No drugs in the AFL? Don’t be naive says Brown

2008 Hawthorn premiership player Campbell Brown says that it would be naive to think the AFL is 100 per cent clean of performance enhancing drugs.

While Brown says he did not see any players using PEDs during his own footy career, believing the sport to be “really clean” during his days at the Hawks and the Gold Coast Suns, the sheer amount of players now involved in the competition makes it hard to think the AFL is untainted by drug use.

“There’s over 800 players. There could be a couple that are prepared to roll the dice,” Brown said on SEN Breakfast.

“The AFL has got one of the best drug testing codes going around, but if we sit here and go that absolutely no one would be on it, I think that would naive in the extreme just because of the sheer number of players in the competition.”

Andy Maher says he would personally be “shocked” if the AFL had an entirely clean slate, believing the lure of money the League provides today would push players into taking large risks.

“You can make money out of this stuff,” he said.

“When there’s a lot of money to be made out of anything, people will go the extra yard. History tells you that. No matter what it is, they will go the extra yard.”