Former AFL player Joel Smith claims he does not know why he is being labelled a drug trafficker, despite testing positive for cocaine following a match in 2023, which led to a lengthy ban.
The ex-Demons defender has spoken for the first time, 19 months after being banned from playing in any organised sport until 2028.
Appearing on The Watch podcast with a former Demons media staffer Ben Gibson, Smith was directly asked if he feels “stiff” to have been caught, which he rejected, but claims he still does not fully know why he was hit with the trafficking charges.
“I don’t really feel sorry for myself,” he said.
“No one forces you to do it. You make your decisions, it is all my fault really in the end. My mistake, I’ve just got to own it, and that’s just what it is.
“There’s no point in pointing fingers at other people. What’s that going to get you? You’ve just got to man up.
“I just had to come to an agreement with it all because it was getting too much for me mentally and my family.
“Under the rules of the sport, technically, it is (trafficking), but to call me a trafficker, it’s pretty harsh. It’s one thing I’m definitely not.
“To be fighting those two cases, it probably would’ve rolled on – I’d probably still be fighting it.”
While the 29-year-old has admitted to taking the drug, he remains adamant that he did not use it on game day – which is a much larger offence under the rules, as it is considered a performance-enhancing drug.
But he recalls the moment that he ‘was caught’.
Joel Smith. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
“It was a bit of a deflating feeling because I’m like ‘oh f*** I think I’m in trouble here’,” he said.
“I went in (to the club), and it was a shocking feeling, and then you get involved with lawyers, you don’t really understand how much lawyers cost until you’re dealing with them,” he said.
“The first three months was horrible. I thought I was going to be back playing, which is the thing that sucks.”
Smith played 28 games in six years and has not given up on a return to the sport in one form or another, but says he is currently happy where he is now, working in construction while being a father to two young children born after receiving the ban.
“I’m going to go back to play footy. Jeez, if I get another crack at AFL or whatever it is, playing local,” Smith said.
“But I’ll definitely go back into playing footy of some sort.
“I think I’ll be 31, so I’ll be a young 31, at least the body’s not going to get knocked around. I’ve still got that time frame so I’ll stay fit.
“I think I can start training four months before my ban ends, so I’ll just get ready for that … if it’s local or you want to give AFL another crack.
“But I’ve still got two and a half years, so we’ll just stay fit and just work and just be a good dad in that time.”
Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) and the AFL charged him with five anti-doping rule violations under the Australian Football Anti-Doping Code.
