AFL yet to work out how whistleblower service will operate

THE AFL is yet to determine how its proposed whistleblower service will work.

THE AFL is yet to determine how its proposed whistleblower service will work.

The AFL announced the reform in its wide-ranging response to the Australian Crime Commission report into drugs and organised crime in sport.

It said yesterday how the service would operate was still being considered.

"The process is to be determined by our integrity unit ... obviously we've got to look at a couple of models," AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said.

An expert in corporate governance said yesterday a whistleblower hotline could have brought to the surface the issues at Essendon earlier.

"Good corporate governance practice would suggest that you have in place a mechanism for whistleblowers within the organisation," RMIT University professor Brendan O'Connell said.

"I don't see any evidence that that happened at Essendon, in terms of having that process in place so that perhaps this could have came to the light of the board of the club earlier.

"Typically, there'll be a hotline and people who work for the organisation can call that anonymously and register their complaint or their comment and that hotline should be monitored ideally by someone who is an outsider to the organisation.

"Action should be taken to investigated when something is posted on that anonymous whistleblower hotline."