Travis Tuck

Professional Football Player
 

Travis Tuck was born on 9th July 1987 into an already famous football family. 
 

Son of Hawthorn great Michael Tuck, brother of Richmond midfielder Shane Tuck, nephew of Geelong great Gary Ablett Sr, and cousin of Geelong stars Gary Ablett Jnr and Nathan Ablett, Travis was selected with a father-son selection in the 2005 AFL Draft.  He is one of Hawthorn's numerous developing players, displaying good football smarts, versatility, and size.
 

Members of the Tuck family tend to take longer than normal to develop into senior players, but once they get there, they display remarkable durability. Father Michael did not play his first full season in Hawthorn's senior side until he was 22 years of age, and brother Shane played his first full season at Richmond aged 23.
 

Travis' football career was progressing well until 2010 when he failed to play a game in the Hawks senior side. 
 

The reasons behind his struggles began to emerge when Travis was found unconscious in a car by police on 27th August as a result of a drug overdose.    He then became the first player to receive a third strike under the AFL's illicit drugs policy and the investigations that followed revealed that Travis had been using drugs as a result of clinical depression.
 

Travis then publicly acknowledged “I have been dealing with personal and medical issues for the past 12 months”.
 

Unfortunately his own success in football meant that his struggles with depression had not only a huge impact on him, his family and career, but that it was all very public with a lot of media attention.
 

Hopefully there are some positives to emerge from Travis' experience.   The Hawthorn coach, Alistair Clarkson, said that his biggest regret about being oblivious to Travis Tuck's ongoing battle with depression was that he did not treat him more compassionately and that it had "really sharpened our focus in terms of how we look after our players".   (SMH article Sept 3 2010)
 

Drug and alcohol use /abuse are very common issues for people with depression and the AFL gave Travis the minimum penalty possible under it's 3-Strike drug use policy, acknowledging the impact that his illness had. 

 

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Policy helped Tuck's depression diagnosis, says Anderson
by Michael Gleeson
The Age
September 2nd 2010
 

HAWTHORN'S suspended player Travis Tuck was only diagnosed with clinical depression because he failed a second drugs test.
 

The drug-testing regime's ability to detect Tuck and then help in diagnosing the cause of his problems was proof of the value of the three strikes policy, according to the AFL's football operations manager Adrian Anderson.
 

''The depression was diagnosed after being picked up under the illicit-drug policy," Anderson said. "He had been, I understand, suffering from depression for some time but the intensive treatment didn't begin until he'd been picked up under the policy
 

Advertisement: Story continues below ''If we didn't have a policy – and I've spoken to Travis's medical adviser about this – Travis's situation today could very well be very different.''
 

Anderson then defended punishing Tuck with a 12-game suspension if it was accepted his drug use stemmed from a medical illness.
 

"It is a really difficult question. The reason we go down that track is because we are advised that there needed to be a punishment component at some form of the policy because if a player fails to turn up to counselling, for example, that is a positive test so someone who is thumbing their nose at the policy by not turning up will ultimately go through to the punishment stage.''
 

Travis Tuck's father, Michael, the AFL games record holder, attended the tribunal with his son on Tuesday and sat through the meetings with the league and the tribunal.
 

"I am operating on the assumption that he [Travis Tuck] didn't tell anyone from the club [about his two failed drug tests before the weekend]," Anderson said.
 

He added that Tuck had recorded his third strike not from a failed drug test, but by coming to the attention of police after being found unconscious in his car on Friday evening with a quantity of the drug GHB with him and drug paraphernalia.
 

"It is not just through testing that you can have a positive under the illicit drugs policy," he said.
 

Anderson said the Tuck situation was "very different" from Ben Cousins, who did not fail three strikes but was banned for 12 months.
 

Players' association chief executive Matt Finnis said Tuck's situation was ''incredibly unfortunate … but it also demonstrates just what the illicit-drugs policy was designed to do … to identify players who are in trouble and give them the help they need".
 

This article is on The Age website at:  http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/policy-helped-tucks-depression-diagnosis-says-anderson-20100901-14nj8.html

 

Reviewed January 2011