It’s time for the AFL to get tough and transparent on illicit drug use.
That’s not just the view of independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who used parliamentary privilege to level allegations about the AFL’s drug policy last month, but also former Collingwood boss and long-time sports journalist Eddie McGuire.
Mr Wilkie’s criticisms rocked the league, but McGuire was glad to hear them.
“I was actually pretty open to Andrew Wilkie coming out and saying these things because it shone a light on it,” the former Collingwood president said.
Mr Wilkie alleged in parliament that numerous players were gaming the AFL’s illicit drug policy, which provides three strikes for players who test positive for drugs such as cocaine on non-game days.
On the first strike, players are not named.
Mr Wilkie told parliament that many players who tested positive then faked injuries to avoid being tested on game days, when they would be subject to much harsher penalties under the AFL’s World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.
It is one league with two different drug testing regimes, and McGuire believes the inconsistencies must be looked at.
“At the moment, we have a situation where [under the illicit drug policy] if you go and self-report, you get no weeks and you get looked after,” McGuire told 7.30.
“You get caught on match day and you get four years, so it’s all over the place and we just need to tighten these things up.”
The risk to the credibility of the game is now too great for the policy to continue as it is, according to McGuire.
Players live in a world where societal use of illicit substances is commonplace and that can leave them vulnerable to extortion from anyone who manages to record them using and posts the footage to social media or sells it to news outlets.
It is a process that has been oft repeated in recent years.
“Heads out of the sand, let’s be grown-ups about this and take a grown-up approach,” McGuire said before he called for offending players to be named.
“I believe there should be punitive action and you should be named. And I think that’ll act as a deterrent.
“But it also means that those particular players can then be given the right guidance and the right rehabilitation.”
McGuire’s views represent the “get tough” element in AFL circles which wants to see the drug policy tightened.
AFL doctor says Wilkie is off the mark
But there’s another powerful school of thought from the AFL clubs’ doctors. They believe the priority should be maintaining patient-doctor confidentiality for players who may have a drug problem, not naming and shaming.
“It’s all very well to put rules and regulations in place.
“I think that’s important,” Barry Rigby, the AFL Doctors Association president, said.
“But I think the medical public health literature would support the fact that that’s not going to change some of the complex behavioural issues that we deal with when we’re talking about illicit substances.”
Dr Rigby called Mr Wilkie’s allegations “nonsense” despite AFL CEO Andrew Dillon not refuting them at the time as he spoke of a “clinical intervention model”.
“We’re not in the business of feigning injuries and we would never really coerce a player to do that,” Dr Rigby told 7.30.
“I’ll re-emphasise the fact that when a player does transgress in that area, it’s usually invariably a player that has a lot of other medical, psychosocial or psychiatric or mental health issues.
“And they’re the players, in our opinion, that need extended help rather than a punishment.”
Change is coming, AFL CEO says
For Mr Dillon, things have changed and there is now a discussion underway.
He says the league’s approach to recreational drug testing will change.
“Our illicit drugs policy has served the AFL and its players really well for 19 years, and it continues to serve us well, but we also know we’re in 2024,” he said.
“We’re reviewing the policy and we now need to do what we want to do is evolve our policy …so that it’s fit for purpose for 2024 and beyond.”
What form the evolution will take isn’t clear but there are hints the new rules will be an adjustment, not a wholesale overhaul.
“I think what’s important with any policy, regardless of what you’re looking at, is I don’t think extremes at any level — at either end of the extremes — are what you want,” Mr Dillon told 7.30.
“What you want is a balanced policy that looks after the health and interests of our players, but also make sure that that we’re balancing all of the interests of the public as well.”
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