AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon promises to 'enhance' illicit drugs policy

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon says the league will have an “enhanced” illicit drugs policy in place for next year, and ball-tracking technology may not be far behind.

Dillon has been in Perth this week for a two-day meeting with all 18 club chief executives.

Changing the access to Next Generation Academy players, club funding, the potential introduction of in-season pick trading and fixturing were among the many issues discussed.

The AFL’s illicit drugs policy, which has been in place since 2005, hit the headlines earlier this year when allegations surfaced about clubs doing off-the-book tests.

MP Andrew Wilkie used parliamentary privilege in March to allege Melbourne players who tested positive to those off-the-book tests were then told to feign an injury and not play, thus avoiding returning a positive in-game test.

Sport Integrity Australia investigated the claims and later cleared the AFL of breaching any anti-doping rules.

Despite that ruling the issue remains a hot talking point and the AFL are expected to tighten any potential loopholes.

“It’s a conversation that we’ve been having internally at the AFL with our clubs and then started the discussions with the players and the Players Association,” Dillon said of the policy.

“We’re looking to have a revised and enhanced illicit drugs policy in place for next season.”

The AFL trialled ball-tracking technology in the VFL and VFLW earlier this season and are keen to implement it at senior level once it’s ready.

When that is remains to be seen, but the early trials have been promising.

“The trials are going quite well,” Dillon said.

“But we don’t want to introduce a technology like that until we’re 100 per cent certain that it’s as accurate as it can be and it doesn’t affect the ball.

“There is a chip in the ball and that’s how it works. It charges wirelessly and it’s portable, and you can use it at any venue.”

Under current AFL rules, clubs are not allowed to match a rival’s bid on one of their Next Generation Academy players until after pick No.40.

Clubs have been outraged at the rule, stating all the money and time they invest into their NGA products often goes to waste given other teams can swoop in and snare the best talent.

The AFL are expected to introduce new rules that will allow clubs to have access to their NGA products from pick No.1 onwards.

That rule change is set to tie into clubs having to use higher draft picks to match rival club offers on father-son picks, rather than using a flurry of lower picks to match the offer.

“We want to make sure that when you have that preferential access to a player, you are paying as fair a price as possible,” Dillon said.

West Coast and Fremantle are both keen to be handed an extra home game from next year in a bid to lessen their hectic travel schedules.

Dillon said that issue and other fixturing matters will be discussed further at the commission meeting in August, but he hinted it may be hard to grant them an extra home game.

Instead, the two WA teams may be fixtured for more consecutive away games, which will allow them to stay interstate and thus reduce the amount of travel they do.

The AFL announced on Wednesday an extra 1000 tickets will be allocated to competing club members for the 2024 grand final, raising the overall number for club members to 35,000.