How Jack Ginnivan drugs scandal went from grainy video to club suspension

The past 48 hours, and Jack Ginnivan’s illicit drug saga, provide an insight into football’s modern operating model for responding to a scandal. We take you inside how it all unfolded.

Jack Ginnivan of the Magpies reacts after missing a goal during the 2022 AFL Round 13 match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Melbourne Demons at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 13, 2022.

Jack Ginnivan’s illicit drug use in the last week of January was a tale as old as time.

Much-hyped young player with a whiff of rock star gets ahead of himself and makes a stupid choice in a crowded pub or nightclub while catching up with old mates.

Age-old story, but the events of the past 48 hours provide an insight into football’s modern operating model for responding to a scandal.

It’s club and league working in lock-step, the club buying time with the promise of an exclusive interview with the bad-boy talent, then the scandal neatly bundled with a solution, sound bites and a suspension crafted to minimise pain for Collingwood and the AFL. Sorry, and the player.

Ginnivan’s drug use is understood to have taken place on Australia Day Eve on the final day of Collingwood’s three-day training camp in Lorne.

Collingwood’s players had several days off after the camp, so four Pies players including Ginnivan, and several of the 20-year-old’s civilian friends, adjourned to the Torquay Hotel for a midweek session.

At some stage after a few drinks he did what so many 20-year-olds of his age are doing in increasing numbers – he upped the ante.

He snorted a drug believed to be ketamine off a friend’s car key while in a toilet cubicle.

Recording the lead-up to that drug use was an eager-eyed witness shooting over the top of the brick toilet wall.

Jack Ginnivan confessed when asked about a video that appeared to show him using drugs. Picture: Mark Kolbe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

So far, so very 2023, except Ginnivan had enough of a public profile for the budding videographer to know he had a scandalon his hands.

From there he began shopping the video to Melbourne television networks, with Seven putting the allegations to Collingwood by Thursday.

There were real shortcomings with the vision – it was taken in a toilet, it didn’t show his face, it didn’t show him actually snorting the drug.

And there was also potentially privacy issues if it was published given Ginnivan was in a private place not expecting to be filmed.

But Seven could still report the contents of the footage so Collingwood kicked into action, with football boss Graham Wright putting the allegation to the forward by phone on Thursday night.

To his credit, he immediately owned up, which led to Collingwood alerting the AFL’s integrity team on Thursday ahead of a flurry of Friday meetings at Pies headquarters.

Ginnivan fronted the Collingwood leadership group, led by new captain Darcy Moore, and had to explain his actions to coach Craig McRae.

The ridiculous nature of the AFL’s drug code means had he confessed drug use to the Pies he might have dodged suspension and perhaps even a drug strike had he cited his own mental health battles.

But the story of the footage was inevitably going to come out.

Jack Ginnivan speaks to Channel 7.

Collingwood and the AFL knew the long-established precedent for punishment was Ginnivan accepting a two-week ban and an illicit drugs strike.

Adelaide’s Brad Crouch (now at St Kilda) and Bailey Smith had accepted identical punishments.

Call it a brand damage ban.

The AFL and Pies needed time to work through that process with the AFL and their integrity team.

So Seven accepted the deal that they would hold off until Saturday at 6pm on the proviso Ginnivan conducted an exclusive interview confessing his guilt.

For Seven it was the best of both worlds – they didn’t have to show the footage, they still got their money shot in a contrite Ginnivan.

The AFL too got what it wanted – a Ginnivan confession, the two-week ban and Collingwood’s response all tied into a nice, neat ribbon.

In his interview Ginnivan artfully dodged around the question of whether this was his first experience with drugs, saying he wanted to “reflect on the now”.

Seven asked all the right questions and Ginnivan hit all the right notes – sufficiently contrite, exonerating teammates from drug use, smartly refusing to play the mental health card to explain his actions.

Jack Ginnivan at pre-season training. Picture: Michael Klein

Collingwood will hate the negative publicity, but also might believe this is the reality check Ginnivan needs.

The Pies have had very recent case studies in crisis management.

Twice in the past 18 months Collingwood and the AFL have been unable to stop a Jordan De Goey controversy turning into a seemingly endless media circus.

That would have helped them plan and get on the front foot.

Steve Johnson famously broke his ankles jumping the fence at the same Torquay pub in 2003, but it was the 2007 club-based suspension for another boozy night which saw the penny drop.

This could be Ginnivan’s line-in-the-sand moment, and hopefully someone at Collingwood has pulled him aside and given him a history lesson on former Pies Lachie Keeffe, Josh Thomas and Sam Murray.

With Collingwood and the AFL’s help Ginnivan will hope he has endured the shortest possible drama, and now it is up to him to complete the redemption arc the AFL community loves so much.

Only one person to blame in this Ginnivan scandal

– Glenn McFarlane

Collingwood forward Jack Ginnivan has let his club down, his coach down, his teammates down, and his army of fans down.

But most importantly, he has let himself down.

His lack of judgment last month in putting himself in a position to be filmed taking an illicit substance in a toilet at the Torquay Hotel is difficult to understand.

After all the on-field drama surrounding him on the field last year, you would think he would have known better.

He clearly isn’t the first AFL player to have been filmed doing something he shouldn’t be doing, and he absolutely won’t be the last.

But to put himself in that position — in a public venue (albeit in a toilet cubicle) — just shows a terrible lack of awareness.

AFL footballers have enough education and have had enough examples of what can happen when you put yourself in such a vulnerable position to know better.

Jack Ginnivan is tackled by Jack Crisp during the Magpies’ intraclub match on Friday night. Picture: Michael Klein

Never mind the fact that someone has deliberately filmed him in what he thought was a private moment. But yet again the outcome of this incident shows that there are always some people seeking the gotcha moment and incredibly some AFL footballers are too readily willing to run the risk of being caught.

The Bailey Smith situation last year should have been warning enough for Ginnivan and co.

Clearly it wasn’t.

It’s not a damning offence, as Ginnivan is still very much a work in progress as a 20-year-old, and illicit drugs are admittedly a huge social issue in society for people of all ages.

Let’s be honest, he wouldn’t have been the only young person on the Surf Coast that night to indulge in something he shouldn’t have, but as far as we know, he was the only person who was filmed doing it.

That goes with the territory of being an AFL footballer, and it is why Ginnivan has let himself, and his club, down so badly.

Jack Ginnivan has been a revelation in front of goal for the Magpies since joining the club. Picture: Michael Klein

At least he didn’t offer a lame excuse. He owned the mistake, and has copped the consequences of a two-game AFL ban as well as two other pre-season games, and he acknowledged the implications of his actions.

“I feel like I’ve let 44 of my best mates down, the club, 100,000 people,” Ginnivan told Channel 7. “For me, I’m so remorseful for that.

“I can’t really speak on why I did it but a few drinks and a lack of judgment is all I’ve really got.”

Ginnivan knows he has let people around him down.

Take his coach Craig McRae who believed in Ginnivan the footballer from the outset and backed him with every ounce of his nurturing nature when the footy world was lining up to drag him down over his on-field exuberance.

Take his teammates, some of whom were there that night, and could unfairly be lumped in with his behaviour just because they happened to be at the same venue.

Jack Ginnivan during a pre-season bonding session at UrbnSurf wave park at Tullamarine.

Jack Ginnivan after coming off early in Friday night’s scratch match with a cut knee.

Take the Collingwood army, who adore him, and who backed him through the maelstrom of 2022, but who now know he won’t be there for critical early games against Geelong and Port Adelaide in a season will likely go down to the wire again.

He was one of Collingwood’s revelations of last season, brushing aside all the controversies to kick 40 goals and win the Anzac Medal. So he will be missed in those first two games.

He’s also — at least temporarily — left the door ajar in terms of early selection, with Giants recruit Bobby Hill — fresh off a big intra-club performance — set to replace him in Round 1 and 2.

Ginnivan has come a long way in a relatively short time, from a rookie kid from the bush to one of the most talked about footballers in the land.

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has been a big supporter of Jack Ginnivan since his arrival at the club.

Sadly, we are talking about him for the wrong reasons now.

But footy is a forgiving game, as the Bailey Smith situation proved last year. Smith returned to the Bulldogs after details of his indiscretion came out, and he hasn’t looked back.

Yet this is a headache Collingwood didn’t need right now ahead of their first practice match against Carlton on Friday, and one that new chief executive Craig Kelly and new captain Darcy Moore will now have to oversee.

Ginnivan will be back again, but hopefully this brain fade can act as the catalyst for behavioural change and a greater maturity.

Better still, hopefully it will be the light bulb moment that prompts the next AFL footballer tempted to place themselves in a compromising situation to stop and think again. It’s not worth it.

Originally published as How Jack Ginnivan drugs scandal went from grainy video to club suspension