AFL CEO Andrew Dillon says league did not breach player confidentiality in drug target-testing

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon says the league did not breach player confidentiality by submitting a list of footballers to anti-doping investigators to be target-tested.

The AFL says it must toughen-up its illicit drugs policy but is adamant it did not breach player confidentiality by submitting a list of footballers to anti-doping investigators to be target-tested.

The AFL has come under fire from the AFL Players’ Association over revelations the league handed over the names of 51 players for Sport Integrity Australia to test for performance-enhancing drugs last season.

The development had threatened to derail negotiations with the player union on a revamped illicit drug policy amid claims from former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley the current illicit drugs policy “enabled” drug use among players.

But AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said the league relied on its own information – from various sources including police – and not the results of confidential hair tests to formulate the list submitted to SIA.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon. Picture: Hanna Lassen/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

“I want to be very clear that the results of hair tests have not been disclosed to any third parties,” Dillon said.

“Under the anti-doping code we work with Sports Integrity Australia, and players are tested all throughout the year.

“As part of that we gather intelligence throughout the year from police, federal police and Sports Integrity Australia and our own integrity unit.

“We use that intelligence to put together a list of athletes which should be drug tested under the anti-doping code.

“That is a process which all other sports undertake as well.”

The Herald Sun last week revealed a major report from the Auditor-General into SIA’s management of the anti-doping scheme referred to “sophisticated blood and erythropoietin (also known as EPO) doping in Australian sport and cocaine culture among athlete cohorts”.

Dillon said target-testing was standard for the AFL to help combat against performance-enhancing drugs in football.

“We have been speaking with the players’ association and random testing has always occurred under our code, as has targeted testing,” Dillon said.

The league remains in discussions with the AFLPA. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross

“I think that has been clear we have had an anti-doping code in place for many, many years and that has always been part of the process.”

The league is in talks with the PA on a tougher illicit drugs policy, but a proposal to fine players $5000 for first strikes has been withdrawn.

“We want a policy that is fit for purpose and the illicit drugs policy has served the code well for a number of years,” he said.

“But we do know that from 2025 we want to have a strengthened policy and we will be patient in that.

“But we want to finalise that with the players’ association. It is a key focus for us as it is for the players association.”

Dillon also said the audit on Geelong and Port Adelaide’s third party player payments was also standard practice.

“It has been going on for a number of years and there is nothing untoward and nothing that we have seen that we need to look into anymore than any other year,” he said.

LEGEND FEARS AFL PROGRAM ‘ENABLES ILLICIT DRUG USE’

– Glenn McFarlane

A passionate Nathan Buckley says he remains frustrated by the disconnect between the AFL and its clubs in terms of supporting players for illicit drug use.

The former Magpies coach said on SEN on Wednesday that he believes that you “either take illicit drugs or you’re a professional footballer — you cannot be both.”

It comes as the Herald Sun reported exclusively on Tuesday a major stumbling block between the AFL and the AFLPA over a deal on footy’s new illicit drugs policy.

Talks between the two parties have hit a standstill, with the players union unwilling to sign up to a new drug code where anyone other than the club and AFL club doctors become aware of a player’s positive test for illicit drugs.

Nathan Buckley says the AFL has created a rod for its own back.

The AFLPA is trying urgently to clarify whether the AFL provided the confidential illicit drug data of 51 players to authorities to target-test them for performance-enhancing drugs.

Buckley said the current system “enables” players to take illicit drugs rather than deal with the problem at hand.

He insisted it was time to stop “mollycoddling” players doing the wrong thing and make them more accountable for their actions.

“I think the AFL have created a rod for their own back,” Buckley said.

“I think the program enables illicit drug use rather than dealing with it. I think that’s largely around a marketing ploy … there’s a welfare element, absolutely, but the clubs are the best place to provide the welfare.

“If I’m a parent with a 17 or 18-year-old that’s going into an AFL environment, I’d rather that the question being asked of my kid going into an AFL environment is that ‘you either take illicit drugs or you’re a professional footballer – you cannot be both’.

“But the AFL system enables both, and I think that’s wrong.”

AFL boss Andrew Dillon and football boss Laura Kane.

Buckley said the lack of clarity for clubs had annoyed him throughout his time in football.

“The AFL don’t support the individuals within the clubs,” he said.

“The managers are there to support them in some shape or form, but when they walk into the four walls, their teammates, the leaders, the leadership within that, their assistant coaches, the football program – they are the people who can support players better than anyone else.

“Some clubs do it better than others at different times, but the 18 clubs that are there, they care fundamentally for the human that they’re asking to go out and perform every other weekend.

“To take this illicit drugs policy and this idea that there is information that the league have – and the players are aware of it as well – they quarantine it from the environments that are there to protect and support these individuals which creates an absolute disconnect.”

He said players making poor decisions should be penalised.

“I think if you make a poor decision then you should be penalised for it,” he said.

Buckley has questioned whether the AFL’s drugs policy has enabled drug use by players.

“If you make a second poor decision then you should be penalised a little bit greater.

“And then over time, you’ll work out pretty quickly what’s acceptable in the environment and what’s not.

“But the AFL have taken that out of the clubs’ hands and it has created what I think is an enabling of poor decisions for professionals. Yes, they’re young men, yes, they’re defining themselves, yes, they’re developing, but they also are professional players being paid a lot of money to do what they do.

“There’s a responsibility and an accountability that comes with that. When you come to these situations, accountability is the thing that is being removed, responsibility is the thing that is being removed, and it’s wrong.

“We mollycoddle too much, we enable too much, it should be really cut and dried.

“If you love your footy, if you love getting this amount of money that’s coming your way, there’s a sacrifice that needs to be made.

“You can’t do what your mates in financial planning or stockbroking or whatever do, you can’t do that. This is the minimum standard that we’re asking of you.”

Originally published as AFL CEO Andrew Dillon says league did not breach player confidentiality in drug target-testing