{"id":249812,"date":"2025-10-30T00:48:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T00:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249812\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T00:48:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T00:48:19","slug":"former-brisbane-midfielder-suspended-breaks-silence-following-ban-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/249812\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Brisbane midfielder suspended, breaks silence following ban – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Brisbane Lions<\/a> player Rhys Mathieson<\/a> has received a three-year suspension after returning a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

As first reported by the Herald Sun, the 72-game former Lions midfielder tested positive for the anabolic steroid oxymetholone.<\/p>\n

He is banned from playing football again until August 10 2027, but can begin training in June of that year.<\/p>\n

Speaking on his podcast\u00a0Rip Through It with former teammate and Brisbane player Mitch Robinson<\/a>, Mathieson reveals his story.<\/p>\n

“Before we get started, I don’t want this to be a feel sorry for me or I’m a victim in this. I take full responsibility for what happened,” Mathieson says.<\/p>\n

“This is why I’d like to tell the story because some things just didn’t add up, but at the same time, I fully agree with whatever we went through, but some bizarre events happened.”<\/p>\n

Since retiring from the AFL<\/a> in 2023, Mathieson has gained status on social media documenting a bodybuilding journey as he piled on more than 10 kilograms.<\/p>\n

The Queenslander most recently played competitive football in the QAFL in 2023, before being provisionally suspended because he tested positive for performance-enhancing substances within 12 months of retiring from the AFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old took the substance for non-football reasons, which was taken into account when his ban was handed down.<\/p>\n

“When the trades didn’t go through, I thought, ‘ Look, I am going to follow my passion, the dream is sort of over for footy now. So I’m going to follow my next passion, which was bodybuilding,” Mathieson says.<\/p>\n

“So when I stepped into that world, I had a lot of friends who were already in there and some mates who were quite big or whatever.<\/p>\n

“I dived into a lot of gym supplements, I mean a lot \u2013 a lot of them. And some you would just buy off the shelves or whatever, and some of the boys had their own, and I was willing to, you know, put anything, sort of, in my body to transform.<\/p>\n

“I liked the science behind transforming your body. I really have a passion for it, I like to see these guys competing.<\/p>\n

\"Demon'sRhys Mathieson during the round 22 AFL match between St Kilda and Brisbane on August 12, 2022 (Photo by Cameron Grimes \/ Zero Digital Media)<\/p>\n

“Once I started doing it, I fell in love with it.<\/p>\n

“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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I thought I am going to have a crazy pre-workout now and all this stuff, and I am aware it is banned.<\/p>\n

“But at the same point, I am only getting ready for local footy. These guys (I’m playing against), you know, they drink beers before the game, they go out the night before the game.<\/p>\n

“I am going to take whatever pre-workout. I am going to take whatever substance I want. I am going to be OK.”<\/p>\n

Mathieson acknowledged that THE photo of him in the gym was “what made it go bananas”.<\/p>\n

Mathieson most recently played for Brisbane in its 2022 preliminary final loss after debuting in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Brisbane Lions player Rhys Mathieson has received a three-year suspension after returning a positive test for performance-enhancing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-249812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}