And Saints coach Ross Lyon said the club would review its player development program to further educate its players.
Zac Dawson, Paul Cahill, Rhys Stanley and Jack Steven have been fined $5000 and suspended by the club for six weeks after they broke a club-imposed curfew, drank to excess and mis-used prescription sleeping pills during a recent training camp in New Zealand.
The controversy has continued a difficult summer for St Kilda after it was rocked by the 'nude photo scandal', but Nettlefold defended the integrity of his club on Tuesday morning.
"If you have a look at what this group's achieved in the last three years, if you've got cultural problems … you don't deliver what this group's delivered on the field in the last three years - it's impossible," Nettlefold said on Melbourne radio station SEN.
"We're disappointed, of course we are, and we're sending a message to our players that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and I think any other club would act in the same way," he said of the penalty handed down by the senior leadership at the club.
"Those breaches were quite brazen and they felt very concerned by the actions and they felt there was a requirement for a pretty stiff penalty, but having said that, we're not going to walk away from these young men."
Speaking to the waiting media Tuesday morning, Lyon said: "[The behaviour of the four players] is a form of escapism and certainly we will really overhaul our development program.
"I think it is the bigger issue in AFL football, young men, first to third year players who aren't studying full-time or working.
"It is leading to depression and activities that we don't enjoy. We will revamp that program. That is already underway here. It will be an earn or learn policy and football will be structured around that."
Lyon said rather than abandon the four players, the club would work with them to address their issues.
"This is a real opportunity to make a significant shift in their lives and get it back on track and then their football careers," he said.
"It certainly shocked us all but we are fortunate that we are able to identify. We've got a list of 48 and there are four people dealing with some issues.
"That's the bigger picture but in the short-term we've certainly offered them a way to challenge the behaviour strongly. And really, in a sense, rehabilitate and educate and give them a real opportunity to work their way back in. Support the person, change the behavior and that's where we're at."
Nettlefold would not be drawn on whether the sleeping tablets in question had been prescribed to each player, citing patient-doctor confidentiality, but he did say St Kilda was not alone in dealing with issues of drug and alcohol abuse.
"We are a mirror of the broader community, there's no doubt about that, and we don't have all the answers so all we can do is go back and look at our programs and rethink how we approach these issues," he said.
"We do have some great programs in place.
"The AFL has some outstanding programs in place on drug and alcohol use and respect and responsibility and there are lots of structured programs that all of our players are involved in so this has sort of come out of left field for us, but it's certainly not something we're putting our head in the sand about.
"It's risky and dangerous behaviour and it's of real concern to us."
