Mumford's hell: the story behind infamous snorting video

Years before it went viral, the video that would cause Shane Mumford untold grief was first put into circulation via a private WhatsApp group.

A close friend of Mumford's had allowed the footage – which showed the powerful ruckman snorting a sizeable white line with gusto – to be shared among a group.

That mate would be horrified – "as low as shark shit'' in Mumford's telling – when the video exploded on the internet in late October of last year, triggering deep embarrassment and a two-match ban, although the Giants pressed ahead with their plan to resurrect the Mummy's on-field career.

The footage had been taken, via a mobile phone, in 2015 in Melbourne after Mumford suffered a foot injury against Collingwood that ended his season. Mumford was at a friend's home.

As he would tell the Giants and then the AFL's integrity unit in a filmed formal interview, there were no other footballers present among those who surrounded him in a dark room, chanting the nickname "Sausage'' as he approached the powder.

Shane Mumford at home with his wife Eva and their children Theo (left) and Ollie.Credit: James Alcock

"As far as I knew, the video was gone and dead,'' Mumford told The Age in his only media interview since the incident. "It was obviously from that long ago.

"It was after I was done for the year in '15 ... I couldn't tell exactly when it was.''

Mumford had been preparing for his comeback, having spent 2018 working as Greater Western Sydney's ruck coach and in commercial operations at the club, when the footage surfaced via social media.

He'd taken up boxing in his injury-forced retirement, at the instigation of ex-AFL agent Ricky Nixon, winning a pair of bouts by knock-out in the third and sixth round. His banged-up body was well rested as he vacationed in Bali.

Then, the captured past caught up with him.

"I got a phone call from the footy club, saying they'd received this video from elsewhere and yeah ...'' Mumford sighed.

The video wasn't yet viral when the Giants told Mumford about it. "It wasn't quite at that point, and that was when I started to feel sick. The next few days were pretty rough, to say the least.

Shane Mumford with teammate Callan Ward back in 2016.Credit: Jeffrey Chan

"And then the next few days were horrible. Like the hell, I put my family and everyone through hell. Like there's nothing I can do to make it up to them. Relatives, parents – like my parents have copped so much grief. My wife (Eva) – to have to go through that.''

Mumford's brown eyes gently moisten when he speaks of the impact on his family. Most hurtful was that his sons, two-year-old Ollie and nine-month old Theo, would eventually see the fateful footage.

"But for me the worst thing is my boys obviously are going to see that at some point. No matter what, they Google my name, there's that ... what can I ever do to, to make that (right)?''

The media congregated outside his Sydney home, while his dog barked. His father Glenn – to whom Mumford spoke most days – "tore shreds off me, big time''. Glenn Mumford gave Shane "the silent treatment" for a time.

"He's a big, big strong man that you know when you've upset him. We're all good again now.''

Post-video, many speculated that the Giants would abandon their plans to bring Mumford, 32, out of retirement, given the brand damage. But the club's high opinion of the wholehearted Bunyip boy and ex-Sydney premiership ruckman – and his candour – saw them stay the course.

Mumford said he didn't know what the club would do until he spoke to chief executive Dave Matthews and his lieutenant James Avery (head of football Wayne Campbell was away on leave).

"I was very upfront with everything. I told them exactly what happened – where it was, when it was.

"It was at a mate's house down in Melbourne, like I said, after I'd been injured. Season was done – which is no excuse for what I've done, shocking thing.''

Shane Mumford with his wife Eva and their children Theo (left) and Ollie (right).Credit: James Alcock

He felt the candour counted in his favour with the club. "It definitely helps – when you've got nothing to hide. I come out and put everything on the line from the word go. Gave them every detail I could.''

One detail was the nature of the substance, immediately presumed to be cocaine. I put to Mumford that the powder he snorted was widely assumed to be one particular substance. He wouldn't confirm this 100 per cent. "It's assumed, but I've heard it could be different, so um, yeah.''

He smiled. "It was snuff, like Wattsy (Jack Watts, ). I can't say that, can I?'' Watts was phone-filmed snorting what Port Adelaide have accepted was a mix of menthol, sugar and glucose, off a woman's chest in Germany.

Mumford said he did not know how the substance was obtained. "I didn't know where it had come from. For me, it was all easy – easy answers, straightforward.''

Shane Mumford two years ago.Credit: AFL Media/Getty Images

That the footage showed Mumford snorting a large line raised the issue of his experience with drugs. It was a question he'd anticipated.

"Yeah, I thought you might ask this. I had a pretty colourful life before football. I was – yeah, I've had a very, very colourful life pre-football. If anything, football settled me down to the nth degree.

"Yeah, I've lived a lot before football, considering I wasn't drafted until I was 21. So I've seen a few things over my time.''

Had there been a drug problem? "No, there's definitely no problem. There wasn't a problem then and there's definitely not a problem now.''

Mumford confirmed that the Giants had asked the same question. "Is this a constant thing? The answer is no.''

The ruckman didn't know how the video spread, but he had been aware that he was being filmed at the time. "The start of the video, you can see me saying 'stop, stop, stop'. Yeah, but once I saw it had been sent in a group, I lost my shit, at the person that sent it ... originally.

"I'm actually very good mates with the guy, which makes it even worse. He, like the whole time, he's been really good. He feels as low as shark shit. He wanted to put us up in a hotel for the first few nights, after it happened, to get us away from the media. He just wanted us to do anything he could to help.''

Mumford was curious that the video had only surfaced when he was about to be drafted. "I find it very funny how it surfaces when I'm coming back. As far I knew ... I thought everyone had deleted it.''

Flashback: Shane Mumford celebrates booting a goal for the Swans.Credit: Brendan Esposito

If the fallout for family was the source of most anxiety, Mumford also feared repercussions for the Giants with sponsors. "That was one of the questions I asked Dave through the whole process: 'Have I hurt the club in any way?'

"I think they were so good with being on the front foot and contacting everyone, it worked out OK, because yeah, it's bad enough that I've tainted myself and my brand.''

Matthews was quick to soothe the sponsors, many of whom had dealt with Mumford in his commercial role and held a positive view of his character.

"I think he was as angry with himself as we were with him,'' said Matthews. "It was a fairly one-sided meeting cause everyone was into Shane, including himself.''

The club's view was that it would have been more complicated had Mumford been a member of the coaching panel who has a duty of care for players, rather than a player, even if neither situation was ideal.

Mumford said he'd receive a drug strike under the illicit drugs code, in spite of technically not being a player when the video surfaced. "Years ago and who knows what it was. But yeah I got the strike.''

The expected consequence would be drug and alcohol education, rather than drug rehabilitation.

"I guess you get target-tested. So I'll more than likely be tested more than other players this year, (and) you'll get your random tests.

"I don't know whether it's going to be counselling. It's more education, drug and alcohol education around making better decisions.''

Mumford, in any case, has been seeing a club psychologist to deal with the trauma. "I guess to talk through everything, find ways of, I guess, dealing with it all. The embarrassment.''

So, with the fierce support of the Giants, Mumford is preparing to return, putting his boxing career on hold. Still sparring, he reckoned boxing had helped his recovery from the navicular bone injury that forced him to retire in 2017.

The footy comeback gathered momentum during the 2018 season after Mumford "embarrassed a couple of the boys'' at ruck training when they were tired. "There'd be a bit of talk about from the coaches. I was half thinking about it.''

He has a 12-month contract to play, with a contract for a further two years as ruck coach/ambassador. "I'd like to play a couple of years, but in the end, it's whether my body holds up to it. At the moment I feel great.

"The foot hasn't worried me at all this whole pre-season, touch wood. No pain, no nothing.''

Mumford's physique remains imposing. At 107 kilograms, there's no sign of that country footballer flab he carried when he joined Geelong more than a decade ago as a 21-year-old.

Footy had "definitely" straightened out the younger man who'd led a "colourful'' life. "This is before I've had kids. I'm a completely changed man. I'm all about my family now.''

He felt that drugs were more prevalent outside of AFL football than within. "I'm sure if you hair-tested Joe Blow, picked 20 people off the street, the tests results would be a hell of a lot higher than they are in the AFL.''

Yet if he will be tested often in the course of 2019, the tests that will count most for a chastened Shane Mumford will be on the field.

"I've got to be lucky. I've had some bad. Some good luck for the next 12 months would be really nice.''