Andrew Bogut slams the AFL’s drug code as Andrew Dillon hits back at WADA founding president Dick Pound

Australian basketball legend Andrew Bogut has hit out at the AFL’s drug code, while CEO Andrew Dillon had some choice words of his own for the WADA founding president.

Basketball legend Andrew Bogut has slam-dunked the AFL’s stance on drugs, accusing the league of orchestrating secret tests to cover up “blatant” substance abuse.

It comes as AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon accused World Anti-Doping Agency founding president Dick Pound of “sensationalising” the drugs issue after he likened the league’s practices to those used by cheating East German athletes in the 1970s.

Bogut mocked the AFL in a social media post on Wednesday, jokingly calling for the creation of a cocaine “cover-up round”.

“The AFL continues to tell people about how they should live their lives but they should clean up their own league before they start preaching on social issues,” the ex-NBA star said.

“It’s quite obvious what’s happened – the AFL knew they had a problem with guys using drugs, so let’s just have them pull out with a sore hammy and dodge the testing that way.

“Anyone with half a brain can see why they’ve done it. They’ve obviously tried to move the chess pieces around to navigate a (WADA) policy they have agreed to abide by – because the carrot is federal government funding.

Andrew Bogut. Picture: Getty

“Everyone knows what goes on in Melbourne. I’ve been to numerous nightclubs where the AFL guys are drinking a bottle of water and jumping around like crazy. I’ve been offered it (drugs) by AFL players and the fact that it has been kept under wraps for so long just shows how far the AFL tentacles can reach.”

Pound slammed the AFL’s secret testing program on Tuesday and called on Australian police to look for links between players and organised crime gangs that may be supplying illicit drugs.

Dillon hit back yesterday, saying: “Dick Pound has been an incredible administrator, he’s had some very important roles, but in relation to those comments I think he is way off the mark there.

“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,” Dillon told 3AW radio.

“We have been on the record as saying that our illicit drugs policy is under review and these conversations will help us shape a policy that is fit for purpose for 2024 and beyond …”

Regarding potential similarities between the AFL’s “off the books” drugs tests and the East German methods, Dillon said: “There’s not because … they were testing for substances that were banned in and out of competition. Any athlete in Australia is not tested out of competition for illicit substances – AFL players are and that’s under the illicit drugs policy. Under the WADA Code, they are not tested for them.”

Andrew Dillon. (Photo by Mark Brake/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

Geelong coach Chris Scott also weighed in, saying: “That Dick Pound from Canada, or wherever he is, doesn’t have an intimate understanding of the policy. Clearly, he’s giving every indication that he doesn’t understand it if he’s comparing it to the East Germans.

“A long time ago the players submitted to a system where they said ‘yes, we will be a party to the WADA policy but on top of that – and separate to that – we will submit ourselves to an illicit drugs policy’.

“The players submit to it on the basis that it’s a welfare-based program, not one where you can satisfy the whims of the people that just love the naming and shaming …”

The scandal erupted last Tuesday night when federal MP Andrew Wilkie exposed how AFL players were being given tests to ensure their systems were clear of drugs or were advised to “fake an ­injury” so they would not risk being tested and suspended for breaches of the WADA code.