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The revelations this week that ice has been used in rural and regional football as a performance-enhancing drug has rocked the community.
In a week in which Ben Cousins was once again in the headlines for his ongoing battle with drug addiction, these revelations served as a reminder of the unfortunate but inexplicable link between drugs and sport.
They also reflect the reach and magnitude of the growing ice epidemic in Victoria.
We only need to look as far as Billy Nicholls, the former Hawthorn and Richmond player, who was this week sentenced to 11 years jail for shooting two people in separate incidents in 2012 and 2013.
Nicholls committed these crimes while addicted to ice.
So it has been a bad week in football, especially on the eve of the home-and-away season.
However, were it not for Cousins, Nicholls and the revelations of ice being rife in regional and suburban football, the sport’s nexus with drugs would still belie the 2015 fixture.
The Essendon drug saga remains ongoing, with players, coaches and fans in limbo until March 31. Mr X, an ex-Bomber, has started his own proceedings, and there is talk that the current players may even launch a class action against the AFL and the Essendon Football Club if the findings delivered at the end of the month are not in their favour.
Rightfully so. Player welfare has taken a back seat for far too long in this blame game.
Regardless of who is at fault, what is clear is that the players were the victims of an egregious breach of trust.
The coaching staff at every club have a duty of care to protect their players, and the AFL has a duty of care to the players to ensure that the coaching staff at all clubs adhere to these standards.
Both have not only been undermined, but shattered.
And, disturbingly, it seems that these breaches of trust have ferreted their way into regional and suburban football, where some coaches are suspected to be administering ice to their players on game-day.
If this doesn’t alarm you, I don’t know what will.
As the fortunes of Nicholls and Cousins demonstrate, ice is an addictive, life-ruining drug. That coaches are encouraging their players to take the substance before games is terrifying, because while it does increase alertness and lower pain thresholds, it also leads to erratic and criminal behaviour and an insatiable thirst for the next high.
I am not trying to equate the administering of ice with the Essendon Football Club’s alleged administering of thymosin beta 4 to its players. We know the affects of ice but we are yet to know the affects of thymosin beta 4 – which may prove more alarming for some – and whether or not it was injected into players.
What I am equating, however, is the coaches’ lack of accountability.
Players trust coaches because they are supposed to look after their players, and coaches are therefore in a position to break that trust if they so desire.
If coaches disseminate ice to impressionable young men before games they are compromised: do they take the drug and please the coach or do they opt out and risk their spot in the team, or even worse, let the team down?
While drugs in sport is hardly a new phenomenon, the proximity of the Essendon drugs scandal and the use of ice in regional football is unnerving. Is this something that has been in country football for a long time, or is it merely a game of copy-cat?
If it is the latter, the AFL has even bigger problems to deal with, because by mishandling the Essendon drugs saga they have ostensibly told coaching staff at all levels that penalising drug cheats is a regulatory nightmare.
If the AFL isn’t blaming Hird they’re blaming ASADA. If Hird isn’t blaming the AFL he’s blaming WADA.
And don’t even get me started on the role of Worksafe.
At the end of this blame game it’s unclear who is at fault, but what is clear is that the wellbeing of players is very low on the priority list of all parties.
This blatant disregard for player welfare has now insidiously crept into lower levels of football. It may be chilling to see the consequences.
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