Bailey Smith cocaine comment highlights AFL’s drug problem

Bailey Smith’s social media post about cocaine hightlights the AFL’s problem of managing the inevitable social drug use of its players.

Not sure about you, but I couldn’t care less if Geelong star Bailey Smith gets on the nose beers, nose nachos, or even the nose Negronis in his spare time.

It’s his career, his bank balance, his septum to destroy.

Smith has been defended by the AFL Players Association, despite a previous scandal involving illicit drugs. Picture: Alison Wynd

Yet Smith is either too arrogant or too dumb to understand the implications of announcing his apparent fondness for nose beers – a slang term for sniffing cocaine – to his 372,000 Instagram followers as he did after Geelong’s victory against his former club, Western Bulldogs.

Asked by a fan if he was going to get on the “nose beers”, Smith replied: “Na bro, after the flag maybe tho (sic).”

How silly can you get? Hold my beer and tightly rolled $20 note, said the AFL Players Association.

“If he had his time over again, he wouldn’t do it,” chief executive Paul Marsh remarked. “But I don’t think we want to take him down as someone who is showing a bit of personality at a time when it’s getting more difficult to show personality because of the criticism that flows when they do.”

I’m not entirely sure talking about getting on the Charlie on social media is the personality trait you want to see from a professional footballer, especially one in line to win the Brownlow Medal this year.

I’m also not entirely sure Smith’s teammates will be thrilled about him showing his personality when drug testers descend like a SWAT team on Mad Monday celebrations at the end of the year.

Smith’s faux pas evoked memories of previous incidents in which high-profile athletes and their associates have foolishly allowed images or videos to be circulated on social media of themselves either using, or being in the vicinity of, a mysterious white powder neatly arranged in lines.

Let’s start with the man himself. In 2022, when he was still at the Western Bulldogs, an image of Smith holding up a bag did the rounds on social media.

“After much reflection, I am now in a position to confess to indulging in behaviours in late 2021 of which I am deeply ashamed,” he said at the time.

Concerned influencers are still putting their $1.50 K-Mart plates out for Nadia Bartel after she was videoed during a COVID lockdown in 2021 about to hoover a white powdery substance.

Perhaps the best example of an athlete forgetting how the internet works was NRL player Valentine Holmes, who in September 2023 posted a selfie holding up a can of alcohol with a tiny zip-lock bag containing a white substance in his mouth. Oops.

He insisted it was just a joke, but the NRL wasn’t laughing, handing him a one-match suspension and $25,000 fine.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has resisted calls to sanction Smith, firing up the debate about the game’s illicit drugs code.

It all became too much for former Collingwood preso Eddie McGuire, who claimed in a four-minute rant on Nine’s Footy Classified that Smith was “making idiots” of the league.

“I tell you what I am: I’m sick of going to funerals,” McGuire fumed. “I’m sick of watching people, their careers go. I’m sick of clubs being exploded because of these situations.”

McGuire’s concern for player welfare is admirable, but his solution of naming and shaming any player who tests positive is out of touch.

“If you test positive, you are taken out of the side and then you are helped to rehabilitate,” he told 3AW.

It misses the point. There’s a vast difference between being a drug user getting on the bags willy nilly and an addict who requires the rehabilitation. Sometimes the former leads to the latter. Often, it does not. The disease of addiction doesn’t discriminate.

Like every major code, the AFL needs a policy that’s punitive enough to stop players from using it during the season while supporting those with a genuine drug problem.

I don’t envy Dillon, nor any sporting administrator for that matter, assigned with the responsibility of striking the right balance.

A working-class code, the NRL has grappled for years with recreational drug use. It claims it has the most stringent testing regimen of any code and that might be right, but a recent News Corp poll of leading player managers suggests it’s not much of a deterrent: 62 per cent of respondents said drugs were a problem.

Smith and former Bulldogs teammate Tom Liberatore shake hands after bashing each other throughout last week’s grudge match.

The NRL was furious the question was asked, a definitive case of shooting the messenger considering the various cocaine scandals that have rocked in the game last year.

Naming and shaming an addict won’t stop them using drugs – the embarrassment of it will likely make them return to the substance. The last thing they need is the public and media scrutinising every step of a very private process.

What also doesn’t work is clandestine “off-the-book” testing that allows players to avoid being tested and suspended, as Federal MP Andrew Wilkie laid bare under parliamentary privilege in March last year when he illuminated the concerns of former Melbourne Demons doctor Zeeshan Arain.

Wilkie’s revelations embarrassed the AFL and furthered the belief that when it comes to policy, on any matter, it’s mostly concerned with its image.

The AFL is wrestling with a new policy that will see year-round testing and immediate fines for those who test positive the first time – but it will never be enough for some.

“Nose beers” has become a commonly used term for a reason: for many people, snorting cocaine is just as casual as social beers with your friends.

The National Drug Strategy Household Survey released last year showed cocaine use was on the rise, mostly among men in the 20-29 age group who are high-income earners.

Whatever policy the AFL lands on won’t stop young, cashed-up footballers from partaking in party drugs.

The league’s policy can be better, but it can’t be held accountable for a societal shift out of its control.

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou holds aloft the Europa League trophy after beating Manchester United in the final.

SO SPURSY

When Ange Postecoglou was arguing with reporters and Tottenham fans alike throughout the English Premier League season, he looked every bit like a manager under immense pressure.

Emboldened by his side’s Europa League victory, he’s back to being his calculating, opportunist best.

Chairman Daniel Levy’s lack of public support of Postecoglou in the aftermath of their victory over Manchester United in the final – including his lukewarm congratulations in the matchday program – suggests a dramatic exit is imminent.

But you don’t reach the various heights Postecoglou has across the football globe without being a political animal.

In his final media conference of the season after a 4-1 loss to Brighton at home, he goaded Levy to back or sack him.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve been finding it really weird talking about my future when we’ve done something unprecedented,” Postecoglou said.

“I’ve had to answer the questions because no one else at the club is kind of in the position to do so, I guess. But I can’t answer that question about me and my future, and part of me is kind of thinking, well, why have I been asked that question?”

Translation: I’ve got the players behind me, and the fans are changing their minds and want me to stay, so do your best, mate, and sack me. See how that works out for you.

Fans will always support their club but having the support of the dressing-room has provided Postecoglou with significant bargaining power he didn’t have until the win in Bilbao, Spain.

With potential replacements lining up at Levy’s door, you sense Big Ange is going to make it uncomfortable for the club if it wants to cut its losses.

Nathan Cleary could be on his way to rugby union, according to former Wallaby Tim Horan.

CLEARY BLUE SKIES

Is Rugby Australia about to make a play for NSW halfback Nathan Cleary?

Wallabies great Tim Horan floated a juicy rumour on Rugby Heaven on Stan Sport on Thursday when fellow panellist Cameron Shepherd said he’d love to see the 27-year-old switch codes.

“You mightn’t have to wait too long for that,” Horan said. “There’s been some rumours the last two months that he’s quite keen. I’ve heard it totally separate, that he’s quite keen about coming to rugby.

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do because we have enough talent coming through, but if Nathan Cleary says he’s interested in playing the game, you gotta have a coffee.”

Cleary is contracted to Penrith until the end of 2027 and he might want to take a break from a code that continually runs him into the ground.

He’s copping ridiculous criticism about “failing to own Origin” after NSW’s 18-6 humbling of Queensland in the opening match at Suncorp Stadium.

Sure, he left his kicking boots back at the hotel, but his general direction of the team, as well as his running game, was on point.

The NRL will be sweating on a Queensland victory in Game II at Perth’s Optus Stadium on June 18 so the third match in Sydney is a decider.

The match at Accor Stadium on July 9 will clash with the British and Irish Lions’ tour match against the Brumbies in Canberra.

Don’t blame Rugby Australia: the Lions’ schedule was put in place two years ago. I’m told there was no thought of changing it once the Origin schedule was released and no concerns about the match failing to sell out.

That said, UK journos covering the Lions tour have privately indicated they’d rather attend the Origin.