“I’m not a criminal”: Mathieson reveals jail threat in doping saga

Former Brisbane midfielder Rhys Mathieson has been hit with a three-year ban for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

The 28-year-old didn’t play at any level in 2025 after being provisionally suspended, with his ban coming from a positive test last year while playing for QAFL club Wilston Grange.

Mathieson played 72 games for Brisbane from 2016 to 2023 and has since trained as a bodybuilder post his football career.

According to the Herald Sun, photos posted to Mathieson’s social media could have attracted attention from Sports Integrity Australia.

In the wake of the ban, the ex-Lion himself joined SEN's The Run Home with Andy and Gazey to explain why he had taken performance enhancing drugs

In his words, he decided to take them as part of his push to become a bodybuilder.

But he acknowledges that he wouldn't have played football had his testing shown that he was doping.

“It’s gone bananas as you expect it would have. The phone’s been going off,” Mathieson said.

“The reason why, as I've explained on my social media platform, is I've found a new passion in the bodybuilding world.

“I've taken great sort of liking to it throughout my AFL career, but I obviously wasn't able to sort of dabble into that side of things during my playing career as we've been told with restrictions and all this stuff.

“I thought I had taken measures personally to make sure that I was under the conditions that I would be okay to play, getting blood work done.

“I had committed to a club, so I needed take protocols knowing that I could play at a fair level.

“I thought I took those protocols and my testing wasn’t showing anything, but I got it wrong and this is not a ‘poor me’ or ‘I’m the victim’.

“I wasn't doping for cheating at this level. I'd found a new passion. I just got it wrong.

“I wouldn't have played if I had known. I know the consequences behind it.”

While taking performance-enhacing drugs is frowned upon just about eveywhere in sport and society, that's not the case in the bodybuilding world.

“It (taking performance enhancers) is probably the path that majority of the sport (bodybuilding) leads down,” Mathieson said.

“I'm not right deep into it. I'm just starting off. But it's something that I'll definitely consider down the track.

“It’s a goal of mine to hopefully become a pro at this at this sport. I’d love to reach the top end like I did at the AFL level, so it'd be pretty cool to do it in the bodybuilding scene too.”

Mathieson also acknowledged that he even could have faced jail time and heavy fines if he didn't comply with ASADA throughout the investigation, something he was absolutely unwilling to risk.

“I don't want to get it too wrong here, but I spoke to lawyers, and it goes into a system where it can go to a higher court,” Mathieson added.

“You can face a few fines and then when my lawyer said it could potentially lead to some jail time, that’s when I really started to think, ‘Oh god, this is getting quite out of hand’. I’m not a criminal, by any means.

“The phone was tough to hand over, like it's got a lot of my personal stuff on there… so that was a tough pill to swallow.

“But I was always willing to commit to cooperate with ASADA.

“But when it started talking about fines getting up to $60,000 and potential jail time (I didn’t want it to get there).”

As he’s already served a year while provisionally suspended, Mathieson will be banned until August 10, 2027.

While he won’t be able to play, he can return to training in June 2027.