The Herald Sun’s bombshell report into the gambling epidemic in the AFL continues to cause shockwaves across the league — and now the players are in the gun.

The Melbourne newspaper reported more than 100 players are battling gambling addictions and two stars had each lost $1 million on the punt.

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Gambling counsellor Jan Beames told the Herald Sun’s chief AFL writer Mark Robinson coaches were also facing chronic issues.

Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield responded by describing Beames as a “disgruntled operator” in a radio interview and the AFL Players Association — which he leads as president — responded with a strongly-worded statement.

“Ms Beames is not a qualified psychologist or psychiatrist and therefore the AFLPA does not refer players to her service,” it read.

“The AFLPA only refers players to practitioners that are bound by an ethical code regulated by a body recognised by the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA). The services used by the AFLPA ensure that our members’ confidential treatment details are not the subject of dangerous and unsubstantiated public commentary.

“Ms Beames is aware of the reasons as to why the AFLPA has not approved her to be part of its national psychology network.”

But Melbourne great David Schwarz, a reformed gambling addict who became the public face of the issue after revealing he lost $4 million in 2009, was disappointed by the response.

“I have refereed a lot of people to Jan and she knows what she’s talking about,” he said on 3AW Football.

“She gets results — I think the players association calling her disgruntled is really unfair and quite nasty.”

Schwarz said the discussion about Beames’ qualifications missed the point. “It’s about trying to help and put out a net to help as many players and people realise why they’re doing it and how they’re doing it,” he said.

“If someone asked me for help, I’m going to help them. Patrick, I’m sorry I’m going to put my hand up and help them out.”

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan also defended Beames. “She’s a woman of great experience and has worked with a lot of AFL players from various clubs for a long, long time,” he said on Fox Footy.

“She probably understands the issue as good as anyone going around, so that was a puzzling response.”

"The fact that we weren't even spoken to by Mark with that article really frustrated me."



Patrick Dangerfield responds to Mark Robinson's article about gambling in footy.#TalkingFooty pic.twitter.com/1w9YEPoyqw — 7AFL (@7AFL) June 10, 2019

Dangerfield changed tact somewhat on Channel 7 on Monday night, acknowledging he’d heard “some really good things” about Beames’ work but didn’t believe the article benefited the players in any way.

“I was really disappointed by it … the fact that we, as a PA, were not even consulted or spoken to in regards to the article, so we can’t put forward the different measures that we have to help support players,” Dangerfield said.

“I think fundamentally it comes back to mental health, and whether it’s drug use, alcoholism or gambling … so the fact that we weren’t even spoken to by Mark really frustrated me.”