Otherwise, club penalties, and the public shaming via the gallows of Twitter and other social media, await. Our footballing brethren at the NRL have had their problems, and ensuing bad publicity, in recent years with tales of gang bangs, group sex and other sordid goings on. That allowed some in the AFL community to sit back and shake their heads in moral disgust at the depraved behaviour north of the Murray. But the truth is that not so long ago AFL players were hardly shrinking violets in these matters either. Group sex was all the go among AFL players – even as recently as five or six years ago, before the social media revolution took hold. We lived the life of footballers by day, and players by night – just like our NRL cousins – although that somehow got lost in all the outrage about the Four Corners report on rugby league’s macho culture. I’d consider myself the ultimate team man in regards to the manner in which I play the game, but group sex has never been my go. Maybe it stems back to my childhood when I was unwilling to share my toys with other kids. Maybe there is an underlying element of performance anxiety?

But for me, it just never worked. Yet some players found it particularly easy to strike up a conversation with girls at a nightclub and later suggest they go somewhere more 'convenient'. Early on in that process, with a teammate lingering around, an introduction was made and the topic was soon broached of the three leaving the club together. I should say the women were always willing participants in the fun; no one was being coerced to do anything they didn’t want to. Sometimes they were even the instigators. Some became known for their accommodating behaviour within the AFL playing fraternity. They seemed to enjoy it; we did, too. So where was the problem? That was our thinking as twenty-somethings enjoying the fruits of a career in professional sport. For a period, Monday recovery sessions became story telling time. Invariably, at the day’s end, the same players would end up sitting in the spa swapping war stories from the weekend. Often with more than one telling the story. It was about this time, a few issues started to arise and the situation threatened to spin out of control. Perhaps we were becoming more paranoid but it was hard to get a handle on some of the participants' motives – and whether they wanted to profit from these liaisons by selling their story.

A key figure in our playing group, after one particularly dicey episode where the boundaries were pushed, recognised it was only a matter of time before things turned ugly, so he decided enough was enough – there’d be no more dalliances with multiple partners. Group sex was out. That’s not to say today’s players are leading the lives of monks. Footballers at Melbourne-based clubs, for example, can often be found at Eve, or Motel or CQ on a Saturday night or the Barkley Hotel on a Sunday evening, and some of them will be looking – in the unsubtle vernacular – to ‘collect their loot’. While there may not be the fornication that took place in a dark corner like it once did, there is no shortage of fun. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. These young men are elite athletes trained to excess. They’ve got substantial incomes – and egos to match. When they’re surrounded by a bevy of curvaceous beauties out at a nightclub, of course they’d consider that part of the spoils of a footballer’s life. Their schoolmates would have been encouraged to travel or go on a gap year of sorts to find their feet. But these AFL draftees are thrust into a professional environment with limited opportunity to experiment with life that their mates are afforded. So to some degree, I understand the 'make hay while the sun shines' mentality.

Anyway I recount these tales just to illustrate how things have changed in the past five or six years. The shift has been dramatic. Now we’re all leading much more restrained lifestyles. There are very few 3am sessions; the percentage of blokes who have girlfriends is now considerably higher; infidelity is rarer; and there’s little boasting or gloating about conquests in the Monday spa. The AFL lectures and education sessions have undoubtedly played a part in the transformation, so has the increased professionalism throughout each club. It’s true our behaviour has at times warranted a front-page spread in the newspapers, or a stakeout on the front lawn, but picking our nose while waiting at traffic lights certainly does not. So I suspect it’s the fear of being exposed on social media – as opposed to any of the AFL’s well-meaning lectures – that has forced a change in behaviour, and this collective show of restraint.