, “Fuck, you can’t do that, you are going to put on weight.”
“I would think if I put on weight the coaches are going to see it and not play me so that’s when I started to make myself throw up.”
Originally published as Sacked podcast: Brock McLean defends AFL’s two strike drug policy
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