Whitfield, Allan, Lambert suspended over avoiding drugs test at GWS

AN AFL star allegedly being hidden by club officials to avoid a drugs test mixed with a woman scorned. It was a recipe for disaster. Now Lachie Whitfield and Graeme Allen have copped their suspensions.

GWS Giants star Lachie Whitfield has agreed to a six-month ban while former Giants officials Graeme Allan and Craig Lambert will cop 12-month suspensions but are all negotiating over the wording of their admissions.

Allan and Lambert were accused of hiding Whitfield away at Lambert’s home in May last year over fears he would fail a drugs test.

All three parties are willing to admit they didn’t follow proper processes in relation to Whitfield staying at Lambert’s home in May last year but are reluctant to concede to anything in relation to drug use.

GWS Giant Lachie Whitfield has copped a six-month suspension over the affair. Picture: Phil Hillyard

The drama started last year when Whitfield’s ex-partner Sammi Nowland emailed the club’s then football manager, Allan, with allegations of illicit drug use stemming from text message exchanges between the player and Miss Nowland.

Allan did not inform GWS of the issue until July last year. The Giants then made immediate contact with the AFL, triggering the investigation that has lasted about 16 months.

Whitfield, the 2012 No.1 draft pick, will be free to resume playing midway through next season.

Lachie Whitfield and ex-girlfriend Sammi Nowland at the 2014 Kevin Sheedy Medal red carpet.

Allan, 62, reluctantly agreed to a suspension last week because of fears that the World Anti-Doping Agency would intervene like it did in the case against the 34 Essendon players.

Figures close to the veteran football boss are adamant he could have beaten the allegations in Australia but not the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

CAS overturned a not-guilty verdict delivered by the AFL anti-doping tribunal in the Bombers case in January.

Craig Lambert has a 12-month suspension.

Graeme 'Gubby' Allen has a 12-month suspension.

Any agreement between the AFL and Whitfield, Lambert and Allan would be ticked off by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

The deal allows the three suspensions to fall under the AFL’s disrepute rules and not the anti-doping code, avoiding potential four-year bans.

Revelations of their conduct were leaked within hours of Allan’s appointment at Collingwood over football boss Neil Balme in August.

Sammi Nowland was at the centre of the drug allegations.

Sammi Nowland’s text messages sparked the investigation.

It is unclear whether GWS will be stripped of draft picks or whether Allan and Lambert will return to their jobs next year.

The Giants were last night confident of escaping penalty.

Collingwood have drawn up contingency plans to replace Allan and could look outside the club for his ­replacement.

Lambert, 48, works as player welfare manager at the Brisbane Lions.

Originally published as Whitfield, Allan, Lambert suspended over avoiding drugs test at GWS