Drug charges rock the Cats

Alex de Vos
A Cats’ premiership player has been granted bail after facing Geelong Magistrates’ Court on drug charges.
Police charged AFL footballer Mathew Stokes on Wednesday with possessing and trafficking cocaine.
Geelong Police Senior Constable Matthew Plunkett told a packed courtroom the 25-year-old player had allegedly purchased one gram of cocaine from a former Geelong nightclub bouncer on January 19.
Last week the former Blue Martini security guard was denied bail on charges of drug trafficking.
Mr Plunkett told the court Grovedale’s Matthew Randall, 36, had made 2820 phone calls over the past three weeks, with 70 per cent of the calls relating to the sale of drugs.
Mr Plunkett said Stokes had purchased the cocaine from Randall following a series of text messages.
Stokes allegedly told police he purchased the drugs for a friend visiting from Darwin.
“Matthew Randall said ‘It’s $500 straight up’, which we believe is of high-quality, or ‘$350 for not so high quality’,” Mr Plunkett told the court.
“Mathew Stokes said he’d have one of each.”
The court heard that on January 20 Randall contacted Stokes and asked whether “he’d had a go yet”.
“Stokes replied stating his male mate had tested it and said it was ‘Very good s**t’,” Mr Plunkett said.
“Stokes said he wanted to get another one tomorrow but the meeting didn’t take place.”
Two police escorted Stokes into the docks, with the 2007 premiership forward wearing a grey T-shirt and red and white shorts.
Stokes was granted bail to reappear in Geelong Magistrates Court on March 12 for a committal hearing.
Geelong Football Club chief executive Brian Cook said the club was “disappointed”.
“Given the gravity of the charges the club has decided that Mathew will be stood down from all club activity as we attempt to gather all the facts in this matter,” Mr Cook said.
“This is not a rush to judgement but a reflection on the seriousness of the situation. It is important for Mathew that he deals with legal issues at hand as his first priority.”
Mr Cook said the Cats would “not rush” to determine long-term penalty.
Geelong drafted Stokes from South Australia’s Woodville-West Torrens in 2005.
Originally from Darwin, the midfielder has played 71 games and kicked 108 goals for the Cats.