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Former St Kilda player Sam Gilbert has accepted a two-year ban for an anti-doping violation, reports Nine.

The defender tested positive for cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine after a VFL game in May 2019, and has been provisionally suspended since that test.

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At the time Gilbert was not on St Kilda’s list, but was playing for their VFL affiliate Sandringham.

He retired from AFL level after 208 games with the Saints at the end of the 2018 season, and took on a coaching/playing role at Sandringham.

It was reported Gilbert accepted the penalty rather than take the case to a hearing.

Unlike several AFL players, such as Collingwood’s Sam Murray and Gold Coast’s Brayden Crossley, Gilbert was not granted a reduction in the ban.

Murray and Crossley argued there was no significant fault on their behalf when they tested positive.

From 2021, revised WADA rules will mean a positive test for cocaine on match day results in a three-month ban, rather than this current two-year standard.