A "radical proposal" to drug test teenage footballers before they enter the Australian Football League draft has been "placed on the game's review agenda" by AFL Football Operations Manager Mark Evans, according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. With the AFL and the majority of clubs "pushing for a harder line in the fight against illicit drugs, Evans has proposed that the game attack the growing social epidemic by patrolling football's elite talent pathways" through state leagues, representative teams and the TAC competition. Under the Evans proposal young footballers would be "tested at national carnivals and at the draft combine." The issue of parental consent for 17-year-old footballers will "form part of the debate at the forthcoming illicit drugs policy review as will the outcome of positive tests." It is understood that the highest numbers of players testing positive from the most recent out-of-season hair testing "rested in Victoria at certain Victorian clubs." At least two AFL clubs "registered no positive hair tests and several others just one or two positives" (THE AGE, 5/18). In Melbourne, Jesse Hogan wrote the AFL is "considering a mid-season rule tweak that would see players who lead with their heads concede a free-kick, rather than receive one as they are intending to, out of fears for serious injury." AFL National Umpiring Dir Wayne Campbell said that the league's "concern about players who lead with the head" is primarily "due to player safety rather than any 'spirit of the game' considerations." Campbell: "The footy world acknowledges that it is an issue, so it's beholden on the Laws of the Game [committee] and us to look at it. We need to disincentivize someone trying to draw a free-kick through searching with their head for contact" (THE AGE, 5/18).
