Pies players admit drug use to AFL

Collingwood players contacted the AFL medical department after a late night last year. Picture: Wayne Ludbey. Source: Herald Sun

A GROUP of Collingwood players self-reporting drug use to the AFL was one of the catalysts for tomorrow's historic drugs summit.

The Herald Sun can reveal the Magpies players - understood to be at least four - contacted the AFL medical department after one night's activities late last season.

The players escaped a strike under a contentious provision in the AFL's Illicit Drugs Policy.

Self-reporting occurs when a player admits to an AFL medical officer to having used drugs, whether deliberately or inadvertently.

It is not only Collingwood players who are reporting drug use to the AFL.

Magpies president Eddie McGuire last night was furious when contacted for comment.

"You're telling me that, but as far as I know at the Collingwood Football Club there is a clean slate because no player as far as I know has had any strikes, because we are not told," McGuire said.

"And that you've been told something two days before a drugs summit which was specifically called for by Collingwood dismays me greatly.

"It shows this drugs policy now to be a farce, where the one thing people could hold the hat on was confidentiality.

"If there is a problem at Collingwood, and even if I suspected something, I have no powers. This is the AFL's problem, why tell me?"

Magpies chief executive Gary Pert raised the need of a drugs summit when he spoke on the eve of the national draft of an alarming use of illegal drugs by players in the off-season.

He later described the players' behaviour as "volcanic".

The AFL yesterday would not confirm the the club with the raft of self-reporting players.

Self-reporting has been described as a loophole in the drugs policy - some players have taken advantage of the strike-free confession more than once.

The drugs summit tomorrow will discuss limiting self-reports to one a year per player.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said last night any loophole in the system would be eradicated.

"There's no doubt there is an agreement any loophole that can be used will be closed," Demetriou said.

The loopholes include a group of players self-reporting, just as the Magpies players did, or a player consistently self-reporting.

Praising the self-reporting mechanism, Demetriou said it encouraged players to come forward if "they have made a mistake or have an issue".

"What it has uncovered is blokes who have got mental health issues or other issues and it allows them to get treatment," Demetriou said.

"And then all those guys go into target testing.

"If they didn't self-notify they wouldn't be target tested or have their medical issues come to the fore."

Demetriou said one self-report per player per season would be one of many discussion points tomorrow.

"That's a topic that's already been discussed and it might be one of the resolutions," Demetriou said.

"There's no firm view about where we end up other than everyone knows there is a loophole that has to be closed."

Demetriou said he was expecting a spike in positive drug tests, not from testing hair in the off-season, which he said had shown no dramatic change, but from regular in-competition testing.

"We don't know why (there is a spike) ... is it a case of it being one bad year?" Demetriou said.

"Is it in line with what happening in the community where there has been a 21 per cent increase in drug use among young people?

"Is it peer pressure? It could be all those things.

"And, also, the police will talk about this ... it's freely available."

Demetriou said the summit wouldn't be confined to drugs, and would include discussion on alcohol and whether it could be beneficial to allow players to drink more through the season so their off-season wouldn't be so alcohol charged.
 

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