AFL confirms former Lion's doping ban

THE AFL has confirmed former Brisbane player Rhys Mathieson has been banned for three years for an anti-doping violation.

An in-competition sample collected from Mathieson on August 10 last year, when he was playing for Wilston Grange in the Queensland Australian Football League, detected the presence of the banned substance Oxymetholone, which is listed as an Anabolic Androgenic Steroid in the the World Anti-Doping Code.

STATEMENT AFL statement on Rhys Mathieson

A three-year suspension means Mathieson is banned from any sports that have a World Anti-Doping Code policy until August 10, 2027.

On Thursday, Mathieson said he was aware the substance he took was banned.

The 28-year-old said once his career in the AFL ended, he wanted to pursue a bodybuilding career and was happy to put "anything" in his body.

"I dived into a lot of gym supplements, I mean a lot – a lot of them. And some you would just buy off the shelves ... and some of the boys had their own and I was willing to put anything, sort of, in my body to transform," Mathieson said on the Rip Through It podcast.

"I liked the science behind transforming your body. I really have a passion for it, I like to see these guys competing.

"And one day maybe I will compete. So that is a goal, I would love to be from a pro footy player to a pro bodybuilder.

"That would be a pretty cool thing. That is where my focus went when I knew AFL wasn't going to be the plan.

"Once I started doing it I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the timings of meals and supplements and vitamins and pre workouts and all these proteins.

"All this stuff that I wasn't allowed to have in AFL."

Mathieson played 72 AFL games for the Lions - the last of which was in 2022 - after being drafted with pick 39 in the 2015 draft.

He was unable to break into the Lions' senior team in 2023 as it pushed towards a Grand Final and was delisted at the end of that year.

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