Major report reveals 51 AFL players were targeted by Sport Integrity Australia investigators

A major report has detailed how the AFL ‘provided a target list of athletes’ to be tested by Sport Integrity Australia investigators last season, something that has blindsided the AFLPA.

Revelations of a secret list of 51 AFL players being target-tested for performance-enhancing drugs has blindsided footy’s player union.

The Herald Sun revealed on Tuesday that the league had “provided a target list of athletes” to be tested by Sport Integrity Australia investigators during the 2024 season.

“Out of the 51 athletes in the AFL’s target list … SIA collected samples from 50 - plus 235 athletes not on the list,” a major report by the Auditor-General into SIA’s management of the National Anti-Doping Scheme reveals.

The report adds that the AFL “did not include information on the reason for targeting” the 51 unnamed players.

It refers to “sophisticated blood and erythropoietin (also known as EPO) doping in Australian sport and cocaine culture among athlete cohorts”.

51 AFL players were targeted in anti-doping blitz.

Tensions between the league and player union were already at boiling point over the AFL’s push to tighten the game’s contentious illicit drugs policy.

That could now escalate after AFLPA chief Paul Marsh said the union did not know about the arrangement revealed in the report.

“I need to get to the bottom of exactly what has played out there,” Marsh said.

“We have a drugs policy and an illicit drugs policy that our players volunteer to be a part of, it has been in place for 20 years and there are some fundamental principles as part of that and one of them is confidentiality.

“The players submit themselves to this testing only if the confidentiality is upheld, I want to get my head around whether that has been breached here.”

The Auditor-General report tabled in federal parliament on Monday also reveals that SIA did not conduct any drug tests for four months leading up to the 2024 AFL season.

The report identifies the AFL as one of three sports including soccer and rugby league where “planned testing for all test types” was “not at the minimum level required”.

“Sport-specific testing plans for Australian football and rugby league in 2023–24 had other deficiencies in relation to timing and completeness of planned testing,” it says.

“The plan for Australian football did not include out-of-competition testing for the AFL men’s competition in the off-season or a significant component of the 2024 AFL men’s pre-season, and was not fully consistent with MLAs (minimum levels of analysis).”

Former Demon Joel Smith. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

It also revealed that testing plans “specific” and “unique” to Australian sporting codes are now being implemented.

“Templates used to plan testing for Australian football and cricket include information on priorities for testing such as ‘pace bowler’ (for cricket) or ‘midfielder’ (for Australian football) and a list of events and targeted athletes,” it says.

The report concluded that SIA’s management of the National Anti-Doping Scheme was only “partly effective” and made seven recommendations for change.

Melbourne utility Joel Smith was the last AFL player to be found guilty of an anti-doping violation.

Smith was slapped with a four-year ban last year after cocaine was detected in his system after a game against Hawthorn in late 2023.

He was later found guilty by SIA of trafficking the drug to teammates.

A former Demons doctor last year lifted the lid on secret “off the books” illicit drug tests being conducted on players on the eve of AFL matches to ensure they do not fail game-day tests.

He estimated two thirds of the Melbourne list were taking drugs regularly or occasionally.

A subsequent investigation by SIA warned the AFL’s controversial illicit drugs policy had opened the code’s doors to criminal infiltration.

Multiple Essendon players were the subject of target testing by anti-doping investigators in 2012 in the lead up to the contentious supplements scandal that saw 34 Bombers players wiped out.

Australia’s anti-doping agency has been under fire over its handling of several investigations including the 800m runner Peter Bol and swim star Shayna Jack.

The AFL did not respond to questions.