Miller's Guide: Drug lessons for all

The two leagues are miles apart in terms of profile, but the AFL could do far worse than take a look at the WAFL when it sits down to review its handling of the sport’s worsening drugs crisis.

Putting aside the Essendon supplements saga, the Australian Anti-Doping Authority has already been presented with four doping cases in the AFL in the past year.

The addition of Collingwood duo Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas to the list on Monday for positive tests to the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol was simply the latest chapter.

The WAFL was facing its own crisis four years ago.

In the space of a season and a half, four players from three separate clubs had tested positive to substances either banned or restricted under the Anti-Doping Code.

East Perth midfielder Dean Cadwallader was the first to be suspended, receiving a two-year ban after returning a positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone in May 2010.

Five months later Travis Casserly tested positive for the restricted substance pseudoephedrine after being tested in the rooms after Swan Districts’ 2010 grand final triumph.

The following year East Perth were again dealing with another positive test, with Kane Goodwin returning a sample for an anabolic steroid and illicit substance.

And in August 2012, former Perth player Joel Fiegert started serving what would be a two-year ban after having traces of amphetamine and methamphetamines found in his system.

The WA Football Commission could have stuck its head in the sand.

Instead, WA’s chief football body identified improving drug education as the best means of tackling the game’s growing scourge.

The measures may not have been ground breaking, but they were well thought out.

A compulsory online questionnaire about drugs and banned substances was introduced for all players at league, reserves and colts level that was mandatory to complete before a footballer would be eligible to play in the WAFL.

Anti-doping signage was plastered above urinals and in medical offices, gymnasiums and change rooms across all nine WAFL clubs.

Face-to-face briefings were also started at each club at the start of every WAFL season and have been conducted each year since 2012 to expose all new recruits to the risks of drug use in sport.

Trainers and water boys were also given briefings to help prevent them unknowingly giving footballers banned substances.

The clear message was that clubs and their support staff, as much as players, had a part to play in preventing positive drug tests from marring the league’s reputation.

The results since have made for, to pardon the pun, positive reading.

Since 2012, there has been one publicly reported case of a positive drug test in the WAFL.

That case was published in December last year by The West Australian and involved a repeat offender in Cadwallader.

It is a strong case that the WAFC’s allocation of its limited resources in the area of education at a time when testing has increased has proven a sound move.

AFL Players’ Association boss Paul Marsh conceded earlier this month after Docker Ryan Crowley’s positive game day test came to light that a review into player education on anti-doping at the game’s top level was potentially needed.

This is not to say that nothing has been done for educating players in the AFL or that the league doesn’t already apply some of the measures recently introduced to the WAFL.

West Coast, for example, have been particularly pro-active in recent years in informing their players about the dangers of drug use, with the Eagles among clubs to employ a full-time integrity officer.

Across town Fremantle drill their players using drug education programs up to four times a season.

But a consistent and uniform approach to player education used at all 18 clubs at AFL level still appears to be lacking.

There would be worse places to start than on player education.

And if it getting that message across means more money for the league’s clubs and an under-resourced ASADA – the organisation required to do much of the heavy lifting and enforcement – then so be it.

Fantasy Fodder
It’s little more than 24 hours to make those last-minute changes to AFL Fantasy teams before the round one cut-off. Coaches should give late consideration to Melbourne’s Ben Newton ($192,000). The midfielder is cheap and received plenty of game time during the NAB Challenge. Newton looks a certainty to line up against Gold Coast in round one. Speaking of the Suns, Zac Smith ($366,000) also looks a strong option as a value-for-money No.1 ruckman capable of nice Fantasy scores. The final one to weigh up as a ruckman for the bench is Mason Cox. He’s just $120,000 and Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has even hinted at playing him in the club’s season opener. With a line now drawn through Keeffe, Cox looks a smart bet.

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