AFL
1 day ago
AFLPA “suspicious” of AFL drug testing approach
By Sam Edmund
The AFL Players’ Association is growing increasingly suspicious of the AFL’s methods behind giving player names to Sport Integrity Australia for targeted drug testing.
The AFLPA last week formally asked the AFL to explain what information it was using to come up with the 51 names it gave to SIA – the players the league wants tested for performance enhancing drugs.
The clear concern from the AFLPA is that the AFL is using what should be strictly confidential illicit drugs policy positives to a government agency.
The longer the AFL take to respond, the more concerned the AFLPA get, all while both parties are trying to negotiate a new Illicit Drugs Policy.
That negotiation once again centres on the argument between punishment and education. The AFL wants the policy to develop a greater punitive edge, while the player union holds firm on what it insists should remain a welfare and education policy underpinned by confidentiality.
An auditor general report tabled in federal parliament earlier this month shone a light on the 51 AFL players targeted by SIA upon direction from AFL chiefs.
The report added that the league had not included information on the reason for the target testing.
AFL sources have stated categorically that it does not share or divulge any specifics or any identities to SIA when it comes to the illicit drugs code.
The league says it uses its own intelligence to provide SIA with players it wants target tested for performance enhancing substances.
That includes players coming back from long term injuries, noticeable change in body shape, social media posts and other observations.
Privately, the league says it will be making no apologies for identifying and target testing players for performance enhancing drugs and a desire to protect the game from them.
They maintained illicit drugs policy information and the information it provides to SIA are completely separate and that they will respond to the players’ association in due course.
The AFL and its player union were already at loggerheads over what a new illicit drugs code should look like.
This has thrown fuel on the flames.
