Is Maxwell talking about GWS or Collingwood?

[CFC2010]

AFL
Nick Maxwell on illicit drugs: Players having a laugh in off-season
Joshua Papanikolaou | 22 Mar 2016, 09:09PM
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Players within the AFL are not concerned at all about taking illicit drugs during their summer break because they know for sure that the consequences of getting caught are negligible, says Nick Maxwell.

The issue is becoming an increasingly serious one for the league as clubs are showing more urgency when it comes to finding a better competition-wide policy to stem the problem.

“Now players are basically just having a laugh in the off-season, because they have their six or eight weeks and they know they can do what they want to do,” said Maxwell on SEN radio.

“The only result of that is when they get back and they’re hair tested they’ve got to sit down with the doctor and have a one-on-one conversation.

“The big thing for me is the whole attitude has to change across the board, it’s a problem in society everyone acknowledges that.

“Either the AFL or AFLPA, who pride themselves on being leaders on these issues, they’ve got to take a stance and understand they may lose a few along the way but for the betterment of the game they have to go hard and test four times a year, and really start penalising.”

It has been reported that results from the hair testing done by the AFL over the Christmas break has shocked people within the league and club officials.

“That would be because the illicit drugs policy is an absolute failure at the moment,” added Maxwell.

“It was brought in for medical reasons, so that if players tested positive to illicit drugs then there could be a process to educate them and make sure it wasn’t something that continued.

“I started to hear rumblings myself, and did some digging talking to players from different clubs because up until recently I’ve been pretty naïve on how big the drug culture is in society.”

The former Collingwood captain made the comments just hours after Pies chief executive Gary Pert again put the drugs issue on the agenda stressing that action must be taken by the league.

“Different players have told me they’ve been able to get out of tests… players have been getting out of it because they know the system,” said Maxwell.

“A lot of senior players out there are frustrated and worried because they also now know that if a teammate gets tested and gets a second strike they’ll get four weeks – so that could cost them success.”



My "guess" is he is talking about the Pies.

Quite disappointing if they have not learnt anything after the Keefe & Thomas suspension.
Sorry I am wrong they have learnt something.....how to get around the tests!

Who said footballers don't have brains???

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Listening to him at the time on SEN, it didn't sound like he was referring to us.

 

[Bard]

Thought he was referring as a collective to the entire AFL? Maybe using a bit of anecdotal evidence?

 

[Lockyer24]

Pert is still chiming in so we probably still have a few enjoying themselves

 

[Saintly Viewed]

I think he was talking about all clubs in general.
His long time message has been, players should realise the privileges and benefits of playing at the high level - and potentially stop stuffing it up with stupidity that is not worth it.

 

[Soups]

All clubs have people that dabble plus there are some heavily into it, not just in the offseason. What are they going to do about it? They aren't going to stop doing it under the current system. I think the only way they are possibly going to stop it is if they bring in a rule saying if you get caught twice you are banned from playing for good. That's obviously a extreme case, but if they are really worried about it that's what is going to have to happen IMO.

Will be interesting to see if they are going to bring in the hair test. I think it's not too far away from happening.

 

[Seedsfan]

Who cares what they do? Aslong as they perform on field I could not give to shits if they are racking lines of coke in the off season

 

[manicmagpie]

“I started to hear rumblings myself, and did some digging talking to players from different clubs because up until recently I’ve been pretty naïve on how big the drug culture is in society.”

Explicitly states here that he's talking AFL in general. Fair to assume that we have our share of the problem, though.

 

[CFC2010]

Who cares what they do? Aslong as they perform on field I could not give to shits if they are racking lines of coke in the off season

Hypothetical here Seedsfan

If Treloar for arguments sake sent a picture over the summer of himself doing lines (ala Carlisle) and it got out you would be OK with that?

 

[TradeDraft]

Both

 

[TradeDraft]

Pert is still chiming in so we probably still have a few enjoying themselves

Every Club would at least 1 that does Drugs

 

[TradeDraft]

Hypothetical here Seedsfan

If Treloar for arguments sake sent a picture over the summer of himself doing lines (ala Carlisle) and it got out you would be OK with that?

The media would id tried to get Treloar kicked out of the AFL

 

[CFC2010]

The media would id tried to get Treloar kicked out of the AFL

Agree Dave the story would have been bigger then Ben Hur!

 

[Seedsfan]

Hypothetical here Seedsfan

If Treloar for arguments sake sent a picture over the summer of himself doing lines (ala Carlisle) and it got out you would be OK with that?

Wouldn't think it was the smartest move broadcasting it to the world

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Listening to him at the time on SEN, it didn't sound like he was referring to us.

Can tell you right now he's definitely talking about us.

Having said that, it's definitely a competition wide issue. No club is immune. It's inevitable when you give sheltered 17 year olds who become sheltered men too much money and too much spare time. Throw in all the standard trappings that come with being good looking, famous young athletes and it's a recipe for disaster.

They really do need to bring the drafting age up to 21. Will really reduce the amount of off field drama in the AFL in my opinion because they'll be recruiting men who have spent at least 2-3 years in the real world with real jobs before entering the sheltered bubble of an AFL club.

 

[CFC2010]

Wouldn't think it was the smartest move broadcasting it to the world

I like your politician response!

 

[Kilmo]

He's talking about every team. They all do it, it's not a big deal in most cases.

 

[PicaBoo]

Every team. Mentions as much in the article but no doubt bolstered by his experience at the Pies. And that we had an issue was well known so news factor is not that high.
Good of him to speak about it though.

 

[TradeDraft]

Every team. Mentions as much in the article but no doubt bolstered by his experience at the Pies. And that we had an issue was well known so news factor is not that high.
Good of him to speak about it though.

We had the Rat Pack then and God knows what they got up to

 

[Wooljay]

Drug use is not club-specific. It's demographic specific.

Find me a group of 18-25 year old boys and men earning ~$200k, who can't really drink a whole load for performance reasons and who aren't consuming a boatload of illicit drugs and I'll show you a group of blokes lying through their teeth.

There may be pockets within each club, but this is not a Collingwood problem. Any supporter of any club thinking theirs is immune is absolutely 100% delusional, #standbyhird level of delusion.

 

[Scodog10]

It's Collingwood. The issue obviously isn't isolated, but his connections still run deep within our club.

 

[Finnishpie]

They should just stop testing for illicit drugs altogether. It's stupid and irrelevant.

 

[robertg22]

Nick would have a lot of contacts throughout the league so it's fairly broad, but I would suspect it's pretty close to home with us.

 

[Pie eyed]

AFL
Nick Maxwell on illicit drugs: Players having a laugh in off-season
Joshua Papanikolaou | 22 Mar 2016, 09:09PM
Share

Players within the AFL are not concerned at all about taking illicit drugs during their summer break because they know for sure that the consequences of getting caught are negligible, says Nick Maxwell.

The issue is becoming an increasingly serious one for the league as clubs are showing more urgency when it comes to finding a better competition-wide policy to stem the problem.

“Now players are basically just having a laugh in the off-season, because they have their six or eight weeks and they know they can do what they want to do,” said Maxwell on SEN radio.

“The only result of that is when they get back and they’re hair tested they’ve got to sit down with the doctor and have a one-on-one conversation.

“The big thing for me is the whole attitude has to change across the board, it’s a problem in society everyone acknowledges that.

“Either the AFL or AFLPA, who pride themselves on being leaders on these issues, they’ve got to take a stance and understand they may lose a few along the way but for the betterment of the game they have to go hard and test four times a year, and really start penalising.”

It has been reported that results from the hair testing done by the AFL over the Christmas break has shocked people within the league and club officials.

“That would be because the illicit drugs policy is an absolute failure at the moment,” added Maxwell.

“It was brought in for medical reasons, so that if players tested positive to illicit drugs then there could be a process to educate them and make sure it wasn’t something that continued.

“I started to hear rumblings myself, and did some digging talking to players from different clubs because up until recently I’ve been pretty naïve on how big the drug culture is in society.”

The former Collingwood captain made the comments just hours after Pies chief executive Gary Pert again put the drugs issue on the agenda stressing that action must be taken by the league.

“Different players have told me they’ve been able to get out of tests… players have been getting out of it because they know the system,” said Maxwell.

“A lot of senior players out there are frustrated and worried because they also now know that if a teammate gets tested and gets a second strike they’ll get four weeks – so that could cost them success.”



My "guess" is he is talking about the Pies.

Quite disappointing if they have not learnt anything after the Keefe & Thomas suspension.
Sorry I am wrong they have learnt something.....how to get around the tests!

Who said footballers don't have brains???

Surely you can read the article that you posted?

“I started to hear rumblings myself, and did some digging talking to players from different clubs because up until recently I’ve been pretty naïve on how big the drug culture is in society.”

In any event I'm still firmly of the belief that AFL players should not be tested for Illicit drugs, that is a Police issue. they should be tested for performance enhancing drugs and then only under an AFL policy, not ASADA WADA, the whole corrupt IOC sham should have nothing to do with any Australian sport.

 

[Scodog10]

I genuinely think some supporters need to see players dropping a line right in front of their faces to realise that drug use is rife within our club.

We have had two players ousted for PED'S after admitting they likely took dodgy coke, we had a raft of players exploit the self reporting loophole and our own CEO has twice described illicit drug use as volcanic. Where do you think he gets the evidence from to make such claims?

Deadset we have a former captain telling us it's rife and still some want to rationalise it as him potentially not referring to players within our club. It's laughable.

FWIW I'm with Finnishpie in that testing shouldn't be undertaken. The only issue then would be identifying the real problem users that could potentially impact on the younger players.