Dear Members and Supporters,

I promised last week to provide you with an update as to how we are planning to deal with the potentially significant threat of drug use and corruption at both our Club and in society in general.

It’s a big topic, but I’ll do my best to capture the issues!

The Australian Crime Commission Report
This was released earlier this month, warning of the growing and insidious nature of Organised Crime and Drugs in Australian Sport.

Ongoing investigations are in place, and findings will be released over the coming weeks and months

Currently one club (Essendon) and one other player (unknown at this stage) are under investigation in the AFL.

AFL Response
The AFL welcomed the report and has made a commitment to aggressively root out the problem.

It has supported the recommendations of the ACC and Federal Government, designed to safeguard the integrity of Australian professional sport.

The AFL Performance Enhancing Drug Policy will be further reviewed and tightened.

The AFL Integrity Unit, established in 2008, will be expanded significantly in response to this threat.

This unit oversees the AFL’s codes and policies for Performance Enhancing Drugs, Illicit Drugs, Gambling and Personal Conduct.

Initiatives include cross-code co-operation, increased investigative resources, introduction of a compulsory register of all substances in use in the AFL, increased testing, introduction of a whistle blower system plus others.

It is committed to proactive support of the Police, Government and anti-doping authorities.

Port Adelaide Response
Port Adelaide has had no involvement in this or any other investigation to date re: Performance Enhancing Drugs.

There is no suggestion that Port Adelaide is implicated in any way, other than recruiting two players from Essendon this year, who may be interviewed as part of the investigation. Both players are cooperating fully.

Our policies are centred on three key principles: good people in charge, best practice policy and a conservative mindset in these matters.

Our Head Doctor, Dr Mark Fisher, is a leader in Sports Medicine and has been at the helm of our program for seven years. We abide by the codes provided by the Australian Institute of Sport, for all supplement use. We only use products provided by approved and recognised brands - all products are batch tested. Our sports scientists are not permitted to administer any supplements without medical permission. Players must inform our medical staff of any unapproved supplement or substance, before taking it.

They are educated to understand that if they fail to do this, it is their responsibility.

We have a strictly no injection/IV policy, unless medically directed.

We comply to the WADA and ASADA testing regime.

In addition, this Club has taken a proactive and aggressive stance against the use of illicit drugs. You can read two recent articles in The Advertiser relating to our stance by clicking here and here

Very often your brand/Club is defined by how you respond to issues such as these.

AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou has been aggressive in the defence of the integrity of the game. And rightly so. Port Adelaide will be similarly aggressive.

To this end, I am announcing that we have re-defined Peter Rohde’s role with the Club to include the duties of Club Integrity Officer.

His responsibilities will extend across both our AFL and SANFL football structures, to ensure that the standards we are applying as a Club, in the areas of TPP and Salary Cap management, Illicit and Performance Enhancing Drug policy administration, player safety, corruption detection, and supplement protocols are relevant and adhered to. Peter will report directly to the Board on these matters.

In the first instance, I have asked Peter to comprehensively review all of our existing policies and procedures, to identify any areas that we may need to consider strengthening immediately. As I have said before, I believe we are on very solid ground but we want to be best practice in these areas and aggressively on the front foot. This information will feed into a number of similar initiatives being undertaken by the AFL over the next three months which I am sure will significantly improve our knowledge of these threats and better equip us to handle them.

Chairman David Koch, senior coach Ken Hinkley and I are unequivocal on the issue of Illicit and Performance Enhancing Drugs … there is absolutely no room for either at the Port Adelaide Football Club. We will be actively seeking to develop industry leading education, policies and procedures to ensure this Club protects itself and its players and staff from the damage that association with these types of activities can cause.

There is an inherent duty of care that will guide all decision making on these matters, and many different stakeholders are involved. But we have seen the damage that can be caused to the reputations of clubs and individuals when issues like this arise, not to mention the cultural damage that can be inflicted if these negative influences are allowed to enter your club. We will fight to ensure this doesn’t happen, but if it does, we must be in a position to be able to deal with it quickly and decisively.

This issue is not going away. I will keep you posted on our progress.

Regards,
KT