Athletes Dyson Heppell, Erin Phillips and Amy Parmenter describe their experiences with disordered eating

Dyson Heppell thought his behaviour was completely normal.

It was 2012, and the Essendon player was in the second year of his AFL career, after an impressive debut that saw him win the league’s Rising Star award – the first player in Bombers’ history to do so.

Media chatter around the “second-year blues,” coupled with Heppell’s internal desire to keep improving made him hyper-focused on something he could fastidiously control– his diet.

The 19-year-old started overtraining while severely restricting his calories. He’d go to a concert or a footy game, but take his own food in a lunchbox, or make sure to eat before attending a family dinner.

Once, after going for a few beers with teammates, Heppell recalls “punching [out] a few kilometres up and down Mount Alexander Road” to try to burn off calories.

“These types of things started creeping in, but I didn’t even question it at the time,” Heppell admits. “And I look back now and go, that’s bizarre behaviour.”

Speaking at the Butterfly Foundation Trophies lunch on Wednesday alongside former basketball and AFLW champion Erin Phillips and Melbourne Mavericks netballer Amy Parmenter, Heppell opened up about his experience of disordered eating as an elite sportsperson.

It’s an admission Heppell recently disclosed on TV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, where he spoke about the pressures of hitting pre-season weight targets.

“You would set yourself a target and if you came back from your off-season to your pre-season and you didn’t hit that target, you would be put into a group that would have to do extra cross-training – or some form of training to strip some fat off,” Heppell said on the reality show.

“And the boys hailed this group ‘fat club’. It was a pretty vicious one, to be honest.”

Eventually, Heppell said his then partner – now wife – Kate, who was studying nutrition, courageously spoke with Essendon staff and made them aware of his behaviour.

Heppell then sat down with the player development manager, a psychologist and club doctors to have a full discussion “on the path I was heading down”.

Heppell told this masthead his previously toxic relationship with food has evolved to become much healthier and more balanced.

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He wants to challenge the “the masculine vibe of not speaking about your emotions” and the shame that comes with eating disorders.

“It’s so important to have a real close, tight-knit support network around you to help … and then also have important role models to lead that charge in being vulnerable, to share their stories and making sure that others do feel comfortable to speak up and get help,” he said.

‘She needs to lose weight’: How coaches can impact players’ body image

Like many women, netballer Amy Parmenter was disgusted when she heard about footage that went viral last week of an Australian rules official in NSW making derogatory remarks about female players’ bodies.

The commentary was captured on a video of the Collingullie Wagga Demons women’s team playing, where the official could be heard referring to women as “breeders” and saying a female player should lose weight.

“We’ve got a real issue in our society overall, the body shape of women … they’re our breeders, mate … because of the food they’re eating, even the young girls, the shape’s all wrong,” the official said.

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“You think about when we were growing up … the body shapes of girls … you hardly saw any fat girls. It was rare.”

The Collingullie Wagga Demons posted a statement confirming the official had “stepped down from all club duties effective immediately,” and said the behaviour was unacceptable.

A report last year by Sport Integrity Australia found body-shaming was the most prevalent behaviour witnessed and experienced by athletes in sport.

Parmenter, who has previously discussed her own experiences of disordered eating in netball, said coaches and club officials needed to be educated about harmful language.

“Maybe that lady that he [Wagga Demons club official] was talking about didn’t have an eating disorder at the time, but she will never ever forget those comments, and that impact on her will be with her forever, I guarantee you.” Parmenter said.

The Australian Diamonds and Melbourne Mavericks player said sporting clubs needed to protect players and have conversations about performance and wellbeing.

“We so easily comment on people’s bodies in those club environments, you don’t think twice about it. But actually, now I would never, ever comment on someone’s body. That is absolutely not my place.”

AFLW and basketball legend Erin Phillips acknowledges the powerful influence coaches can have on player’s mental health.

“Some of the most incredible athletes have looked so different from one another, and they’re still the best at what they do, and performance isn’t going to be based on how you look; it’s how you perform,” she told this masthead.

Phillips – who recently became Gold Coast’s general manager of women’s football – spoke candidly about her journey with disordered eating, describing her relationship with her body in her early playing career as “unkind, unrealistic and unsustainable”.

The three-time premiership player admits she still “has scars” from that period of her life but knows speaking vulnerably about disordered eating will help more people.

Phillips – who has four children, two girls and two boys, with wife Tracy – wants to project a message of strength and self-compassion.

She wants her kids to be able to look in the mirror and feel strong, healthy and kind.

“If or when they [her kids] decide to play sport, it’s not worrying about what they look like, it’s how they feel having fun,” she said.

“That’s all that they should be thinking about when they play.”

Butterfly National Helpline 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673) www.butterfly.org.au

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