Lachlan Keeffe Biography

Lachie Keeffe will miss the rest of the 2021 season after rupturing his ACL against Essendon.

"It's obviously devastating news for Lachie and we're throwing our arms around him," GWS head of medical Cullan Ball said.

"He'll head to Melbourne on Wednesday to see Dr. Julian Feller and we expect him to undergo surgery later this week."

Lachlan Keeffe believes he is still capable of playing at AFL level after being cut by Collingwood.

"I really want to play on. I feel I've got more to give," he said.

"It'd be in the backline. That's where I feel I play my best footy and hopefully I can get a crack and show my wares next year."

Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas return to training as their two-year ban for breaching the AFL Anti-Doping Code enters its final stage.

Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas will become eligible to play again on February 9, 2017 after being officially informed of the terms of their two-year ban under the AFL's Anti-Doping Code.

"We are pleased with the outcome as it gives them [Keeffe and Thomas] an opportunity to come straight into the NAB Cup and be ready for round one (2017)," their manager Tim Hazell said.

"We've had great support from [Lawyer] Ben Ihle, the AFLPA and Collingwood."

Collingwood has delisted a further four players with Hawthorn premiership player Clinton Young and journeyman midfielder Sam Dwyer headlining the club's list changes.

The Magpies have also decided to release rookies Tony Armstrong and Michael Tanteit, while Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas have been let go as part of their two-year suspensions for taking banned drug clenbuterol.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley will keep in touch with banned players Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas, saying they must decide on their futures.

"That's going to be their choice, but between now and draft time this year, it's my intent to sit down with both of them individually and actually ask them what they want to do with their lives," Buckley said.

"Is football a strong part of that?

"Now that Monday has passed, it probably gives the boys the first opportunity to actually sit back and go 'OK, that's what it is, I know exactly where I stand with the club, I know exactly where I stand with the AFL and ASADA, I know what my future looks like in some shape or form, is this really what I want to do?'"

Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas have accepted two-year bans after testing positive to banned substance clenbuterol.

The Pies pair will be delisted and have been fined about $50,000 each – with part of their 2015 player payments to be withheld, as required by the AFL and the World Anti-Doping Authority.

Keeffe and Thomas, who have been provisionally suspended since their positive A-sample result in March, will not be eligible to return to AFL until the 2017 season.

The Magpies have committed to re-drafting the duo as rookies later this year, should they choose to nominate and are not selected by a rival club first.

Reading prepared statements at a press conference on Monday, Keeffe and Thomas said they believed the banned substance found its way into their systems after they took illicit drugs during a night out.

"While we are unable to be absolutely certain how this substance came to be in our system, we can only assume it occurred during a night out (in February) prior to testing in which we took illicit drugs," Thomas, 23, said.

"Although we can't be sure, we believe the substance we took was laced with clenbuterol."

The pair stressed they did not knowingly take the performance-enhancing drug.

Keeffe, 25, hoped his and Thomas' mistakes didn't become "a life sentence" and said they wanted to return to AFL ranks in 2017.

"The past few months have been really hard not to play football for the club that gave us that opportunity as teenagers," Keeffe said.

"We deeply regret our actions, we take full responsibility for our mistakes and we accept the consequences.

"We also hope others will learn from our mistakes.

"We also hope that an error of judgement does not become a life sentence.

"Having worked so hard to build AFL careers, we are now committed to starting again and we hope to regain everyone's faith and trust and return to the AFL in 2017."

Collingwood chief Gary Pert says Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas' two-year bans for taking a performance-enhancing drug should sound a warning to other Australian athletes.

"Anyone in our game who chooses to consume illicit drugs must also from now on accept that they may also be consuming a performance-enhancing drug," Pert said.

"The events that have brought us here today I believe amount to a turning point in our code, and more broadly for Australian sport.

"The decision to take an illicit drug, which up until now would have held no consequences in some sports and in the AFL seen an anonymous strike recorded, could now result in a major sanction or the end of your career."

Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas have been handed infraction notices by the AFL after tests revealed they had taken the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol.

Keeffe and Thomas are now facing suspensions, with Magpies CEO Gary Pert saying it is up to the players to decide whether to accept likely two-year bans.

"It's not like we've been involved in the process, but from here what we believe are the next steps is for the players to decide whether they're going to contest – whether they want to say they accept the ruling or not, or the severity of the penalty," Pert told SEN radio.

"Once they've made that decision, they'll advise ASADA. So there will be no contest or they decide to contest it. If they contest it, ASADA advises the AFL, who then organises a (Anti-Doping) Tribunal hearing at some stage."

Collingwood believes Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas are likely to receive two-year bans from the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal after testing positive to the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol.

"I wouldn't say their careers are over. They're in a process where it appears a likely outcome is a two-year suspension, from everything that we're hearing," Magpies CEO Gary Pert told Triple M radio.

"That's serious but they're still young guys."

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says there's no room at the club for Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas if they're guilty of deliberately taking performance-enhancing drugs.

"I'm pretty straight forward on these things; if people have taken performance-enhancing drugs you get your whack – it's as simple as that," McGuire said.

"If you haven't, if there's mitigating circumstances, then let's work through that situation.

"I want to underline this 15 times; when the players were told the news they were absolutely flabbergasted and it wasn't acting or anything else like that – they had no idea whatsoever in the first instance.

"I'll hopefully speak to them in the next 48 hours, but their position is they have no idea how this could have happened."

The theory that Collingwood pair Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas could have eaten beef contaminated by clenbuterol in New Zealand has been rejected by the Kiwi beef industry.

Keeffe and Thomas tested positive to the banned drug several days after returning from a week-long training camp in Queenstown, New Zealand, where they reportedly ate out several times, including a steak meal.

Australian cyclist Michael Rogers was cleared after testing positive to clenbuterol in 2013 when authorities accepted he could have eaten contaminated meat while racing in China two months earlier.

While clenbuterol is used in livestock in some countries, New Zealand beef industry association chairman Bill Falconer was adamant that was not the case in his country.

"It's just not something that has cropped up in New Zealand," Falconer told Radio 3AW.

"Obviously you can read stuff to say that there had been rumours of it happening in China and Spain but not in New Zealand."

Former ASADA head Richard Ings also dismissed the possibility.

"Clenbuterol is not present in the Australian food chain. It is not present in the New Zealand food chain, it has occurred in China and Mexico but it is not an issue here," Ings told 3AW.

"So the players will need to find the right explanation where this clenbuterol came from.

"It's a veterinary drug in Australia, it's a veterinary drug in New Zealand; it's only approved for use in racehorses.

"But as with all these performance enhancing drugs you can get it online and there is a person at the back of some gyms that will sell it to you. It is commonly abused in bodybuilding and other sporting activities."

Collingwood pai Josh Thomas and Lachlan Keeffe test positive to a performance-enhancing drug, clenbuterol.

Clenbuterol is also known to reduce fat and promote weight loss although Magpies director of football Neil Balme said he could not see why Keeffe or Thomas would need to take the drug.

"It was disbelief for both of them. They both said 'We haven't done this'," Balme said.

"They're claiming that they're not guilty.

"We know what it is (the drug), which is one of the reasons why we think 'Why would they? How would they?'

"If you look at both of these players, it doesn't make any sense for either of them to use this because they're both quite lean."

Magpies coach Nathan Buckley says he never expected Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas to test positive for a banned performance enhancing drug.

"We were devastated to find that out as a fact," Buckley said.

"They're very decent, upstanding young men.

"If you asked me a couple that wouldn't have tested positive to anything, they'd be right up there these two boys.

"They're cleanskins, and yet they've returned a positive sample to a performance-enhancing drug."

Scott Pendlebury will again captain the Magpies in 2015, supported by a streamlined leadership group that includes Travis Cloke, Steele Sidebottom, Nathan Brown and the newly promoted Tyson Goldsack.

Lachlan Keeffe and Clinton Young have stepped down as leaders this year.

"They're five very strong leaders, they're all premiership players and they all know what it takes to get there," Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said.

"We want to get back into finals and clearly that's the ambition of all these boys.

"When the players went through the selection process there was a fairly clear delineation between the top five and the rest.

"We feel that we've really developed our leadership over the last couple of years and the vindication of that is the strength of this leadership group, even with players like Luke Ball and Nick Maxwell moving on from the football club."

Lachlan Keeffe will play his first final against Port Adelaide and says there is a need to balance being a big-game performer while not being fazed by the occasion.

"This is where players make a name for themselves," Keeffe said.

"But I don't want to become overawed that it's a final because it can take your mind off the job at hand.

"As much as you want to take in the finals atmosphere I just want to keep it pretty simple - and that's what helps me play my best footy."

Lachlan Keeffe, Josh Thomas and Sam Dwyer sign new deals with Collingwood, keeping them at the club until the end of 2015.

After playing three games in the VFL since returning from a knee injury, Lachlan Keeffe hopes to break into the Collingwod senior side in time for the finals.

"That's 100 per cent what I'm aiming for (finals)," Keeffe said.

"It's full steam ahead and my knee's 100 per cent at the moment. The sooner the better from my perspective."

Lachlan Keeffe makes a successful return to football in the VFL, twelve months after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament.

"It was good to get out there, and good to get among the boys, and good to be among a win I guess," Keeffe said.

"Obviously it's a relief. I didn't have too many confidence issues coming in. I've done the work, I've spent the time off and the knee's felt good for a about a month or so with training as well so that wasn't my issue coming in."

Despite Lachlan Keeffe's serious knee injury, Collingwood has re-signed the promising key defender for the next two years.

"We actually haven't had a lot of luck with our tall defenders, apart from the fact that 'Keeffey' has taken the responsibility and the opportunity and really run with it," Magpies coach Nathan Buckley said.

"He's been a godsend for us in many ways. The fact that 'Keeffey' has stood up has been very important for our early season form."

Scans confirm Collingwood's Lachlan Keeffe suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament against Adelaide and will miss the rest of the season.

"It's really disappointing for Lachlan and the club, especially considering he's been such a good contributor for us in 2012," Collingwood director of football Geoff Walsh said.

"He'll undergo a knee reconstruction and we expect him to be available to play early in the 2013 season."

Lachlan Keeffe has returned to a defensive role under Nathan Buckley, a role he was first earmarked for when he joined the Magpies.

"At the start of the year, I wasn't too sure where I was going to be," Keeffe said.

"I thought Bucks might throw me in that Leigh Brown type role, but he said this is where I want you to be.

"I've always been a defensive kind of player. I don't have that spark or attacking instinct. Defending is my go. I feel like I can see the game better."

Lachlan Keeffe makes his AFL debut for Collingwood at the MCG with 11 disposals (6 kicks and 5 handballs), 5 marks and 3 tackles in a 117-point win over North Melbourne.

Collingwood's Alan Toovey says young backman Lachlan Keeffe is close to selection.

"I think if he got his chance, he'd definitely be ready," Toovey said.

"He's been emergency a fair few times this year and he's been playing good VFL footy so he's one of the guys if a defender went forward, he'd be looked at."

Collingwood's Tyson Goldsack sees the season ending injury to Nathan Brown as the perfect opportunity for a younger player like Lachlan Keeffe to step up.

"It's definitely not a good thing for Browny but it does open up opportunities for other people," Goldsack said.

"We've got Lachie Keeffe coming through the ranks as well so hopefully he can kinda fill in when he needs to, and hopefully he can play every game, I'm not ruling it out."