CARLTON will continue to put its trust in its players to make decisions around alcohol, with coach David Teague adamant he will not turn the club's disciplinary process into a dictatorship.
The Blues dismissed suggestions of double standards in not sanctioning star forward Charlie Curnow for drinking at the wedding of teammate Sam Docherty last weekend, despite being sidelined for the start of the 2020 season due to a knee injury.
The decision came after the club's Silvagni brothers, Jack and Ben, were sent to train with its VFL affiliate the Northern Blues for a select number of sessions in November after drinking while in the rehabilitation group.
Speaking at Carlton's training camp in Mooloolaba on Tuesday, Teague said there were differences in the separate pair of incidents. Predominantly, they were that Curnow is dealing with a long-term injury, while the Silvagni brothers both had acute fitness issues.
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"Not at all (are there double standards)," Teague said.
"The players are clear, if you have an acute injury then you don't drink. If you have got a longer-term injury, then you need to be smart with it.
"When a mate is getting married … if there is going to be a time when you can have a drink, it is when your mate is getting married.
"We had a couple of guys go to that wedding and they didn't drink because they had acute injuries. But the ones who could have a drink, I have no issues with that."
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Teague said he addressed the issue with the players involved, but stressed they were not forced to gain approval from the club's hierarchy for drinking alcohol at the wedding and wouldn't be forced to do so at future events.
Instead, he said the playing group were aware of when they could and couldn't have a drink and said he had faith they would continue to make the right decisions around alcohol.
"I trust our players to make the right choices," Teague said.
"There will be times when they don't, it is not a perfect world. We all make mistakes, but let's learn together and grow. We are going to make mistakes going forward, but we will use them as opportunities going forward and hopefully we will create an environment.
"I don't want a dictatorship, I don't want a 'you are doing this, you are not doing this'."
Teague's reasoning for putting such trust in his players' hands revolves around his faith in them being sensible with their consumption of alcohol, saying he would much prefer they take that approach than adopt a culture of binge drinking while out-of-season.
"To a certain degree the culture of football is nothing, nothing, nothing, binge," Teague said.
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"I don't like that. I would like them to go out and have two beers and drive home. After a game of footy, go and catch up with your family.
"We have players where their family comes down from the country and they go and have dinner and have two drinks and they go home.
"For certain players they will say 'I don't drink' and that is cool. I don't love the idea of never drinking and then, 'OK, I have to make up for the last two months because I have not had a drink'."
