According to the Nine News report by Tom Morris,the Sydney players were out of competition at the time of the offences.

Sheppard joined the Sydney Swans for a second season after transferring from the Geelong Falcons VFLW side in 2022.

Hamilton joined the Swans in 2022,after playing three games of AFLW with the Gold Coast Suns and North Melbourne.

This is the first time current AFLW players have been publicly charged with illicit drug use,while there have been a slew of recent cases in the men’s league.

The latest being Melbourne utility Joel Smith,who is facing three doping violation allegations for the trafficking or alleged attempted trafficking of cocaine,and a two-year ban from the sport.

After he had his bid for a three-month suspension rejected by Sport Integrity Australia,two sources close to the situation who are unauthorised to speak on Smith’s behalf told this masthead he is likely to fight for his career through the appeals process on the basis that the substance was used out of competition and was not performance enhancing.

Other recent cases include that of Hawthorn,then-Collingwood,small forward Jack Ginnivan,who was photographed with a white substance in content that circulated on social media.

Former Swans player Brandon Jack wrote for this masthead that as a past player,his answer to whether the AFL has a drug problem is that both men and women’s players do cocaine.

“As a former player,my answer to this is that AFLM players take cocaine. AFLW players take cocaine. Local footy players take cocaine,” said Jack. “As do teachers,lawyers,doctors. According tofederal government research,more than one million Australians used cocaine in 2019. A lot of people have,at some point in their lives,touched cocaine.”

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