Nathan Buckley has blasted the AFL’s illicit drugs policy, arguing it “enables” drug use.

Buckley’s criticism comes as the league continues negotiations with the AFL Players’ Association over changing the policy.

Those negotiations have been complicated in the past few days over the revelation that the AFL had given Sports Integrity Australia a list of players who could potentially be target tested under the separate anti-doping policy.

That, in turn, has prompted the players’ association to ask whether the AFL has leaked illicit drug testing results to Sport Integrity Australia — something AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon strongly denies.

The controversial illicit drugs policy, a joint initiative by the AFL and the players’ association two decades ago, is separate to the standard anti-doping policy.

On Wednesday, Buckley, the former Collingwood coach and captain who is now a commentator, said some players were taking advantage of the illicit drugs policy’s confidentiality provisions.

“This has annoyed me as a leader in the locker room, this has annoyed me as an assistant coach, it annoyed me early days in senior coaching,” Buckley told SEN.

“The AFL have created a rod for their own back. The program enables illicit drug use rather than dealing with it.

“That’s largely around a marketing ploy ... there’s a welfare element, absolutely, but the clubs are the best place to provide the welfare.”

Buckley said playing AFL was privilege young men needed to make sacrifices to succeed at.

“If I’m a parent with a 17 or 18-year-old that’s going into an AFL environment, I’d rather that the question being asked of my kid going into an AFL environment is that you either take illicit drugs or you’re a professional footballer — you cannot be both,” he said.

“But the AFL system enables both, and I think that’s wrong.

“You can’t do what your mates in financial planning or stockbroking or whatever do, you can’t do that. This is the minimum standard that we’re asking of you.”

The Brownlow Medallist said the three strikes policy was too soft.

“I think if you make a poor decision then you should be penalised for it. If you make a second poor decision then you should be penalised a little bit greater. And then over time, you’ll work out pretty quickly what’s acceptable in the environment and what’s not,” he said.

“But the AFL have taken that out of the clubs’ hands and it has created what I think is an enabling of poor decisions for professionals. Yes, they’re young men, yes, they’re defining themselves, yes, they’re developing, but they also are professional players being paid a lot of money to do what they do.

“We mollycoddle too much, we enable too much, it should be really cut and dried.”

Dillon defended the illicit drugs policy, but said it would be made tougher on players.

“But like any policy, it can be refined and it can be strengthened. That’s what we want to do with the players’ association now,” he said.

“The important part of it is it’s still a health and welfare model, there’s education, there’s rehabilitation,” he said.

“But ultimately we believe there needs to be some stronger deterrence in there as well.”

Dillon was adamant that no confidential test results had been passed onto SIA.

“The results of hair tests have not been disclosed to any third parties,” he said.

“Under the anti-doping code, we work with SIA and players are tested all throughout the year.

“We gather intelligence during the year from police, federal police, SIA and our own integrity unit and we use that intelligence to put together a list of athletes which should be drug tested under the anti-doping code.

“That’s a process all other sports would undertake as well.

“We’ve been speaking with the players’ association - random testing has always occurred under our code, as has targeted testing ... we’ve had an anti-doping code in place for many, many years and that’s always been part of the process.”

Dillon said the illicit drugs policy needs upgrading.

“We want a policy that’s fit for purpose. The illicit drugs policy has served the code well for a number of years, but we do know in 2025 that we want to have a strengthened policy,” he said.

“It’s a key focus for us, as it is for the players’ association.”