Nathan Buckley says he can understand the perception of the Melbourne Football Club after Joel Smith’s alleged illicit drug indiscretion because he lived a similar situation at Collingwood in 2016.
Just days before the 2016 AFL season got underway Collingwood was rocked by the reporting that up to 11 Magpies players tested positive for illicit drugs over the preceding summer.
It was the year after Josh Thomas and Lachie Keeffe were rubbed out for two seasons, with allegations of a drug culture following around Buckley’s Collingwood.
The same questions are now being put to Melbourne, with Joel Smith recording a positive drug test late in the 2023 home and away season. Sports Integrity Australia also alleges him of drug trafficking, with News Corp reporting Smith offered cocaine to a teammate.
“I’ve lived it in a sense of one that came out of the box, in 2016 there was a story by Mark Robinson: Up to 11 Collingwood players had tested positive to illicit drugs under the AFL’s illicit drugs protocol,” Buckley began.
“The difficulty in that isn’t so much whether it's right or wrong, it’s the perception externally… I think Melbourne would be going through this at the moment, there was a de-identified photo of a Collingwood player which is the crux of the matter.
“Right now, there will be players in Melbourne who are teetotallers and don’t believe that’s the way to go about it, but they’re in some way now tarred with (the allegations).
“The question is about any Melbourne player at the moment. This is what’s happening with Joel Smith, the (concerns) around Clayton Oliver, is it a deeper consideration? The coaching challenge here is it is almost impossible to meet with each player and their opinion or their feelings on being labelled as part of an environment that has a drug challenge.
“Some younger players will feel like they don’t want to talk about it and they’ll sweep it under the carpet and there will be conversations in the corner of the locker room. This is a real leadership challenge, both in the locker room and for the coaching group for Melbourne to keep everything on track.”
Collingwood went on to struggle in the 2016 season, finishing with nine wins.
With a cloud now cast over Melbourne’s entire playing list given Smith’s trafficking charge, captain Max Gawn has been forced to defend the Demons’ culture.
Footy boss Alan Richardson insisted his club isn’t rocked by a drug culture on SEN last week.
“No, we don’t (have a drug culture). We’ve certainly had an incident with respect to Joel that’s still being investigated. We don’t get enormous information, at this stage they are still allegations and his legal team are working through that. Our role with Joel is almost at arm’s length from that perspective. It’s closer in terms of supporting him,” he said.
“No, we’ve had a couple of issues and we’ve been working through some things with Clayton (Oliver) and I don’t want to go into too much detail there. I think we all know that’s quite a unique case and he’s had some challenges, he’s going really well now and whilst there’s still a bit of work to do, that’s going well.”
Only player availability and inaccuracy robbed the Demons of going further in the 2023 finals series. Steven May declared in the aftermath that he and his teammates are “a better team than (2023 premiers Collingwood), we should have smoked them”.
But recent events have put more question marks on whether the Demons can stand up and win a second flag in their premiership era.
On Melbourne’s chances of success in 2024, Buckley added: “It doesn’t mean that success isn’t possible, it is. But it makes it harder”.
