Melbourne Watch 2023/24

[hujsh]

If I test positive at work. I'm out the door short term and probably fired. I'm sick of the throw away lines like "Everyone does it" It's illegal, if the AFL throw the book at these idiots doing this crap good for them. I encourage a hard stance.

So you'd have tossed Libba out years ago?

[G-Mo77]

So you'd have tossed Libba out years ago?

I'd rather him not of course but if there policy was suspension and he broke it that's on Libba and he's having a long break.

[hujsh]

FWIW I think something like a third of men 18-mid 20s use illicit drugs. We expect a lot of them, they get paid well (maybe, if they're lucky) but there are lasting impacts including the effects from concussion as we've been reminded of recently. Let them be normal. Do some coke in the Crown bathroom with all the bankers or whatever. I thought narcing wasn't allowed on WOOF

[ledge]

If I was 18 and got offered 300k a year to play footy but one of the terms were don’t do drugs . Well it’s not rocket science.

[ledge]

So you'd have tossed Libba out years ago?

If the rules were in you get sacked if you do , he might not have even got in the position he was in . Giving them an out encourages it. “Oh I can do drugs as long as I tell the doctor on Thursday I can have a weekend off and it will be fine.”

[jeemak]

I can't get too upset about AFL players breaking shit rules and shit laws through having a few rails or whatever.

The players signed up to the former conditionally, and those conditions need to be explained to the public. If the public don't like them the players will just demand more money and conditions to comply to the shit rules.

To me the only outcome here should be the WADA code and its stance on illicit drugs is turfed and the continuation of a health led, and science based approach is maintained.

If everyone else is shitted off about their own working conditions then they should join an effective union and lobby for different conditions over time (fantasy in today's day and age, I know).

The AFLPA is effective in leveraging the value of its members to get them the best outcomes. I get the jealousy, but just because other unions or associations are disempowered it doesn't mean the AFLPA should be.

[Grantysghost]

For me there's a distinction between what you're saying Jee around supporting rather than condemning (which i agree with) and purposely removing a player by lying about an injury.

It must be unique in world sport?

[Grantysghost]

If the rules were in you get sacked if you do , he might not have even got in the position he was in . Giving them an out encourages it. “Oh I can do drugs as long as I tell the doctor on Thursday I can have a weekend off and it will be fine.”

The other part is it's not the same as other jobs.

A pilot gets on the nose candy, then he's risking lives and I'm sure no one wants that. If they had a policy to remove them after a self report im tipping their business doesnt last long.

In sport, it's considered performance enhancing it's a very different situation.

Also how does this policy scale? What if 100 players self report in a week.

Gastro outbreak?

[Grantysghost]

[jazzadogs]

If I was 18 and got offered 300k a year to play footy but one of the terms were don’t do drugs . Well it’s not rocket science.

How many 18 year old boys do you know? It would be a very small minority who take that approach... Especially the AFL players who have come through private school systems and are surrounded by all of their mates doing lines every Saturday.

What it would feel like to them is "here's 300k, but you're going to lose all your friends"

[jeemak]

For me there's a distinction between what you're saying Jee around supporting rather than condemning (which i agree with) and purposely removing a player by lying about an injury.

It must be unique in world sport?

What alternative do they have other than being dishonest about an injury or claim personal issues? Take it out of the hands of the club doctors and you just get players seeking out their own tests or administering tests themselves, and then lying to their club doctors about ailments. At least this way it's controlled.

What actually happens to an AFL player with a drug issue and why

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/...27-p5ffpz.html

The policy needs to evolve with the times and changes in attitudes of young people towards illicit substances, which it seems to be doing.

[MrMahatma]

How many 18 year old boys do you know? It would be a very small minority who take that approach... Especially the AFL players who have come through private school systems and are surrounded by all of their mates doing lines every Saturday.

What it would feel like to them is "here's 300k, but you're going to lose all your friends"

Rightly or wrongly though, it’s illegal. And the AFL essentially facilitate it.

[Grantysghost]

What alternative do they have other than being dishonest about an injury or claim personal issues? Take it out of the hands of the club doctors and you just get players seeking out their own tests or administering tests themselves, and then lying to their club doctors about ailments. At least this way it's controlled.

What actually happens to an AFL player with a drug issue and why

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/...27-p5ffpz.html

The policy needs to evolve with the times and changes in attitudes of young people towards illicit substances, which it seems to be doing.

Personal reasons is fine.

Lying about an injury, doesn't that have a ripple effect in all sorts of other areas?

I mean the coaches don't even know they're not injured. Nathan Buckley said he was just told that had a hamstring even though they completed a full session.

Trading? Well player x has a history of soft tissue injuries....

They have to shelve that.

[jeemak]

Rightly or wrongly though, it’s illegal. And the AFL essentially facilitate it.

Not sure we want corporations playing the role of police.

And again, the players allow themselves to be tested. They have an effective union lobbying for them to stop overreach into their personal lives. Just like medical practitioners.

When they implemented drug testing for white collar employees at a previous employer the white collar employees didn't have a union negotiating for them like the blue collar employees did. Thus we didn't get the year on year pay rises and incentives set in concrete, and didn't get the extra percentages in superannuation prior to it becoming legislation etc. as a trade off for submitting to testing. We just got drug tested "at random" and definitely not at the whim of HR/ safety managers with an axe to grind. That was crap.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

If I was 18 and got offered 300k a year to play footy but one of the terms were don’t do drugs . Well it’s not rocket science.

Punitive punishment hasn't seemed to cure young males mainly of poor decision making in the broader community, I just don't see how its any different in a professional sport setting.

In the US don't players just get a couple of games bans for illicit drug use? I'm sure in the NFL I regularly see players coming on and off the main roster due to 'breaking the league's code on substance abuse' or something like that.

I think the league (and the broader society) need to have a total rethink about all of this, but I'm just not sure as a society we're mature enough.