Kennett slams AFL summit as copout

Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has savaged the outcome of the AFL’s drugs summit as a “copout” after no immediate changes were made to the three-strikes illicit drugs policy.

The AFL says it will close a policy loophole that allows its players to take party drugs but avoid being tested – it just can’t say when.

The three-strikes provision of the policy will remain – AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou saying there was unanimous support at the summit for retaining it.

And any further recommendations for change – including the contentious issue of when to alert club bosses a player has been caught using drugs like cocaine, ice and ecstasy – will be left to a working party of three club chief executives, AFL medical officers, the AFL Players Association and outside medical experts.

That group won’t meet until after the AFL releases its 2012 drugs policy findings – Demetriou saying no date has been fixed for that to happen.

After long being an advocate for clubs to be alerted earlier than a player’s third strike, Kennett believes if the AFL can’t do that, it must take a zero tolerance approach to illicit drugs.

“This is a copout. I have argued for a long time the clubs must know at two strikes so we can help the player,” Kennett told Melbourne radio station SEN on Wednesday night.

“From what I understand today it’s been a talk-fest.

“I have now come to the view, even though I’m prepared to compromise, that the time has come for the AFL and the presidents to put in place the simplest policy possible – the use of illicit drugs … is not acceptable and if you are caught you will be suspended or banned.”

Kennett’s AFL club is the only one to have had a player test positive to illicit drugs three times.

But the extent of Travis Tuck’s problems were not known by club hierarchy – including Kennett – until he was found unconscious and under the influence of drugs in his parked car in 2010.

Kennett was critical of the AFLPA’s role in helping design the policy, believing players should have no say in setting the rules regarding illicit drug use.

“The players have no right to actually make the rules of the code,” Kennett said.

“The code rules have got to be set by the administrators in the interest of all players.

“And if that code says the taking of illicit drugs and performance-enhancing drugs is illegal and if you’re detected you’ll be suspended for a year and your pay reduced by 90 per cent, so be it.”

Demetriou said AFL medical officers had told Wednesday’s summit they didn’t believe exploitation of the self-reporting loophole in the illicit drugs policy was a widespread problem.

Players who put their hands up and admit to having used recreational drugs can avoid being tested and therefore registering one of their three strikes under the policy.

Instead they are referred to seek help – and there have been concerns some players are abusing that option any time they are required to undergo testing.

Despite saying the loophole would be closed, Demetriou could not confirm if it would happen before the start of the new season as the AFL Commission and AFLPA must first sign off on it.

Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert and Essendon and Gold Coast counterparts Ian Robson and Travis Auld will be part of the annual working party to review the illicit drugs policy.