The AFL won’t be beaten by the sinister scourge of drugs in sport, the league’s chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou says.

Demetriou used his keynote speech at Wednesday night’s season launch in Adelaide to pledge the AFL’s commitment to overcoming controversies such as Essendon’s supplements saga.

“We will remain at the forefront of the challenge that dogs all sports: managing the integrity of the game and all who work in it,” Demetriou said.

“We will not be beaten by the scourge of drugs, or gambling, or sinister processes.”

The AFL banned Essendon from last year’s finals and suspended its coach James Hird for a year, among other penalties relating to the club’s 2012 supplements program.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has yet to detail what, if any, charges it will lay against the club.

Demetriou said poor decisions had an enormous impact on the AFL in 2013.

“I’m not about to brush that under the carpet – many people made poor decisions and the game was surely impacted,” he said.

“But I know that many people have also made great decisions through 2013, since 2013, to make sure that the game will win out, and it will be celebrated by its fans, without sense of misgiving or delusion or distrust.

“We cannot amend the past but we can surely shape the future, and that has always been the approach of the AFL Commission and the executive.”

Demetriou, who announced on Monday he would resign at the end of the looming season, urged the AFL community not to dwell on the past.

“The future is what the AFL is all about,” he said.

“It’s about continuing what we know is best for our game and for our fans.

“And it’s also being prepared for the unknown and ensuring that our people have the right resources to counter any issue that may come out of the blue.

“As our season’s banner says: ‘everything’s possible’. For that to ring true, we must always be prepared.”