Longest VFL/AFL Suspensions

Collingwood defender Sam Murray and Gold Coast ruckman Brayden Crossley are both facing four-year doping bans after testing positive to cocaine on match-day. If the players receive the maximum suspension it would rank amongst the lengthiest bans in VFL/AFL history.

Below are the top biggest suspensions in the competition’s history.

5. Josh Thomas and Lachie Keeffe (2 years)

Former Collingwood duo Josh Thomas and Lachie Keeffe (now at Greater Western Sydney) accepted two-year bans and were fined $50,000 in 2015. This was a result of testing positive to clenbuterol, a banned performance enhancing drug. The penalty remains the largest imposed on AFL footballers for doping. However, the suspension could have been significantly larger as shortly after the players tested positive, the maximum penalty for doping under the WADA code was doubled to four years.

4. Bill Burns (46 games)

In 1909, former Geelong midfielder Bill Burns, now playing for Richmond has handed a life sentence by the VFL tribunal for kicking a Melbourne opponent at the MCG. Burns moved to WAFL club West Perth the following season in 1910 before returning to the VFL in 1912 as his life ban had been lifted. In total Burns’ ban last 46 matches, the fourth largest in VFL/AFL history.

3. Fred Rutley (89 games)

Former North Melbourne footballer Fred Rutley’s involvement in an infamous in 1925 half-time brawl against Geelong Ardern Street earned him a life suspension. Rutley was found guilty of six charges that included multiple counts of kicking. He pleaded not guilty but refused to provide an evidence. After serving 89 games of his life ban, his suspension was lifted. It remains the largest penalty ever handed down for an on field incident.

2. Doug Fraser and Alex Lang (5 years)

One of the biggest scandals in Australian Football history was the 1910 bribery scandal that engulfed that year’s finals series and the Carlton Football Club. The Blues and the VFL investigated three Carlton players (Doug Fraser, Alex Lang and Doug Gillespie) after allegations surfaced that they had accepted bribes to ‘play dead’. Gillespie was cleared and returned to play in the 1910 Grand Final but Fraser and Lang were found guilty and were suspended in disgrace for five years.

1.Stephen Dank (Life)

Dank was the mastermind of Essendon’s disastrous 2011-2012 supplements program that brought the Essendon Football Club to its knees. It also resulted in 34 past and present Essendon players from being suspended for the 2016 season. To this day it is not entirely known what Stephen Dank injected them with. In 2015, the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal banned him for life. He is prohibited from working in any sporting event or competition in the world ever again.

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