Dan Hannebery's form over the last month has dramatically improved, with some in the media casually linking his improving standards with the mystical regenerative properties of beer.
After the bitter disappointment of the 2016 grand final loss to the Western Bulldogs, the midfielder put beer in the rearview mirror, to improve his fitness and well being.
Speaking to AFL.com.au in February, the All Australian revealed the impact alcohol had on his recovery and fitness, and why he wanted to stay off it.
"I made the call to get off (alcohol) and it's probably been five months now," he said.
"Purely because I wanted to give the body a chance to recover, and then when I realised how good I felt after eight or nine weeks, I thought why not keep it going?
"When I was a bit younger I'd go on a break and have too many beers with my mates, probably not eat the right foods, and go out a bit more than you should, and as a young player that’s a trap you can fall into.
"You don't think about it too much, you don't think about being out of shape and the training sessions you might miss, but when you get older you get smarter.
That didn't stop Mark Robinson questioning him in the media earlier this season, and on AFL 360 declaring his form was way off because of alcohol, or many other media pundits for that matter sticking the same uneducated fork in.
“He is a party boy, Daniel Hannebery. He has changed his social habits, which included giving up drinking,” Robinson said on SEN.
“He doesn’t look like the same player and doesn’t have the aggression and the hunting of the ball at the moment.
“Two games down they are 0-2 and questions come, what’s wrong with Daniel Hannebery?”
We can reveal special footage of Mark Robinson while he was speaking to SEN.
Hannebery revealed the real reason why he started drinking again to AFL.com.au, and it had nothing to do with being a "party boy".
"I've had one or two in the last few weeks," Hannebery has told Fairfax Media.
"I'm still basically not drinking, but it's been nice just to remove the stress," he said.
The first six weeks were a rough ride for everyone involved - the players, club officials, fans and supporters alike. It's easy from the outside looking in to take a swipe, make a few unsavoury declarations and assert half-truths as gospel, or just make it up for the sake of it.
If anything was clear though, it was that some players were doing too much.
"I think everyone started over-thinking it. We were all trying to do too much and I was one of them.
"Then we sat down as a group and started simplifying things and narrowing our focus as a team."
Rampe had the same thing to say when asked by AFL.com.au.
"Obviously it wasn't the start we wanted, but we've got full faith in our playing list and our coaching staff as well," Rampe said.
"Maybe we got ahead of ourselves, if we're going to be honest, in the first six rounds, on the back of our Grand Final appearance last year, in terms of excitement around what we can achieve if we put it all together.
"I'm glad it happened because we've been able to rectify those things and we've just gone back to basics."
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