Former Magpies champion comes clean

Updated September 19, 2012 12:42:37

Collingwood premiership star Gavin Crosisca has admitted battling drink and drug addiction throughout his 25-year playing and coaching career.

The champion defender said the trouble began when he first sipped alcohol at the age of 15 and involved an amphetamine addiction after taking it at during the Magpies' 1990 premiership celebrations.

"Before I came to Collingwood my addiction was on fire inside me," Crosisca told Fox Sports.

"I actually brought a reasonable amount of cannabis down here when I first moved to Melbourne and I thought that was going to be it.

"I was hoping I'd be able to work my way through it, put it behind me and then look at getting into a positive football career."

Crosisca said his drug addiction was an anti-social habit and one he kept from team-mates and his family.

"It's cost myself and my family enormously - emotionally, spiritually, materially, mentally, it cost us everything, especially my wife," he said.

"It ended up completely devastating my family and my life as I knew it.

"All I'd known was masking, covering feelings and emotions up with drugs for so long. On reflection it's a lot of manipulation, a lot of lies, a lot of dishonesty.

"If ever I was confronted it would be defensive responses from me, blaming others."

"I was feeling it was perfect for me, it just gave me confidence, it allowed me to communicate well and it changed the person I thought I was."

Crosisca is one of the most decorated VFL/AFL players to come from Queensland, having played 246 games for Collingwood, before taking on assistant coaching roles at North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Carlton.

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, collingwood-3066

First posted September 19, 2012 11:39:06

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We can keep code squeaky clean: AFL

Updated May 24, 2011 17:56:00

The AFL says banning exotic bets would force gambling underground but insists it can keep the code clean.

As Carlton coach Brett Ratten stated he would sack anyone leaking inside information, the AFL backed its anti-gambling rules to prevail over any corruption.

AFL operations manager Adrian Anderson refused to detail if the league was investigating claims of plunges on exotic bets, amid fears of club insiders leaking sensitive information.

"It's a tricky question whether you should enable first goal betting, for example, to exist," Anderson said.

"If you tried to ban it, as a sport there is no doubt what would happen is it would go underground, such as the illegal betting market in India.

"And that is the worst thing that can happen.

"Because as soon as we lose track with what is happening with the betting, we lose the ability to properly investigate and control it."

Ratten says he would have no hesitation in showing someone the door at Carlton if they leaked information.

"I'd be pretty disappointed if people are, and if they are and I find out, they won't be at our football club," he said.

"Yeah I would (sack them)."

Sydney coach John Longmire revealed AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou spoke to the Swans last week about the gambling threat.

"It's something we have seen in other sports and it's something we don't want to get involved in our game," Longmire said.

"How we control that, I'm not sure to be honest, because it's very tough when you've got players that have obviously got family and friends and they know what positions they are playing in.

"Do you tell them not to tell anybody else?

"I think that is the difficulty, that is the challenge I think for the whole industry."

While Geelong coach Chris Scott feels protecting club tactics is "critically important", Anderson says betting agencies tell the league of any plunge.

"I don't comment on particular instances of when they do that," Anderson said.

"But every time there is an irregular betting activity, they are required under their agreements to report that to the AFL.

"If they don't, they can lose their licence to bet on AFL.

"What we have in place is agreements with every bookmaker who takes bets on football that they must share their information with us.

"So whenever there is any irregular betting activity, our integrity division looks at those."

- AAP

Tags: sport, australian-football-league, australia

First posted May 24, 2011 17:26:00

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