When Andrew Johns sat down with Phil Gould in that amazing interview, the consensus was that he was  courageous for laying himself on the line. Bulls**t! Courage would have been to have come clean about his drug taking before his arrest, not when the secret was already out there.

Make no mistake, that interview with former coach and mentor Gould would not have been easy. At times, Johns looked like a naughty schoolboy who had been caught smoking behind the bike shed. In the end, it appeared to be a cathartic experience for Johns. It was as if the secret had been a physical burden for the League superstar.

There has been enough written about whether mental illness is a valid excuse for taking illicit substances. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on players at the top of the game. Ben Cousins, one of the AFL’s finest, succumbed to drug use and it really wasn’t that much of a surprise to hear that Johns too had fallen into the trap.

'It is difficult to imagine that Johns' club and teammates weren’t aware of his drug use'


The really curious thing out of this, and the Cousins case, is the lack of reaction from the public and the media. If anything, there seems to be an air of sympathy and understanding. When Cousins went into rehab in the USA, there was excitement that an AFL superstar was going to the same clinic as Britney Spears.

Compare that reaction to the scorn and derision poured on Michael Rasmussen and Alex Vinokourov for doping during the Tour de France. It is as if somehow “recreational” (a euphemism for illicit) drugs are more acceptable, despite there being no logical reason for that conclusion. Well, one of our national heroes is an armed robber (Ned Kelly if you can’t figure it out), so we Aussies have  skewed view on these things.

What is slightly less curious, but infinitely more disappointing, is the blind eye that the authorities have been turning to this behaviour. The temptation must be great. Johns was widely regarded to be the best League player in the world, making it difficult to drop him on something as trivial as drug use. It’s unbelievable really.

Rumours about Johns’ drug use have been around for years. It is difficult to imagine that his club and teammates weren’t aware of it. Indeed, his drug use is believed to have been the reason behind the failure of the deal for Johns to cross over to Union and his arrest for possession in London ended his coaching chances with the Wallabies.

The drug policies of the AFL and NRL must be called into question. Johns never tested positive and neither did Ben Cousins, despite long standing drug habits. Even in the wake of Johns’ confession, the NRL has announced that players will get a six week “break” where they won’t be tested for the presence of illicit substances such as cocaine or ecstasy. This is tantamount to an open invitation to go out and get stoned and even implied approval of the drug taking.

Why can’t these clowns get it right? Modern sport demands a zero tolerance approach to drug use not a further relaxation of the scrutiny. But we all know that they’re not really serious are they. Take the drug users out of these sports and there’d be no players left. Not really, but sometimes it really makes you wonder.

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