Drinking by professional Australian Football League (AFL) players: prevalence and correlates of risk

The varied impacts of alcohol consumption on the lives of professional Australian Football League (AFL) players have received significant media and political interest. However, little is known about patterns of alcohol consumption and related harms among this group of elite sportspeople, or sportspeople more generally. This is surprising, given that the pressures of sport competition and the psychological demands of intense training may lead athletes to use alcohol as a tool for stress relief.1-3 Furthermore, sportspeople may experience significant pressure from team mates and coaches to drink together in order to increase team cohesion and bonding.4

There have been few studies of alcohol consumption and harm among professional sportspeople. In a 1988 study of 56 Victorian Football League players from one club, the recorded average daily intake of alcohol during the playing season was about two Australian Standard Drinks (ASD) (one ASD contains 10 g absolute alcohol).5 However, this analysis masks significant variation, with average intake on the day of highest consumption being about 12 ASD — reflecting a pattern of “binge” drinking that is thought to be an important part of team bonding.5 Similarly, analysis of food diaries used in a related study conducted in 1991 suggested that, while AFL players consumed virtually no alcohol during their regular training week, alcohol intake increased significantly on the evening after a game.6

Studies of non-professional elite sportspeople (typically in university or United States college athlete settings) generally show that they have higher rates of hazardous drinking than non-sportspeople and non-elite sportspeople.7,8 These differences are primarily related to heavy episodic or binge drinking rates, but are also apparent from measures of average weekly consumption.7,9 Rates of heavy episodic drinking have been shown to vary according to the type of sport engaged in and the time of year, with the highest rates occurring during out-of-competition times.7

We were commissioned by the AFL and AFL Players Association (AFLPA) to conduct a survey of professional AFL footballers, because it is recognised that excessive alcohol consumption is an issue for AFL footballers and for young people in the general population, and an area where further action needs to be taken to educate players about the importance of responsible drinking strategies. The key aims of the survey were to develop a greater understanding of alcohol use and self-reported experience of alcohol-related harms by AFL footballers so that the results could assist the AFL in developing an effective approach to responsible alcohol policy and governance. We report on key patterns of consumption across the year in comparison with available Australian normative data, along with correlates of one key risky consumption pattern and one measure of hazardous drinking.

A total of 582 professional AFL players completed the questionnaire. Based on the assumption that a full list of 44 players from each of the 16 clubs was available to participate, this represents a response rate of 582/704 (83%). This is likely to be conservative, as some players were absent from the training sessions during which questionnaires were completed (eg, through illness or injury). Anonymity requirements precluded the identification of missing players.

To our knowledge, our findings represent the first published comprehensive examination of alcohol consumption and experience of alcohol-related harms among elite professional sportspeople. The overall picture of consumption is one of relative restraint during the pre-season and home-and-away periods, coupled with relatively high levels of consumption outside these periods. While there are no comparable data available on the seasonality of consumption among similar age groups of men in the general population, it is likely that the seasonal patterns in AFL players are connected directly to phases of the playing year in a way that is different from drinking patterns in the rest of the Australian population, which probably increase during different holiday and vacation periods across the year. Overall, the pattern of self-reported monthly risky/high-risk drinking for short-term harm during the home-and-away season is important, as it may be a marker for players who are unable to moderate their alcohol use during the whole of this important period in their work and playing lives.

We were surprised by some of our findings. We expected that player characteristics such as increased age or experience or being part of the club leadership group would be associated with reduced rates of risky drinking for short-term harm during the home-and-away season. Instead, the only association we found was that married players were less likely to engage in hazardous drinking. The finding of moderated drinking patterns for married participants is consistent with research findings in other populations.16 However, even this association with marital status did not hold for the measure of monthly risky drinking for short-term harm in the home-and-away season. This may suggest that the cultural/contextual norms of risky drinking during the playing season (eg, to celebrate a win) serve to override any moderating influences provided by marriage.

Players’ experiences of some alcohol-related harms were associated with risky drinking patterns. It is perhaps not surprising that those who reported experiencing alcohol-related harms reported risky drinking patterns. These harms variables serve as useful markers of problematic drinking that could be used to target prevention efforts.

The drinking context variables highlight the cultural influence of individual clubs on drinking behaviours, with membership of specific clubs influencing both outcome measures to some extent. This suggests that the good work being done by some clubs in encouraging responsible consumption needs to be identified and replicated in other clubs. This good work should extend beyond the mere establishment of formal club rules on drinking, as our study showed that club rules had little effect on drinking outcomes.

It was also notable that drinking in public by this group of high-profile individuals was associated with a higher level of risky drinking. The high profile of professional AFL players in society means that in these settings players are often targeted for alcohol promotions. We found that such promotions were also independently associated with risky drinking. Player education by clubs needs to focus on how to manage these promotions as well as the scrutiny that having such a high profile affords.

Our study is the first published study of its kind. The support of the AFL and AFLPA, along with assurances of confidentiality, meant that we were able to achieve an excellent response rate across all clubs in Australia. Nevertheless, the data were collected using self-report, which may underestimate actual consumption. Further, the estimates of long-term risk among players need to be interpreted with care, as they have been applied to short periods (eg, end-of-season), and the level of risk only becomes meaningful if players consume at the specified levels for long periods. Finally, although we employed instruments used in other research, the meaning of some questions is open to interpretation. For example, “fight” is a term used to define any argument or disagreement and can be verbal or physical, and it is not clear how players interpreted this term.

A key recommendation in the National Alcohol Strategy17 is to change harmful drinking cultures. This study, commissioned by the AFL and AFLPA, provides a unique insight into AFL drinking culture. Our findings suggest that while rates of both weekly risky drinking for short-term harm and risky drinking for long-term harm were lower during the playing season than rates found in the Australian male population, rates of monthly risky drinking for short-term harm in all parts of the year were higher among professional AFL players than men in the Australian population as a whole. Additionally, risky drinking for short-term harm during non-playing periods was extremely high. A key question arising from our research is to what extent the overall seasonal pattern of consumption is embedded in the cultural norms of AFL football. It is also unclear whether players retire from professional AFL football with an embedded drinking pattern that places them at risk of alcohol-related harm. The idiosyncratic seasonal alcohol consumption pattern observed in our study highlights the need for club and league strategies to minimise the harm to players.

5 Distribution of AUDIT scores recorded for the players (n = 579)

AUDIT = Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.