St Kilda recruit Jake Carlisle has a mountain of work to do to appease ropeable players and personnel at his new AFL club after admitting to snorting white powder in Las Vegas.
St Kilda have put Carlisle on notice, but the player and club have failed to provide any clarity on what substance he snorted in a video.
Within 24 hours of joining the Saints in trade period, Carlisle released an apologetic statement via the AFL Players' Association after a frank conversation with coach Alan Richardson.
The reason was a grainy video of Carlisle snorting white powder, which was broadcast on Wednesday night by The Nine Network.
Carlisle's US holiday will end prematurely, the 24-year-old to fly home soon as he prepares to face the music.
"Our players will be ruthless and have very high expectations of Jake," Saints chief executive Matt Finnis said.
"He will have to go about building relationships and he's got a long pre-season ahead of him.
"We can talk about punishment, but I don't know that there would be anything more confronting facing Jake Carlisle right now than knowing he's got to front Nick Riewoldt and our leadership group.
"They have spoken about this. They're absolutely filthy."
Carlisle acknowledged the clip would make for some awkward introductions at his new club.
"St Kilda have shown great confidence in me," he wrote.
"When I start with them, I will need to earn their respect and win back the confidence of the playing group and broader Saints community.
"I will learn from my mistake and, when I return to Australia, I will commit to any club or AFL requirements or educational programs."
Carlisle highlighted the fact he was "embarrassed and truly sorry" for a "very poor decision".
"The video casts me in a very poor light and reveals clearly inappropriate behaviour which I regret but am accountable for," he noted.
Yet there was no reference to what substance the ex-Essendon defender snorted in the video or why he sent the clip via social media app Snapchat.
Finnis condemned Carlisle's actions but was also unwilling to clarify whether it was an illicit drug in the video.
"I'm not going to talk about the specifics of what is or is not depicted in that video, apart from saying that it is very clear what Jake is putting his hand up to," Finnis said.
"Jake is not saying I've made a mistake because I've been caught; I've made a mistake because I've misused social media.
"He's putting his hand up in an unequivocal way and accepting responsibility for behaviour that we would say is inappropriate and unacceptable at our club."
Finnis and Richardson have worked incredibly hard in recent years, fixing St Kilda's culture and making them far more competitive on the field.
The obvious question is whether the Saints would have recruited Carlisle if they knew of the video.
Unsurprisingly, Finnis wasn't willing to contemplate the hypothetical.
"The reality is we did a trade and we have a contract," he said.
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