Ex-Lion Rhys Mathieson cops 3-year ban for using steroids

The Herald Sun has confirmed Mathieson, who played 72 AFL games between 2016 and 2023, submitted a positive test last year playing for Wilston Grange in the QAFL.

The Herald Sun understands the former Lion tested positive to banned anabolic steroid oxymetholone.

Mathieson, 28, did not play football this year as he had been provisionally suspended from all levels of Australian Rules.

He last played an AFL game in the 2022 preliminary final loss to Geelong and retired from the Lions at the end of 2023.

Mathieson said on Thursday he was keen to pursue a bodybuilding career and was happy to put “anything” in his body to build bulk.

He said he was fully aware the steroid he took was banned.

“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 said on the ‘Rip Through It’ podcast.

“I have a high interest in health and fitness.

“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.

“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 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 …

“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.

“I thought I am going to have a crazy pre-workout now and all this stuff and I am aware it is banned.

“But at the same point I am only getting ready for local footy.

“These guys, you know, they drink beers before the game, they go out the night before the game.

“I am going to take whatever pre-workout. I am going to take whatever substance I want. I am going to be OK.”

Mathieson said he suffered from a mental health condition body dismorphic disorder which affects people’s view of their own bodies and self-image.

“Even through the year I was thinking if I wasn’t playing footy I would be so much bigger right now,” he said

“I really easily got body dismorphia.

“What I really wanted to be was big. And now I know how long it takes to put on muscle.”

Mathieson is banned from playing football until August 10, 2027 but can return to training in June that year.

The Lara product has continued to train as a bodybuilder in his time out, adding more than 10kg of muscle last year.

Social media photos could have attracted attention from Sports Integrity Australia for testing.

The man nicknamed “Beast mode” fell under the AFL’s anti-doping code in 2024 as he tested positive to a performance-enhancing substance within 12 months of retiring from the AFL.

There are maximum four-year bans for players who test positive for performance enhancing drugs.

Mathieson’s punishment was reduced from four years to three years, due to the former Lion admitting he intentionally used the drugs for non-football related purposes.

The SIA also reduced his penalty because the official governing body admitted the case had been unnecessarily delayed.

Former Melbourne utility Joel Smith was last year banned for four years and three months after testing positive to cocaine on match day.

Smith provided a positive sample after a round 23 win over Hawthorn in August 2023.

His suspension related to five rule violations including trafficking or attempted trafficking of cocaine.

Smith was delisted by Melbourne late last year.

Mathieson spoke about drug-testers arriving at his parents’ house at 5am on his podcast last year.

“So 5am in the morning, buzzer is going off at the front door. I don’t live at this residence no more, my mum and dad do,” Mathieson said.

“My poor mum is going, ‘What the hell. Why is there two guys buzzing our door at 5am?’ She’s getting a bit worried, a bit scared.

“(She) sends the old boy there, he’s in his jocks, has to throw on the dressing gown.

“He opens the door and he goes, ‘What do you blokes want?’ ... at this hour it’s dark, he can barely see.

“And they’re like, ‘Anti-doping’. He just goes like, ‘Nah, not interested. And shuts it (the door). So he was thinking it was like an electricity company trying to sell him something.

“So then he goes and has his coffee and 30 minutes later they’re still there. He said, ‘Seriously, what do you guys want?’

“And that’s when they said this is anti-doping, we’re here to test Rhys Mathieson.”