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Leagues and Governing Bodies

AFL To Review Drug Code, Push For Two-Strike Policy, Hair Testing

The Australian Football League exec council has identified the three areas of the World Anti-Doping Agency code that it wants reviewed: confidentiality, delays and appeals, according to Patrick Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. The AFL tribunal was "not 'comfortably satisfied'" that Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority had "established the footballers had been injected with banned peptide Thymosin Beta-4." As the AFL prepares to work with the National Rugby League and other professional team sports on the performance-enhancing drug code, it has also "done the groundwork for a review of its illicit drug policy." And AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is "understood to believe the two codes can work more effectively together, though they would always need to remain separate policies." McLachlan said that recent incidents were enough to "suggest both codes needed reviewing." ASADA is "best placed" to see the shortcomings of the WADA performance-enhancing code when it "interacts with professional team sport." Understaffed and under-resourced when faced with investigating AFL and NRL clubs up and down the eastern seaboard, it is believed ASADA "agrees broadly with the three trouble buckets identified by the league" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 4/8). In Sydney, Greg Denham reported criticism of the AFL’s "controversial three-strikes illicit drug policy escalated" on Tuesday with more clubs "calling for stronger action and a review of the agreement." On Tuesday, AFL side Melbourne coach Paul Roos and his Collingwood counterpart Nathan Buckley "suggested a review of the league's illicit drugs policy was required." Their calls followed Monday's "strong proposals" by AFL side Hawthorn that players who are "handed a strike are named and shamed earlier than the current medical model," which is governed by confidentiality. Roos said the league "needed to get tougher, insisting that illicit drugs should be referred to as illegal drugs." Buckley said the AFL was "losing the battle against illicit drugs because the league's penalties were not a strong enough deterrent." He hinted the three-strikes policy was "too soft." Buckley: "I suggest it's pretty clear that if it’s a battle, we're not winning it" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 4/8). 

TWO STRIKES, HAIR TESTING PUSH: In Melbourne, Grant Baker reported the AFL is "expected to push for a two-strike policy when it holds talks about illicit drugs reform" with the AFL Players' Association "as soon as this week." It will also "seek an increase in the number of tests conducted on players as part of a tightening of its contentious code." The players' association, which has "expressed its openness to change, is expected to counter with a proposal" that players' test results no longer be publicly reported. Neither party will "table a 'zero tolerance' proposal," which was raised by Hawthorn President Andrew Newbold over the weekend. Any future reforms are "expected to form part of the players' new collective bargaining agreement" with the league, which is not due to "come into force" until '17 (HERALD SUN, 4/7). Also in Melbourne, Caroline Wilson reported Hawthorn captain Sam Mitchell has "proposed mandatory hair testing four times a year for all senior players" as part of a "tougher approach to illegal drugs -- an approach that now has the growing support of senior AFL footballers across the game." Mitchell "put forward his proposal" to the AFLPA, which has now "opened discussions with the AFL reviewing the rules surrounding illegal drugs." The AFLPA is now "open to introducing in-competition hair testing in a bid to gain a deeper knowledge of illicit drug use" among players. Hair testing was introduced at the end of '08 after the AFL Commission "acted on West Coast's illicit drugs problem and removed Ben Cousins from the competition for a season." Channel Seven reported that only three of the 18 clubs "registered no positives from the off-season hair-testing." The senior players "remain divided over whether year-round hair testing would be counted as part of the three-strikes policy, which is also being reviewed" (THE AGE, 4/7).

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