Geelong premiership hero Tyson Stengle’s celebrations after Saturday’s Grand Final win over Sydney were momentarily halted by a drug test.
Stengle, who was the game’s leading goalkicker with four majors, says he was stuck in the Cats’ rooms for 30 minutes as his teammates celebrated on the MCG as a result of the test.
The 23-year-old was taken into the rooms by a tester as he made his way down an MCG tunnel.
“I came off the ground, I was walking down the tunnel and a guy tapped my shoulder and said, ‘I’ve got to drug test you’,” Stengle said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“I thought, ‘Oh well, we’ll go and do it’, I wanted to get it done straight away and the boys were ready to sing the song, but I was in the rooms.”
With the Geelong players singing the song on the ground in front of their adoring fans, Stengle said he had to leave before finalising his test to go and soak in that moment with his teammates.
“I was stuck in the rooms for like 30 minutes,” Stengle said.
“They were taking their time, I was trying to rush them, but they were taking their time.
“I had to leave, do the song but had to go back in and do the paperwork, but I got it done in the end.”
In response to Stengle’s revelation, Channel Nine’s Tony Jones and Essendon great Matthew Lloyd called out the testers for robbing the small forward of priceless moments following the big win.
“I know they’ve got a job to do, but time and place,” Jones said.
“You’ve got to exercise a bit of common sense there.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more TJ,” Lloyd added.
“He loses half an hour of that to be underneath (the ground), it’s so wrong.”
Stengle finished the game with four goals, one behind, 15 disposals and nine score involvements.
The 2022 All-Australian ended this year’s campaign with 53 goals to his name.