The AFL won’t examine documents alleging widespread drug use and a secret testing regime in the sport, the league’s chief executive Andrew Dillon says.
Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) is investigating claims about secretive illicit drug tests in the AFL raised under parliamentary privilege by federal MP Andrew Wilkie.
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Wilkie told parliament last week he had documents alleging widespread drug use at the Melbourne club and also detailing a league-wide secret testing regime.
Wilkie said the documents came from the Demons’ former club doctor Zeeshan Arain and ex-president Glen Bartlett.
Despite the ensuing furore, the AFL’s Dillon says he hasn’t read the Wilkie documents.
“No, I haven’t seen them,” Dillon told reporters in Adelaide on Wednesday.
Asked if would like to, Dillion replied: “I heard what Andrew had to say.
“I’m not sure they (the documents) will necessarily add a great deal.
“The doctor that was there, he has been out of the game for four years. Glen Bartlett served Melbourne very well for a period of a time.”
The Wilkie documents revealed a secretive so-called ‘off the books’ regime where players were tested for illicit drugs mid-week by club doctors.
If testing positive, doctors told the player in some cases to fake an injury and not play the next weekend to avoid the risk of a positive match-day test.
World anti-doping crusader Dick Pound said the AFL’s policy reminded him of questionable practices adopted by some Eastern European countries in the mid 1970s.
“This goes back 45 years in the Montreal harbour during those 1976 Games,” Pound said.
“The Warsaw Pact countries had a ship and on the ship were two fully completed or fully operative laboratories.
“On the day before the competition, they would bring them in for testing, mostly for steroids in those days, and if they were going to test positive the next day, they were encouraged to be sick or have an injury and not participate.
“So the result was no East German, no Russian ever got caught doping because they were pre-tested the day before the competition. So this is using old Soviet techniques in 2024.”
Dillon said on 3AW radio that Pound was an “incredible administrator” but he was “way off the mark” about the AFL.
“They are ill-informed and they are wrong but what I will say is that the open conversations that have come about as a result of some of this reporting, I think that’s important and we are up for conversations,” he said.
Dillion last week said the AFL was “unapolegtic” about the practice, which prompted surprise from many coaches and players that it existed.
The AFL runs its own illicit drugs policy in addition to falling under the World Anti-Doping Authority code, enforced by in Australia by SIA.
The AFL is currently reviewing its illicit drugs policy introduced in 2005.
“The illicit drugs policy has been in place for 19 years, it has served our game really well,” Dillon said.
“It has looked after a number of players, it continues to serve us well.
“We are reviewing the policy. It needs to be cutting edge, it needs to be fit for purpose for 2024 and beyond.
“I think informed debate is good as well, and the more informed debate we have the better.”
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said there was “always going to be criticism” of the illicit drugs policy because it prioritised player welfare.
“But the intent of the league and of the (AFL) Players Association and the medical group has always been first class, so all I would say is just let’s back those people in,” he said.
“They know they’ve probably got to look at the policy and work out what they can do to make it better.
“It’s an ongoing review, really, but I’m sure the medical fraternity the Players Association and the AFL will make what tweaks are necessary to make it a really sound policy.”
– With Cameron Noakes
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