ANYONE who followed the great AFL drug war of 2005 would understand the significance of yesterday's revelation that Australian professional sport has united in a bid to remove marijuana from the world banned list of performance-enhancing substances.
And anyone who remembers a stony-faced Andrew Demetriou seven years ago delivering one of his shortest-ever media statements, declaring the AFL would comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency before striding out of then federal Sports Minister Rod Kemp's domain, would appreciate the irony of the league's new exalted standing in the eyes of WADA.
Then, the AFL was the pariah, wrongly portrayed as soft on drugs and the victim of a federal government smear campaign gleefully carried out in the main by News Limited. Now it is something of a poster boy, whose dedicated attempts to fight corruption in sport has drawn praise from WADA. Director general David Howman has even suggested other sports around the world could do worse than study the AFL's template.
If Demetriou was naive in believing the AFL could go it alone and still receive federal support, then that failing was not as damaging as the AFL's unsuccessful bid to explain its two-tiered drugs policy - one which tested for illegal drugs out of competition and one which attempted to expose drug cheats.
''No one was saying what they were doing was wrong,'' Howman told The Age. ''It was policies and it wasn't well sold by them. But they've stuck with their illicit drugs policy and we've commended them for that.''
Quite apart from the AFL's WADA-acclaimed integrity data base, it remains the only sport in this country that releases its positive illegal drug-testing results. Only one player, former Hawk Travis Tuck, has tested positive three times under that policy, and no AFL player has been found with marijuana in his system on game day.
In commending the AFL, Howman observed how closely the league was working with its players in fighting corruption. Last year the AFL employed internationally recognised police officer Abraham Haddad to oversee its new data system to monitor the suspect behaviour of any footballer, coach or club employee.
''In fighting steroids and blood-doping and EPO and human growth hormone, they have set up strong relationships with Interpol and enforcement agencies generally,'' Howman said.
''They understand that, when it comes to corruption in sport, you've got to think the way the bad guys think and understand that the bad guys are often one and the same.
''There are huge profits to be made in the peddling of performance-enhancing substances.''
) Two strikes and they make a good recovery. Until then we can only see this as a good news spin, something media and organisations are highly adept at and something which one eyed docile gullible supporters such as xman and beaussie will, as hatched during the development of the media promo, lap it up like baby pooches at their mamas teets.
