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BRAD JOHNSON: AFL doping just doesn’t make sense

12th February, 2013
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12th February, 2013
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Imagine, as a signed squad member, getting a call from an AFL medico saying you’d tested positive to an banned drug. On a personal level, that would have destroyed me as a player.

It’s one of the reasons I’ve spent the past week wondering, why would any Aussie Rules player take that risk?

The other perplexing part of that equation is, whether it’s an illegal substance or a legal supplement, how much is it going to help you play the game? Some people seem to think that the simple addition of some chemicals will turn ordinary players into superstars.

A synthetic booster doesn’t help you read the play better, doesn’t help you run to the right spots to get a kick, doesn’t help you strike the ball cleanly and hit targets.

Will human growth hormone help with the basics of the game? Does it give you clean hands under pressure? Does it help you one on one in a marking contest, when you have to pick up the flight of the ball first to put yourself in the best position?

I don’t think it does.

For these reasons, I was never too interested in legal supplements, let alone anything prohibited. These days drugs might also be linked to aiding recovery, but recovery was always manageable.

For me it was all about the ice baths, the massage, the physio, the swimming, jumping on the bike early in the week, then slowly jogging and building up so you were right for the main session on a Wednesday. A good hit-out, then taper off leading into the game on the weekend.

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Nor was I going to be caught up in any problems with illicit drug testing. The loophole that is now being closed – around self-reporting – wasn’t one I ever knew existed. But it wouldn’t have been relevant: I would have been that scared to have my name associated with anything like a positive test.

Like I said, it wouldn’t just have been the professional fallout. It would have finished me personally, and could potentially have cost the club I loved millions of dollars in memberships and sponsorships that they’d worked so hard for.

On the other side of that, I am aware that the two years I’ve been out of the game may well have seen more change than the 15 years I was in it. Things like nutrition and conditioning have gone to a whole new level.

You can’t be naïve to the fact that players may be influenced to go too far, especially when young. But to my way of thinking, it still staggers me that these risks could even be considered.

Ultimately, if you work hard on your game in the right fashion, you will improve. You don’t need these other influences. Not everyone who makes it onto a list has perfect football ability, but the ones who improve survived. That improvement can only come by working at it.

The prime examples when I was at the Bulldogs were Matthew Boyd and Daniel Cross. Both always had a great running ability and a good aerobic base, but they worked extremely hard on all aspects of their games. They’d be first on the track and last to leave.

It was a mental approach to improving. For ten years I witnessed them excel in a training environment, and after three or four years of pushing themselves and remaining mentally strong, they got to move that dedication into matches.

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It was a similar story when I started my career in 1994. The instruction from Terry Wheeler, the coach at the time, was to align myself with a couple of older boys who were already playing the game.

I was lucky to witness the work that Scott West, Rohan Smith, and Chris Grant put into their football development. I learned so much from those guys over my whole career, but especially my first three or four years, about how to get my body right during the week, what was required in training, and how to best present for the weekend.

It was all about working hard when the time was right, especially over the summer, and during the season it was about recovery to get right for the next game.

Given how unnecessary and risky banned substances are for AFL players, I’m hopeful there won’t be too many secrets to come out. In my experience, I never got wind of any possible cases throughout my career.

When I was starting out, the league was a little bit more casual. It was always a case of play hard on the Saturday, go for a few beers, and recover for Monday. Performance-enhancers would have been unlikely in that environment.

1997 was when it started becoming really professional for us at the Bulldogs, and we took each aspect of football to a new level. Under Terry Wallace, we were training during the day, doing pre-game warm-ups, and much more. That’s where it started to grow into how we see footy today, as a full-time job.

But I didn’t hear about banned drugs – performance-enhancing or recreational – even after that professionalisation. Admittedly, through the latter years of my career, I was in my 30s and going home to the kids of an evening. That was where I was in my life, so perhaps I was less likely to encounter anything.

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But the likelihood of other players doping wasn’t on our radar, and it’s not like we were ignorant. At the Bulldogs education was prioritised.

Every year we’d have seminars on illicit and performance-enhancing drugs, and if anything was ever brought forward by a player, it was sent to the doctor, who would assess its legality. Nothing borderline would be approved.

I was drug tested plenty of times, both for performance-enhancing and illicit substances. Once after a game I couldn’t leave the MCG until after midnight. Testing was thorough, there was never a sense that you could avoid it by riding your luck.

For me, that was fine: I was always confident that I had nothing to worry about and nothing to hide. After a difficult week in the AFL, I can only hope that most players across the league are feeling very much the same way.

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