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Bans for Lachie Whitfield, Graeme Allan and Craig Lambert and a loss of draft picks for the GWS Giants are among the potential punishments to be announced when the AFL hands down its decision regarding the Whitfield affair sometime in the near future.
However the individuals may not be the only ones to receive punishment, with the GWS Giants as a club said to be at risk of losing some of their selections in the upcoming 2016 AFL Draft.
They are expected to keep hold of their first selection, pick No.2 overall, but could lose picks No.15 and No.37.
The punishments would come under the AFL’s catch-all crime of “bringing the game into disrepute” – more specifically, they would be the result of Whitfield allegedly staying at Lambert’s house – with Allan involved – in an attempt to avoid a potential drug test.
While the punishments put forward may seem harsh, they’re fairly lenient compared to what could be handed down if ASADA pushed them to the full extent of their code – all three would be up for multi-year bans at a minimum.
However the AFL is working with ASADA on this issue and it seems likely that the proposed sanctions will be satisfying enough for both parties.
An eight-game suspension isn’t the worst possible result for Whitfield – it’ll put him on the back foot in a season where the Giants will enter as premiership favourites, but things could be a lot worse.
The situation is more dire for Allan and Lambert, who have both moved on to new clubs in the time since the incident occurred.
Allan is now the new football boss at Collingwood and his arrival notably saw Neil Balme decide to leave the club in order to take on a role at Richmond.
If he cops a year-long ban then the Pies will really find themselves behind the eight ball, forced to make do with either their new man or his predecessor.
Lambert has been working in a player support role at Brisbane and deserves at least some of the credit for the Lions retaining young players like Sam Mayes, Lewis Taylor and Darcy Gardiner this year.
For him to be wiped out for a year would be a major blow to the club as they look to begin a new era under newly-appointed senior coach Chris Fagan.
As for the Giants, the stripping of some of their picks could shape how part of the upcoming AFL draft plays out.
They are expected to use pick No.2 to secure speedy rebounding defender Andrew McGrath, but after that had plans to match bids for a number of promising academy prospects, most notably Will Setterfield and Harry Perryman.
If they lose some of their picks then they may have to make the difficult decision between going into deficit for next year’s draft, or not matching the bids on some of their highly rated academy talents.