How much longer can the AFL continue with this farce of drugs policy?
AFL protecting club in drugs shame cover-up
Sunday Herald Sun
August 26, 2007 01:30am
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 41,00.html
THE AFL yesterday joined a concerted effort to keep from the public a drug scandal that has rocked a top Melbourne club.
And police began investigating whether damning medical records at the centre of the episode were stolen before being sold to Channel 7.
Lawyers representing the AFL attended a court hearing that ended with the extension of an injunction stopping Victorians reading details of drug use by a group of players at a club.
The club and the two high-profile players named in the documents cannot be publicly identified, under the court ban.
But the Sunday Herald Sun reports the stars, both household names, are set to play in the finals series.
Yesterday the club's coach and president refused to speak about the crisis.
But several AFL figures, including Tom Hafey, Doug Hawkins and Neil Roberts, called for the players to be named and shamed.
Football sources disputed a claim that one of the club's players tested positive to drugs twice.
The player may have tested positive once to a test for illicit drugs, but also registered a test inside the legally allowable limit for drugs, a source close to the club revealed.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou yesterday slammed the scandal being made public, branding the broadcast of details from medical records as "obscene".
He also tried to distance the turmoil from the AFL's drug policy, which has been under constant attack for being too lenient.
"This, for us, is not about the policy ... this is more of a moral and ethical issue," Demetriou said.
Police have started a probe into whether the documents were stolen.
Sen-Constable Leigh Wadeson said: "Victoria Police are investigating the report of a theft of documents from an Ivanhoe rehabilitation clinic."
The scandal became public on Friday when medical records were sold to Channel Seven by a woman who said she found them outside the clinic.
The doctor who treated the players was granted a Supreme Court injunction stopping the broadcast of details about 6pm on Friday, but it was too late to stop Seven airing the allegations on its news bulletin.
Yesterday the Sunday Herald Sun and Seven unsuccessfully sought to overturn the suppression. to allow the identification of the club involved.
The injunction has been extended until a further hearing on Thursday.
Lawyers representing the doctor, the AFL and the club also appeared at the special Saturday court sitting.
Judge Kim Hargraves said the confidential medical records had been "accessed in highly unusual circumstances".
"Neither (the doctor) nor his patients consent to the disclosure of confidential information," he said.
Jim Peters SC, who represented the media outlets, said the name of the club should not be suppressed because about two million Australians would have heard it in Friday night television broadcasts.
"The court can't, in effect, put a suppression order on information already known by the public because the public would be disgusted," Mr Peters said.
The doctor's barrister, Graeme Clarke, SC, argued the doctor was obliged to maintain the confidentiality of his clients.
David Beach SC, who represented the club, and David Galbally QC, who represented the AFL, also argued against lifting the suppression.
