West Coast Eagles former star Daniel Chick lifts the lid on toxic drug culture in 2006

UPDATE: FORMER West Coast coach John Worsfold has scotched claims that Eagles staff helped players avoid drug tests during his time at the club.

FORMER West Coast coach John Worsfold has scotched claims that Eagles staff helped players avoid drug tests during his time at the club.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan says he is disturbed by strong allegations made by former Eagles star Daniel Chick in today’s Herald Sun about the 2006 premiership team’s toxic culture of prescription and illicit drug abuse and cover-ups.

Chick alleged that a club staffer “ushered a player out the back door” when drug testers arrived.

But Worsfold said that he didn’t remember that happening, and a player being suddenly unavailable would count as a positive strike anyway.

“It’s very tough. It’s certainly not my recollection of what was happening,” Worsfold said

Speaking at the RACV Club’s Grand Final Panel in Melbourne, Worsfold was quizzed about Chick’s revelations of rampant prescription and illicit drug use at the club while he was coach.

“We had our issues which at the time we owned up to, and we talked to the AFL about how we were going to deal with it,” he said.

“Some of those allegations just can’t be factual. When ASADA turn up at a footy club they nominate who they’re going to test and those players have to front up and be tested or it’s a positive test.”

Ben Cousins detailed in his 2010 autobiography how he avoided positive drug tests by timing when he could take illicit drugs knowing they would be out of his system before testers arrived.

“As I never took drugs within four or five days of a game, and as I concentrated on cocaine, which I believed was the quickest out of my system, I thought I was safe,” Cousins said.

ESSENDON JOB: EAGLES DRUG CLAIMS ‘WON’T HURT WORSFOLD’

The Eagles today refuted the drug claims and said they wouldn’t derail the Eagles’ premiership ambitions.

West Coast released a statement acknowledging the club “faced some challenges with its playing group a decade ago” but says they were investigated by the club and the AFL, and the club’s medical staff are “deeply offended” by the latest allegations.

“The club is now recognised as a leader in the area of player welfare and integrity in the country,” the statement says.

“Our current playing group and coaching staff will not be distracted as they embark on the challenge of winning the club’s fourth premiership at the MCG on Saturday.”

After 9 years of silence I would also like to say something..... Good luck to all involved this coming week. #extremelyproud #greatclub #35

— Steve Armstrong (@StrongArm17) September 30, 2015

Asked this morning if the claims warranted the AFL Integrity Department to probe the statements, McLachlan told SEN Radio: “I think they would certainly make some inquiries.

“Look, I don’t know how far it goes. It is 10 years ago.

“And there was action at the time coming out of that.

“In 2007 there was enough known, certainly had come out, that the Eagles fronted the AFL Commission, which was unprecedented at the time, so I think that’s indicative that at the time that there was stuff going around,” he told SEN.

“Now, how all that played out and what the detail is its just hard for me to comment because I just don’t know enough about it.

“Obviously, there’s a series of allegations in the article that I need to go through a process to understand what is real and what’s not. It’s just difficult to comment without any more information than the article.”

Chick, breaking a decade-long silence on the club’s dark underbelly, says powerful asthma pills, Xanax, Sudafed, Stilnox and Valium were among drugs sometimes provided through the Eagles, that were abused by several players.

Chick claims he and former teammates Daniel Kerr and Ben Cousins took massive doses of asthma drug prednisone in a pattern experts describe as “bizarre and inappropriate”.

TELL-ALL INTERVIEW:‘FROM FAMILY CLUB TO FREAKIN’ PLAYBOY CLUB’

“At those levels it’s the same as being a full-on meth addict,” he said.

“The lack of sleep, the depression, it affects your mental health, coping mechanisms, metabolic rates and causes memory loss and sleep issues. It’s not a coincidence the three of us have had issues with substance abuse.”

What Chick claimed players took.

The ex-Eagle has decided to go public after more than a year of private discussions with the Herald Sun, saying he is fed up that culpable club figures have not been held to account.

Chick, who played for West Coast from 2003 to 2007 and had a key role in the one-point defeat of Sydney to win the 2006 Premiership, claims:

A STAFFER hid certain players from drug testers.

A FORMER Eagles figure dished out sedatives in bulk to players.

THE use of illicit drugs — including cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine — was not confined to a few “bad boys’’, but was widespread.

SOME players would snort crushed Xanax and take Valium with vodka to relax on flights to and from Perth.

Chick played for Hawthorn before moving to the Eagles.

Chick hugs his dad in the rooms after the 2006 Premiership.

Prednisone use is banned under anti-doping rules, unless cleared by a special ASADA medical committee. Chick says Cousins, Kerr, and himself, who were asthmatic, had this approval.

However, he would only ever take the drug during the season, on game days, and with other stimulants.

“I couldn’t even sit still on the bench,” he said.

“I started taking the 20mgs and 5mgs tablets on game day but then it escalated up to 40 to 50mgs quickly.

“It smashes your system. I’ve since read a lot about it, we didn’t know what was done to us. You feel bulletproof basically.

Chick at Cottesloe Beach, Perth.

Daniel Chick and new partner Jodee.

“Even the next day or two you wouldn’t feel knocks but by Wednesday you flatten out and it is hard to get going again. Once you are in that cycle it was like an addiction.”

National asthma guidelines say prednisone should only be used in 40mg doses in an emergency.

“This would be a bizarre and inappropriate way to treat any asthma-related problem in an elite athlete,” said Professor Christine Jenkins, a clinical respiratory specialist at the University of Sydney.

ASADA says there are currently 11 professional Australian athletes across all sports who have therapeutic use exemptions for prednisone and a related substance called prednisolone.

Teammates Ben Cousins and Daniel Chick celebrate.

Chick concedes he made mistakes, but says senior club figures should have been more accountable for their players’ health.

“What went on at West Coast is due to lack of leadership from the top down,” he said.

“Players’ health should be more important than protecting the brand ... I don’t think the premiership is tainted but it came at too high a price.’’

He also said: “One staffer even ushered a player out the back door that he knew would fail a drug test. He said the player was not at training and was home sick.’’

The staffer also covered for a player found by police in possession of Valium.

And some club doctors would hand out stimulants caffeine tablets and Sudafeds, before the game and again at half time, he says.

TELL-ALL INTERVIEW:‘FROM FAMILY CLUB TO FREAKIN’ PLAYBOY CLUB’

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