AFL: Quartet suspended after NZ camp

St Kilda took part in a pre-season camp in the South Island. Photo / Getty Images

St Kilda are overhauling their player development program as the AFL club reels from the suspension of four players for drug and alcohol-related indiscretions.

Coach Ross Lyon said the matter involving the four players had "certainly shocked us all".

The Saints' off-season from hell got even worse when Zac Dawson, Rhys Stanley, Paul Cahill and Jack Steven misbehaved late last month during a pre-season camp in New Zealand.

The quartet were suspended for six weeks and fined $5000 ($NZ6456) each for the misuse of alcohol and prescribed medication, understood to be sleeping tablets, as well as breaking a team curfew.

"Certainly we'll really overhaul our development program, it's the bigger issue in the AFL - young men, first- and third-year players, who aren't studying full time or working," Lyon told reporters on Tuesday morning.

"It's leading to depression on lists and activities we don't enjoy, obviously, so we'll revamp that program, that's already underway now.

"It will be an 'earn or learn' policy, football will be structured around that - it's the bigger picture.

"But in the short term, we certainly offer them a strong way ... challenge their behaviour really strongly and really in a sense rehabilitate and educate.

"Support the person and change the behaviour - that's where we're at."

The team returned from the week-long training camp on Saturday and the sanctions were announced on Monday night.

Lyon said the first priority was for the four players to make major changes in their lives.

"The players have a strong way to work their way back in, a number of things to achieve," he said.

"This is an opportunity for them ... to make a significant shift in their lives and get it back on track, and then their football careers.

"It's certainly shocked us all.

"These four people are dealing with some issues, it's a form of escapism."

Club chief executive Michael Nettlefold said the club was a reflection of the wider community and denied they had an off-field culture problem.

The controversy follows the nude photo scandal over the last few weeks that involved Dawson, captain Nick Riewoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Sam Gilbert.

"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.

"It's too competitive, you're too challenged, your behaviours are too measured."

- AAP