Mark Eustice (born 14 February 1963) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington United Kin ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL). Eustice, who played his first VFL game at just 17 years of age, never played more than nine games in a season while at Essendon. He was a member of the reserves premiership winning team of 1983 and played in Essendon's 1984 night premiership, but never participated in a VFL finals series. Used in a variety of positions, he often appeared as a wingman or half forward. He received a clearance to Richmond for the 1985 season and found himself regularly selected for the seniors. He played 18 games that year and earned the first

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

votes of his career when he kicked four goals in a win over Fitzroy. In 1986 he was Richmond's third leading disposal getter, averaging 20 a game. He made 18 appearances in 1987 and again found a lot of the ball, but it would be his last completed season at Richmond. Eight rounds into the 1988 season and after serving a two-week suspension for headbutting former teammate Steven Clark, Eustice was sacked by Richmond. He completed the season with Sydney, playing five games. At Sydney he played mostly as a back pocket defender and appeared in the opening 20 rounds of the 1989 season before a broken jaw ended his year. He spent two further years with the Swans before being delisted but remained in the city and played for North Shore in the

Sydney Football League AFL Sydney is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia which has been run since 1903. In 1980 was known as the "Sydney Football League" and renamed the "Sydney AFL" in 1998 before adopting its current name ...

. He was the subject of media attention in 2010 when he revealed that he had undergone rehabilitation for long term

drug abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definitions ...

and was suffering from

bipolar depression Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that each last from days to weeks, and in some cases months. If the elevated m ...

.''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

'
"I had all the drugs, so I was pretty popular"
29 August 2010, Luke Waters

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eustice, Mark 1963 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Essendon Football Club players Richmond Football Club players North Shore Australian Football Club players Sydney Swans players Strathmore Football Club players People with bipolar disorder New South Wales Australian rules football State of Origin players