Top-secret AFL report: West Coast failed on Daniel Kerr’s Valium scam

DANIEL Kerr was 21 when he waltzed into a Perth chemist and presented a forged prescription for 50 Valium pills. Former judge William Gillard asserts it was likely he farmed out the pills to teammates.

Daniel Kerr was 21 when he waltzed into a Perth chemist and presented a forged prescription for 50 Valium pills.

DANIEL Kerr was 21 when he waltzed into a Perth chemist and presented a forged prescription for 50 Valium pills.

The rising West Coast star was charged by police and later told a court he needed the ­Valium to cope with the pain of a knee operation.

Character references were presented by Eagles coach John Worsfold and chief executive Trevor Nisbett. But the truth was far more sinister.

Former judge William Gillard details in his secret report to the AFL Commission that Kerr had pinched the script from Eagles doctor Rod Moore in mid-2004.

He further asserts that it was likely Kerr farmed out the pills to teammates who were also abusing illicit drugs.

“Anyone who knows anything about drugs would have understood that those who use drugs that produce a ‘high’ sometimes have difficulty in sleeping and Valium is one method used to induce sleep,” Gillard writes in his report.

“Also, Valium is sometimes used to prolong a ‘high’ after taking cocaine or one of the amphetamines.

“Mr Nisbett accepted it did go through his mind that the Valium may have been used for other purposes other than its normal prescribed purpose.

Daniel Kerr on his way to court in 2015.

“He (Nisbett) also gave evidence which suggested that Kerr was not acting alone in seeking to obtain the Valium pills, that another player or players may have been involved in the attempt to obtain pills by deception ...

“The incident was not properly dealt with by the club. It is an example of the club failing to adopt a tough line on illicit drug-taking.”

Gillard adds: “The full import of what Kerr was doing could not have been lost on Dr Moore.

“In my view, by mid-2004 the club should have concluded that there were was a strong suspicion that some players were taking illicit drugs and there was a real risk there could be a drug problem.”

Kerr was fined $5000 by the club for the Valium incident.

Kerr’s on-field exploits across 220 games for the ­Eagles were matched by an off-field rap sheet second only to Ben Cousins.

In 2007, he finished runner-up in the Brownlow Medal count. In that same year, he and his father were charged with assault at a party, he was arrested and charged after attacking a taxi driver, and police tapes emerged of a 2003 conversation Kerr had held with a convicted drug dealer relating to a “big bag of horse chaff”.

Daniel Kerr with the premiership cup.

Gillard said: “Daniel Kerr has never been suspended by the club. Yet his conduct has been appalling.”

The secret Gillard report details two other incidents involving Kerr in Melbourne in the weeks before the 2007 Brownlow count.

“He was observed at the (All Australian) award ceremony by some as appearing to be intoxicated, which raised suspicions with respect to both alcohol and drug intake,” Gillard writes.

“It was alleged that having received his award, he dropped it as he left the stage.”

Eleven days later, Kerr drew attention after the AFL Players’ Association MVP dinner.

“A concerned source contacted Adrian Anderson of the AFL and informed him that Daniel Kerr was behaving in an anti-social manner at a Melbourne hotel,” Gillard says.

“It was alleged that at one time, he was walking naked out the front of his room.

“Andrew Demetriou (then the AFL’s CEO) rang Mr Nisbett to inform him that Kerr was behaving badly and the latter rang the club’s doctor, Rod Moore, who at the time was in Melbourne attending a conference.

“Mr Nisbett then rang Kerr. It was about 2pm to 3pm and Kerr was still in bed … Dr Moore went to Kerr’s hotel and attended to him.

“The report is that he ­appeared to be hungover … the AFL raised the question of a drug test and Kerr took the view that he was not bound to provide a drug test sample in his own private time.”

In his interview with Gillard, Kerr denied that he had ever taken drugs.

Kerr’s off-field troubles would have first come to the attention of staff as early as 2002, Gillard says.

During Mad Monday celebrations that year, Kerr had a fight with Cousins in a nightclub in the Perth suburb of Claremont, leaving the former bloodied and the latter with a broken arm.

Gillard says a night of partying as the players celebrated a mid-season break three years later summed up their brazen “arrogance” and was “an example of the club’s culture in action”.

“The club was successful in its match ... at the beginning of the bye period.

“Players were instructed to relax and enjoy themselves for a few days, as their next game was some two weeks away.

Daniel Kerr outside court in 2015.

“Some players, including players from the opposing club, attended a nightclub where two players, namely Kerr and Gardiner, were observed to be under the influence of a stimulant drug.

“Although not observed actually taking the substance, their conduct demonstrated to the lay person that they were highly stimulated and affected by something.

“Their conduct was brazen and arrogant and in public.

“The players of the opposing team were amazed at what had taken place and could not believe what they were seeing.

“The two players concerned evidently took the drug in the male toilets.

“This was all very apparent to the opposing club’s players. The disturbing feature about this episode is that it was done openly, brazenly, arrogantly and in public.

“The attitude was: ‘Doesn’t matter, nobody will dob us in’.”

[e-mail]

AFL’S TOP SECRET EAGLES REPORT SPECIAL:

DRUGS, LIES AND COVER-UPS: WEST COAST SCANDAL EXPOSED

BETRAYAL OF A DUTY OF CARE: WEST COAST CHIEFS LASHED OVER TOXIC CULTURE

AFL URGED TO SET UP INDEPENDENT BODY TO PROBE MISCONDUCT

WHAT BEN COUSINS SAID ABOUT HIS DRUG USE

EAGLES MIDFIELDER CHAD FLETCHER STRAPPED TO LAS VEGAS BED

CHRIS JUDD ‘OUT OF TOUCH ON DRUG POLICY’

WEST COAST PREMIERSHIP PLAYER STEVEN ARMSTRONG LIED TO POLICE OVER CAR CRASH

EDITORIAL: BOMBSHELL DEMANDS SO MANY ANSWERS