Today's players are unprepared for the temptations they face

How you are still allowed on this site Barry, is nothing sort of a miracle.

You might else well Barry cause no one else agrees with anything your saying at the moment

I absolutely agree with Nat and Matt Pearce. Often drug use and abuse is a symptom of mental illness. I get all that and anyone diagnosed deserves help, support and understanding. But you don’t (shouldn’t) get diagnosed with depression after a weekend. There’s a lot of players who use it as an excuse and it takes away from the people that are really suffering...

Thanks...I don’t know if it’s more sad or pathetic for someone to use a fake ID to back himself up in a debate. It’s actually the second time he’s been caught doing it. What a looo-seeerrrr Add the three punctuation points (!!! or ???) as another point of similarity. I might create another ID...The Garry...to just agree with everything I write.

I agree and that's my point in the top part, ask the player and that will be the straight up answer. But that's not the one his advisers will want the press to hear so they will have the player roll out this line as an excuse.

I don't disagree with you Nat; but if you've been busted snorting the good stuff on a Saturday night out on the town, let's not try and put that down to suffering some form of mental illness. Lets call a spade a spade and say you like how it makes you feel and that's why you get on it

Good read. I'd also add that mental illness manifests itself in different ways - one person's depression isn't always the same as another person's.

I completely understand and agree the premise of the article and I also see the other side. Using a mental illness as an excuse is poor form and convenient in the current climate but let's not tar every sports person with the BS brush. From the outside we can look at a young fella making a very good living playing sport and assume they have nothing to worry about. In a lot of cases, this is true. But for all the glamour they are just young fellas who happened to be very good at sport and most of us would be hypocrites to say we never gave into the temptation of one vice or another in our younger years so who are we to judge? However, when caught, I doubt it is the player who draws on the 'mental illness' card in the first instance. They have all sorts of advisers skilled in damage control and they know the quickest road to redemption. The perpetrator is rolled out with a script, an apology and a plan as history shows, if they are skilled enough on the park, we the public will forgive. On the other hand, a mental illness does not care about money or prestige. What we see as 80mins of entertainment, they see as a job. 6 days a week of intense training and brutal contact with immense pressure to keep your body on track and form enough to keep your spot in the team. Could you imagine 1000's of people, strangers, commenting on your job performance each day? Most stars have played their chosen sport all of their lives, yet the average 1st grade career is 50 games. After that, what? Sport is all you know. If you could handle that sort of pressure, cast the first stone. If you had the mental fortitude to ask for help at 22yo, you are a better person than most.

https://www.theroar.com.au/2018/05/21/next-anthony-mundine/

And what I failed to mention is that when caught, instead of blaming depression, just own up and say something like this; "I was looking to have fun and I took it too far and I was stupid in taking an illegal substance. I apologise to the club, sponsors, importantly the fans and children who look at players as role models." Easy done, just don't blame mental illness because it's offensive to actual sufferers

Literally nowhere in the article did the author write that the NRL needed to provide guidance on this. Once again you’ve completely missed the pointed an article BigJ.

I have no issue with players using recreational drugs, as long as they are not caught it's their lives after all. I also agree with the approach the AFL take, which has a 3 strike policy where the first 2 times they're caught it is kept in house, they're not performance enhancing so why publicise it... Totally agree though players who get caught claiming depression is poor form, it smacks of taking the easy way out and using mental illness as an excuse when everyday people not on hundreds of thousands suffer from depression and anxiety.

Ok I’ve suspected it for a while but it’s obvious now. Nice try BigJ but you’re not fooling anyone. BigJ - Jason Follow league and boxing Live in Townsville Follow multiple teams Spelling, grammar and comprehension of a six year old Exactly the same opinion on every issue Constantly jumping to one another’s defence This is the second time you’ve done this, it’s a bit lame...but whatever, here’s a tip: If you want to pose as two different identities, you have to make them different. There’s literally no point creating a second ID and then just acting exactly the same. People aren’t going to think “wow, there’s two blokes with exactly the same poorly spelled and grammatically diabolical opinion. I’m all turned around on this issue”

You were the one that brought redtube into it Ace. Don’t change facts and put it onto me you. There’s a time stamped history showing that you’re into redtube and you introduced it into the conversation. But whatever floats your boat bro. I’m not judgemental. What does “encouraging in illegal activity” mean? If you learn to read I didn’t write that I had no problem with it, I wrote “I don’t get too upset by it...”. I know you have the comprehension skills of a six year old so I’ll let you in on a little secret. The sentence I wrote and your juevenile interpretation of it mean two different things.