AFL greats Nathan Buckley and Kane Cornes discussed the suspension of young Collingwood shooter Jack Ginnivan for using a banned substance during the club’s training camp in Lorne last month.
The Magpies and the AFL confirmed over the weekend that Jinniwan was suspended for two matches after reported visions of the 20-year-old taking illegal substances in a Torquay hotel.
The striker was suspended from Collingwood’s first two preseason games, as well as the first two regular season games, and was sentenced to a $5,000 suspended strike fine under the league’s illicit drug policy.
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Speaking to SEN on Monday, Corns disagreed with the public reaction, suggesting that AFL players taking drugs are becoming the norm in society and that this should be more condemned.
“I think there is a belief that all players use drugs,” he said.
“This is not my experience – I have never seen it. Of course, I was so naive about such things and remain so naive to this day. People would laugh at me for how naive I am, but I have never seen this in 15 years – and that was a long time ago, and maybe everything has changed.
“But why is there such an attitude towards AFL players and why are we not doing anything about it? We just accept it and go in.
“Bailey Smith was on drugs and we moved two weeks later and the same thing will happen to Jack Ginnivan. I’m not even criticizing Jack Ginnivan because I can’t do it because the industry seems to accept it and we’re not tough enough on it.”
Meanwhile, Buckley, who coached Jinnivan in his last season at Collingwood, is “absolutely confident” drug players are still frowned upon but believes the learning process is critical.
“When is it enough to let it go and see it as a learning opportunity for a 20 year old who is really trying to learn how to be a man and an AFL footballer?” Buckley posed.
“Sometimes they surface and sometimes they don’t, but they provide opportunities for learning and growth.”
The Collingwood legend believes the “cautionary story” dates back to when two former Magpies – Lachlan Keefe and Josh Thomas – received a two-year ban in 2015 after testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol, which was mixed with the recreational drug they were taking. . .
Buckley believes this is a bigger lesson for AFL players, as opposed to the Bailey Smith incident last year, when the Bulldogs star also received a two-game suspension after a video of him with white powder surfaced, given the ex- Collingwood. lost two seasons in their careers.
“They missed their trade for two years because they were put into the ASADA code instead of an illicit drug policy, if you do the same now, that’s four years – if you do four years now, your career is over – that’s a real cautionary tale for any player,” he said.
“You don’t know what you put into your body.”
It’s important to Buckley that Collingwood’s upper management now embrace Jinnivan like he was their “baby” and support him as best they can.
“Society tells us it happens more often than we think, but a young player who has gone so blue is going to need more support than getting his ass kicked because he already judges himself hard and takes on a whole bunch. criticism as a result,” he said.
Jinnivan returned to the club on Monday morning and vowed to work harder than ever to restore “trust”, once again apologizing for his mistake in his brief communication with the media.
New Magpies skipper Darcy Moore also spoke to the media upon his arrival at the Olympic Park and said he was “pretty disappointed” with Jinniwan’s actions, but that the club would embrace the young player.
“It’s very disappointing for everyone and in this case, Jack doesn’t live up to the standards we expect for ourselves,” Moore said.
“But we really want to support him so that he can make better decisions. “We need to make sure we support him and protect his well-being from now on.”
Moore added that there was “no problem” with drugs in Collingwood, despite Ginnivan’s gaffe.
“We have over 90 male and female athletes at the club, the vast majority of whom take their jobs very seriously and make important decisions,” he said.
“But having said that, we are not operating in a vacuum. We are humans, and humans make mistakes in their judgments, and in this case Jack did. We get a lot of education and the community knows about it, so it’s disappointing.”
Moore said of the AFL’s review of illicit drug policy, “I think it clearly plays an important role in minimizing harm in the league in terms of identifying players who are at risk of making drug-related mistakes.
“He provides the league and medical experts with invaluable unidentified data on the prevalence of drug use to monitor how serious the problem is. I think the tricky part of that is when something goes public, because around the welfare model and harm minimization, not everything will be made public, and when it does, it can create a little gray area.
“Obviously players don’t operate in a vacuum, they are human too and make mistakes. “We know that drinking impairs judgement, so it would be crazy to think that there are no players in the league who use drugs from time to time. It definitely exists. How common this is, I really can’t say, given that I don’t have all the data.”
Originally published as ‘Never seen this in 15 years’: Great’s big problem with Pies drug scandal as Bucks send warning