Former Brisbane Lion Rhys Mathieson has been handed a three-year suspension after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs.
The 28-year-old, who played 72 games for the Lions from 2016 to 2023, had turned to bodybuilding after his AFL career and built a following on social media.
Going by nicknames like 'Beast Mode' or 'the Barometer', Mathieson had transformed his body by adding enormous muscle mass to his 186cm frame.
Mathieson had continued playing footy in the QAFL with Wilston Grange and as first reported by the Herald Sun, he was tested by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority last year.
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Mathieson reportedly tested positive to an anabolic steroid and has been banned from appearing in an Aussie Rules game at any level until August 2027.
Last year on his podcast Rip Throught It, Mathieson spoke about a time drug testers came to his parents' home at 5am.
“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," he 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.
“(Dad) 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 (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.”
While he wasn't tested that day, the authority did eventually conduct a test, leading to Mathieson's long ban from playing footy.