The AFL has been accused of a “multi-hundred-million-dollar fraud” with bombshell testimony exposing an alleged systematic “cover up” of drug taking in the league.
A whistleblowing doctor has come forward with allegations the league facilitated a secret, off the books, drug testing operation designed to stop players from testing positive for cocaine.
Federal MP Andrew Wilkie on Tuesday night dropped a bomb on the football code in Parliament, providing claims from Melbourne Demons club doctor Zeeshan Arain, exiled former Melbourne Football Club president Glen Bartlett and Joel Smith’s father Shaun.
Joel Smith is facing allegations of Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) for “Trafficking or Attempted Trafficking” of cocaine to third-parties.
Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) in February announced Smith was found to have cocaine and benzoylecgonine – the drug’s major substance – in his system after the Demons’ Round 23 win over Hawthorn on August 20, 2023.
That scandal may be just the tip of the iceberg, as informed by the bombshell address Mr Wilkie delivered to the House of Representatives on Tuesday night.
Mr Wilkie said he had signed testimony from all three whistleblowers.
Mr Wilkie’s address, made under the protection of parliamentary privilege, included several shocking claims, including:
— Drug abuse and illicit behaviour is prevalent across the AFL.
— Efforts were made by AFL executives and others to cover up Demons coach Simon Goodwin’s alleged cocaine use.
— Bartlett believes senior AFL executives hid their concerns about the alleged drugs use for 18 months.
— The Melbourne Football Club ran a secret operation of drug testing players at Dorevitch Pathology in Heidelberg (Melbourne’s north) in order to catch them from potentially testing positive when tested for doping violations by SIA agents.
— Former chief medical officer of the AFL, Peter Harcourt; was aware of the operation.
— There is evidence of wilful inaction by AFL chairman Richard Goyder and former CEO Gillon McLachlan.
— The AFL’s illicit drug policy is a “systemic failure” to protect players.
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