Collingwood

[EasternWest]

Firstly: I'm aware that these drugs are illegal.

Secondly: they shouldn't be.

Thirdly: I don't care.

[Happy Days]

Honestly go off king.

Illicit drugs bans are dumb and counter intuitive.

[bornadog]

Honestly go off king.

Illicit drugs bans are dumb and counter intuitive.

true, but. You want to be an AFL footballer, then follow the rules

[hujsh]

true, but. You want to be an AFL footballer, then follow the rules

Well... it's more like don't get caught. We know a majority of players (especially the younger ones) do not follow these particular rules. There's even a couple of get out of jail free cards built into the system to help with that. Almost like the AFL also doesn't really care but feel they need to keep everything 'family friendly' except the ability to watch the game in the stadium without going deaf or on TV without seeing sex pests

[jeemak]

The education the clubs and AFL undertake with the players on the problems of taking illicit drugs isn't being heard.

They're being heard and ignored.

[GVGjr]

They're being heard and ignored.

Seems that way. Every time this crops up the reaction is something along the lines of we must educate the players more but they're just going through the motions and it won't change much.

[bornadog]

Seems that way. Every time this crops up the reaction is something along the lines of we must educate the players more but they're just going through the motions and it won't change much.

The only education they listen to is trying to not get caught

[1eyedog]

Being captain didn't stop him incurring the wrath of the supporters. First game agains the Pies after he defected to Melbourne, the Collingwood banner was "Moore Filth"

Time heals all wounds unless your Jake Stringer (or Rian Griffon)

[1eyedog]

The education the clubs and AFL undertake with the players on the problems of taking illicit drugs isn't being heard.

Is it being heard in society in general? No and it won't.

[Axe Man]

Wow, what a piece of trash filming him over a toilet wall and hocking the footage to the media.

How Jack Ginnivan drugs scandal went from grainy video to club suspension

Jack Ginnivan’s illicit drug use in the last week of January was a tale as old as time.

Much-hyped young player with a whiff of rock star gets ahead of himself and makes a stupid choice in a crowded pub or nightclub while catching up with old mates.

Age-old story, but the events of the past 48 hours provide an insight into football’s modern operating model for responding to a scandal.

It’s club and league working in lock-step, the club buying time with the promise of an exclusive interview with the bad-boy talent, then the scandal neatly bundled with a solution, sound bites and a suspension crafted to minimise pain for Collingwood and the AFL. Sorry, and the player.

Ginnivan’s drug use is understood to have taken place on Australia Day Eve on the final day of Collingwood’s three-day training camp in Lorne.

Collingwood’s players had several days off after the camp, so four Pies players including Ginnivan, and several of the 20-year-old’s civilian friends, adjourned to the Torquay Hotel for a midweek session.

At some stage after a few drinks he did what so many 20-year-olds of his age are doing in increasing numbers – he upped the ante.

He snorted a drug believed to be ketamine off a friend’s car key while in a toilet cubicle.

Recording the lead-up to that drug use was an eager-eyed witness shooting over the top of the brick toilet wall.

So far, so very 2023, except Ginnivan had enough of a public profile for the budding videographer to know he had a scandalon his hands.

From there he began shopping the video to Melbourne television networks, with Seven putting the allegations to Collingwood by Thursday.

There were real shortcomings with the vision – it was taken in a toilet, it didn’t show his face, it didn’t show him actually snorting the drug.

And there was also potentially privacy issues if it was published given Ginnivan was in a private place not expecting to be filmed.

But Seven could still report the contents of the footage so Collingwood kicked into action, with football boss Graham Wright putting the allegation to the forward by phone on Thursday night.

To his credit, he immediately owned up, which led to Collingwood alerting the AFL’s integrity team on Thursday ahead of a flurry of Friday meetings at Pies headquarters.

Ginnivan fronted the Collingwood leadership group, led by new captain Darcy Moore, and had to explain his actions to coach Craig McRae.

The ridiculous nature of the AFL’s drug code means had he confessed drug use to the Pies he might have dodged suspension and perhaps even a drug strike had he cited his own mental health battles.

But the story of the footage was inevitably going to come out.

Collingwood and the AFL knew the long-established precedent for punishment was Ginnivan accepting a two-week ban and an illicit drugs strike.

Adelaide’s Brad Crouch (now at St Kilda) and Bailey Smith had accepted identical punishments.

Call it a brand damage ban.

The AFL and Pies needed time to work through that process with the AFL and their integrity team.

So Seven accepted the deal that they would hold off until Saturday at 6pm on the proviso Ginnivan conducted an exclusive interview confessing his guilt.

For Seven it was the best of both worlds – they didn’t have to show the footage, they still got their money shot in a contrite Ginnivan.

The AFL too got what it wanted – a Ginnivan confession, the two-week ban and Collingwood’s response all tied into a nice, neat ribbon.

In his interview Ginnivan artfully dodged around the question of whether this was his first experience with drugs, saying he wanted to “reflect on the now”.

Seven asked all the right questions and Ginnivan hit all the right notes – sufficiently contrite, exonerating teammates from drug use, smartly refusing to play the mental health card to explain his actions.

Collingwood will hate the negative publicity, but also might believe this is the reality check Ginnivan needs.

The Pies have had very recent case studies in crisis management.

Twice in the past 18 months Collingwood and the AFL have been unable to stop a Jordan De Goey controversy turning into a seemingly endless media circus.

That would have helped them plan and get on the front foot.

Steve Johnson famously broke his ankles jumping the fence at the same Torquay pub in 2003, but it was the 2007 club-based suspension for another boozy night which saw the penny drop.

This could be Ginnivan’s line-in-the-sand moment, and hopefully someone at Collingwood has pulled him aside and given him a history lesson on former Pies Lachie Keeffe, Josh Thomas and Sam Murray.

With Collingwood and the AFL’s help Ginnivan will hope he has endured the shortest possible drama, and now it is up to him to complete the redemption arc the AFL community loves so much.

[chef]

I feel sorry for the jack, what a scummy thing to do to another human. So much pressure nowadays on these players.

[hujsh]

At least he wasn't dumb enough to film it himself. Bad luck lad you'll get away with it next time.

[Grantysghost]

Fmd what a prick filming that.

Deny deny deny.

[Sedat]

Firstly: I'm aware that these drugs are illegal.

Secondly: they shouldn't be.

Thirdly: I don't care.

For most of my adult life I used to have exactly the same mindset, that it is a mental health issue and not a criminal issue, and the simple solution was to legalise and tax everything and use the income generated to fund back into community health programs. I still think it should be decriminalised, but I also don't think the current rapid progression towards wholesale legalisation should happen either (it is a complex issue way out of my pay scale or abilities). All I know is that drug dependence (legal or illegal substances) is a horrible fate to befall anybody and we should be doing everything we can as a society to prevent it from happening to anyone, because it destroys lives.

These days I simply see drug dependence as a feature and not a bug when it comes to public policy, and colour me cynical but it is undeniably a very effective strategic tool used by incompetent politicians (of all stripes) to neuter the wider population into a semi-comatose state so that they are far easier to control (and coincidentally end up wholly reliant on said incompetent politicians).

Also legalising and taxing the bejesus out of everything will only result in the cheaper illegal variants thriving underground. Look no further than the illegal cigarette industry which is absolutely booming (if you are a smoker or know one, you'll know) because the legal cigarettes are being taxed so much.

Specific to Ginnivan, I do find it amusing when the players caught do their carefully scriped mea culpa and the clubs/AFEL also put on their grave, serious voices of contrived concern. It's all a bit of meaningless cosplay really. Illicit drug use is rife in all sections of the community and relevant to the AFEL nobody (players, clubs, code) really gives a shit until they are caught.

[hujsh]

For most of my adult life I used to have exactly the same mindset, that it is a mental health issue and not a criminal issue, and the simple solution was to legalise and tax everything and use the income generated to fund back into community health programs. I still think it should be decriminalised, but I also don't think the current rapid progression towards wholesale legalisation should happen either (it is a complex issue way out of my pay scale or abilities). All I know is that drug dependence (legal or illegal substances) is a horrible fate to befall anybody and we should be doing everything we can as a society to prevent it from happening to anyone, because it destroys lives.

These days I simply see drug dependence as a feature and not a bug when it comes to public policy, and colour me cynical but it is undeniably a very effective strategic tool used by incompetent politicians (of all stripes) to neuter the wider population into a semi-comatose state so that they are far easier to control (and coincidentally end up wholly reliant on said incompetent politicians).

Also legalising and taxing the bejesus out of everything will only result in the cheaper illegal variants thriving underground. Look no further than the illegal cigarette industry which is absolutely booming (if you are a smoker or know one, you'll know) because the legal cigarettes are being taxed so much.

Specific to Ginnivan, I do find it amusing when the players caught do their carefully scriped mea culpa and the clubs/AFEL also put on their grave, serious voices of contrived concern. It's all a bit of meaningless cosplay really. Illicit drug use is rife in all sections of the community and relevant to the AFEL nobody (players, clubs, code) really gives a shit until they are caught.

I think aside from weed the more common approach seems to be decriminalisation. Personally I'd be happy with either as long as we stop using drugs as an excuse to fill prisons.