AFL ‘medical model’: War of words erupts between Andrew Wilkie and AFL over ‘blackmail’ of former player

Federal MP Andrew Wilkie has slammed the AFL for “alarming arrogance” over its ‘medical model’ drugs policy after the league denied Sports Integrity Australia was aware of explosive claims that a former player was ‘blackmailed’ by crime gangs.

Andrew Wilkie MP speaking at Parliament House in Canberra earlier this week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The AFL and federal MP Andrew Wilkie are embroiled in an extraordinary dispute over claims a former player’s parents were “blackmailed” by a crime gang after their son became addicted to drugs while in the league’s controversial “medical model”.

The Herald Sun today revealed that Mr Wilkie had passed on information to Sport Integrity Australia about the troubling allegations. The AFL then claimed in a statement that SIA – the nation’s leading sports integrity agency – was unaware of the blackmail claims.

“We’ve spoken to SIA and they have advised while the identity of all participants in the assessment remains confidential they have confirmed they haven’t received any information relating to the report of criminal threats to a player or former player’s family,” a league spokesman said.

But Mr Wilkie hit back in a press conference in Hobart just before noon, insisting his office had presented the allegations directly with SIA chiefs.

“The fact that a player or their family was being blackmailed was communicated to Sport Integrity Australia – I am quite emphatic about that … it definitely was conveyed to SIA,” he said.

“I’ll let people decide whether they trust the AFL or whether they trust Andrew Wilkie.

“I’m telling you in absolutely clear terms that I ventilated concerns with Sport Integrity Australia about criminality and I provided information to SIA about criminality.”

Andrew Wilkie MP speaking at Parliament House in Canberra earlier this week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Asked what proof of the blackmail claims he had seen, Mr Wilkie said: “I am aware of a photograph and testimony from the family. A member of my staff has sighted it.

“This is a remarkable story in its own right about the tragedy of one AFL player and the implications for his family – but more broadly, it is exactly what Sport Integrity Australia has warned us of: that when you have widespread and ongoing drug use, there is a real risk, in fact it’s a reality, that it will intersect with organised crime.”

The Herald Sun has contacted SIA and the AFL for comment.

In an explosive media conference, Mr Wilkie also accused the AFL of “alarming arrogance” over its illicit drugs policy and called for the league to take urgent action to tackle the game’s substance abuse crisis.

Mr Wilkie – who sparked an SIA investigation into the AFL’s secret “off-the-books” drug testing regime with a parliamentary address in March – said the league needed to “stop trying to pretend” that the probe had given them “a clean bill of health – because it didn’t”.

The parents of a former AFL footballer have revealed they were ‘blackmailed’ by a crime gang

“The SIA investigation was absolutely emphatic in saying there must be no more unsanctioned testing and that the AFL’s illicit drugs policy is ineffective, out of date, has to be junked and has to be rewritten,” he said. “By continuing this medical model, what the AFL is effectively doing is facilitating ongoing drug use by the players.

“Back in March I revealed in the federal parliament that the AFL is running a secret drug-testing regime. That the AFL – the teams – are testing players on the days in between match days to ensure that any player that has an illicit drug in their system will not play on match day, won’t be caught out by the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) testing on match day.

“That (claim) was subsequently admitted by the AFL that such a regime exists. Now, as a result of those allegations, Sport Integrity Australia did an investigation into the allegations, and it reported (on the investigation) about two weeks ago.

The AFL says SIA was not aware of reports a former player had been ‘blackmailed’ by crime gangs.

“Now while SIA found that non-match day testing is – strictly speaking – not a breach of the world anti-doping code, SIA did make a number of very powerful recommendations, most importantly that the AFL’s illicit drug policy is not fit-for-purpose, that it has to be junked and rewritten urgently.

“The AFL also recommended that there be no unsanctioned drug testing of players in future. “It also warned that there is a very real risk of an intersection between crime and organised crime and the widespread drug use within the AFL.

“Because let’s face it, the so-called medical model, or player-centric model, it doesn’t aim to stamp-out drug use, what it has the effect of is actually facilitating drug use, because players know that there’s little chance of them being caught out under the world anti-doping code on match day because of these non-match-day tests.”

Under the league’s so-called “medical model”, players identified as occasional or regular drug-users can be exempted from the three-strikes program. The players can then be secretly tested “off-the-books” before games to ensure they are not positive, potentially being withdrawn from their team to avoid suspensions under the WADA code.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon: Why illicit drugs policy is ‘unashamedly’ based on health and safety model

“I’ve been immersed in this for quite some time now, and I have seen enough material and spoken to enough people that I have formed the view that this blackmailing that’s referred to is not one-off. It’s not just my view, it’s one of the findings from Sport Integrity Australia, that there is a real risk of this,” Mr Wilkie said.

“I want the AFL to stop trying to put a gloss on the SIA report, and to come out with their hand on their heart and say ‘OK, we acknowledge that this SIA report is a damning report. Yes, we got off on a technicality, because the world anti-doping code does allow testing for illicit drugs on days other than match day, but our behaviour, the AFL’s behaviour, is clearly not in the spirit of the world anti-doping code, it’s clearly not in line with community expectations’.”

Originally published as AFL ‘medical model’: War of words erupts between Andrew Wilkie and AFL over ‘blackmail’ of former player