Dyson Turner-Heppell reveals lasting toll of Essendon’s supplement scandal
Former Bombers captain Dyson Turner-Heppell has shared how his career and life changed during the club’s supplements saga, saying he was still adamant the players did nothing wrong.
Dyson Turner-Heppell has opened up about how his career and life changed during the Essendon supplements saga, saying it dragged on for four years and “not one positive drug test came back”.
The former Bombers captain had to deal with the scandal in only his second season and said he still adamant there was no wrongdoing.
“At the footy club we went through an entire supplemets saga, drugs scandal, that kicked off early in my career around performance enhancing drugs which was full on,’’ Turner-Heppell says on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! airing on Tuesday night.
“In 2012 we started like a supplements regime at the club where you’d go home with your vitamins, minerals, all your tablets. And within that we were also getting injections. The world doping agency got involved and we were rigorously tested, we were under constant scrutiny and in the end not one positive drug test came back.”
Turner-Heppell went on to captain the Bombers before retiring in 2024. Picture: Josh Chadwick
Turner-Heppell played 253 games and retired at the end of 2024.
He said his life changed markedly around that time before he went on to captain the club from 2017-2022, saying the 12 month suspension each player copped after being found guilty ended some careers.
“Absolutely not (did we do wrong),” he said.
“They gave us the rundown on everything we were taking and me just being curious about it and being young, not at any point was there a hint of being something suss or wrong.
“Full trust in that. Absolutely, but names have never been cleared. It’s impacted the club for a long long time. I took over the captaincy of the club when I got back, 2017, that year though was just trying to get in a space again of loving footy because footy had had a cloud over it for so long again, it was like ‘let’s just the get the love and fun and joy back into it all.
Turner-Heppell is taking part in the 2026 season of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here on Channel 10. Picture: Channel 10/Supplied
“Coming out the back end it gave me a hell of a lot of resilience ended up just being in a space of real gratitude knowing how quickly it can be stripped away.”
Campmate Gary Sweet said it was shocking.
“The penalites were extremely harsh and I can’t help but feel he’s been unfairly tarnished because it never goes away,’’ he said.
Bombers fan Matt Zukowski said he felt for the whole club.
He is one of the new crop of campmates on season 12 of the show which kicked off on Sunday night to the largest audience since 2022 on Network 10.
Others in the jungle include Mia Fevola, Matt Zukowski, Rachel Hunter and Luke Bateman.