THE AFL has advanced plans to introduce a new code of conduct for players' off-field behaviour, taking much of the power and responsibility for disciplining errant players out of clubs' hands.
The presidents of all 16 clubs met the league yesterday and were advised of the move to craft a new uniform code, thus significantly removing the onus on clubs to deal with players, which has created a more arbitrary approach with consequent disparities in treatment.
The AFL also raised with the presidents consideration it had given to scaling back the drug policy from the present three strikes to a two-strike policy but did not recommendation this or seek for the matter to be put to an official vote.
The league conceded that the difficulty of any change, were it deemed to be their wish, was that the AFL signed only a new four-year illicit drugs policy with the players' association at the start of this year. Any change would require the players union's ratification.
It is understood a straw poll of the presidents was roughly divided 50-50 in views on a possible change from three strikes to two.
West Coast chairman Dalton Gooding spoke passionately and persuasively about the Ben Cousins experience in strongly advocating no change to the three strikes. Cousins had never actually failed an AFL drug test, let alone two or three, but Gooding said the testing regime had been responsible for Cousins missing training to avoid testing and therefore his substance abuse problems being revealed to the club.
The AFL also updated the clubs on its progress with the second-tier review of football in Victoria and while there is expected to be a significant overhaul of the structure of that competition, there was no unanimity of view on this issue either.
As expected the AFL also advised that the league's longest serving commissioner, Colin Carter, would retire from the commission at the start of next year, creating a second vacancy to be filled after the death of former chairman Ron Evans.
A sub-committee of chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, commissioner Graeme John and club presidents Frank Costa (Geelong) and Bill Sanders (Adelaide) will compile a short list of possible replacements and make a recommendation to the presidents in September.
Headhunting firm Egon Zehnder, used to help identify the last person to join the commission, Sam Mostyn, has been employed to help the search.
West Australian clubs have been agitating for a representative from the west to join the commission, with Gooding being pushed for the vacancy.
