Jarrod Harbrow has sworn off alcohol for the rest of the season after being charged with drink driving on Monday morning.
Fronting the media on Tuesday afternoon, Harbrow apologised to his family, the Gold Coast club and its supporters for his actions.
The 28-year-old said he was "embarrassed and ashamed" after he registered a blood alcohol reading of 0.108.
"This isn't acceptable and it was a really poor judgement I made," Harbrow said.
"It was a fair bit (to drink). I had no idea at the time or I wouldn't have jumped in the car."
Harbrow has been suspended for Saturday's match against Hawthorn, with the club still to impose further punishment on the rebounding defender.
When asked whether he'd cut down on alcohol or cut it out altogether, Harbrow said this: "I'll definitely be sensible, steer clear of it I think. It has to be done".
"I'm incredibly embarrassed and ashamed of my actions and I want to apologise to the football club, the supporters and my family and teammates for letting them down," he said.
"I was at home in my loungeroom having a few drinks and did step over the mark and have too many.
"I went about my normal day on Monday morning, my alarm went off at seven, and I jumped in the car and got pulled over."
Harbrow is one of the club's most respected figures and looked up to by everyone, particularly the indigenous players.
He apologised to his teammates on Tuesday morning, saying he was "absolutely prepared to accept whatever punishment" came his way.
The leadership group, coaches and club officials have all been in meetings discussing the next step.
"It's something that's not tolerated at all at our footy club," football manager Marcus Ashcroft said.
"We also need to take into consideration what Jarrod's done for our footy club over a long period of time, his leadership in the community and what he's done on-field.
"We will also balance that up with making sure we're firm enough with the incident in isolation."
Harbrow denied the club had a culture problem.
"My incident was a one-off and I won't do that again."
