They go in as kids. They are young teenagers when the recruitment process starts. The AFL pours money into directly encouraging teenagers to devote their time to playing football, over and above a recreational activity. Kids with a bit of talent are lured into the system, because recruitment is a numbers game.
My point is that, if you focus on trying to solve drugs as a problem, you will get nowhere. It's an easy way for the industry to throw their hands up in the air and avoid being accountable.
There are things the AFL can control, one of those things is how it treats the people who don't quite make it, or that are have trouble coping with the world they've found themselves in.
They are there to dance for our amusement, it's doesn't need to be a brutal test of mental strength.
