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