Melbourne’s Joel Smith has seen his anti-doping case take a major twist with the player now accused of “trafficking” cocaine, as well as possessing the drug a year before his positive test.
Smith was already facing a two-year suspension after an incident following the Round 23, 2023 match against Hawthorn.
A urine sample collected after the match, as part of routine drug testing, found a small amount of cocaine in his system.
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The AFL confirmed on Tuesday night further Anti-Doping Rule Violations had been made against Smith.
He has been notified of three ADRVs alleged against him for “Trafficking or Attempted Trafficking of cocaine to third parties”, plus an ADRV for alleged possession of a prohibited substance on September 9 2022 – the day of Melbourne’s semi-final loss to Brisbane.
The league explained: “Under the Code, Trafficking in an anti-doping context is relevantly defined to be ‘Selling, giving, transporting, sending, delivering or distributing a Prohibited Substance, by an Athlete … to any third party [but] shall not include actions involving Prohibited Substances which are not prohibited in Out-of-Competition Testing unless the circumstances as a whole demonstrate such Prohibited Substances are not intended for genuine and legal therapeutic purposes or are intended to enhance sport performance’ (Article 1 of the Code).”
The Herald Sun – which broke the story – alleged text messages had been found on Smith’s phone including one sent to Demons teammates where he offered them “a quantity of the drug”.
The story also included suggestions from an unnamed source Smith was being “scapegoated over what they asserted was a wider club issue”.
“It looks like they are planning to hang Joel out to dry for behaviour that is commonplace at Melbourne,” the person told the newspaper.
“It is not unusual for a group of young men who party together to share drugs. Joel might be foolish but he’s hardly Tony Mokbel.
“The club should be taking responsibility for what is happening to Joel instead of blaming him in order to cover up a much wider problem. Joel is not a bad apple in a barrel of clean ones – the whole joint is rotten.”
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In response Melbourne released a statement, saying those views were not reflective of Smith.
“Joel’s management has contacted the club on his behalf to advise that the comments made by the source within the article are not reflective of Joel’s views and the source is not speaking on any authority from Joel,” the Demons said.
“Joel has made it very clear that he has no issues or concerns with anyone at the Melbourne Football Club.
“As the Club has previously stated, we will wait for the investigation to be completed before we update our supporters further.”
Smith remains provisionally suspended and cannot be part of Melbourne’s football program.
Source Agencies
