A looming AFL ban on some supplement suppliers is a reasonable reaction to the Essendon crisis, one of the league’s foremost high performance managers says.
But Port Adelaide’s fitness guru Darren Burgess says people will still always look to gain any advantage they can.
The AFL is expected to brief clubs within weeks on proposed anti-doping reforms, which have the backing of Burgess.
Banning some supplement suppliers, and telling clubs which ones they can use, will be among the reforms.
“That it is probably pretty reasonable given what has happened, for sure,” Burgess told reporters on Thursday.
In August, the AFL fined Essendon $2 million, banned the club from competing in the finals, and suspended coach James Hird for 12 months for the club’s controversial 2012 supplements program.
Other penalties, including draft restrictions, were also dealt to the Bombers.
Burgess returned to Port in October last year after a two-year stint as high performance manager of English Premier League club Liverpool.
Before that, he worked with Australia’s national soccer team for three years, after departing Port in 2007.
“When I left (Port) in `07, we had me and a strength coach for 44 players,” Burgess said.
“And now we have got five full-time on the (fitness) staff, so certainly the professionalism and the emphasis placed on sports medicine and sports science has increased.
“I guess whenever that perceived pressure comes in, people are going to look for those extra one percenters – and it’s happening in world sport and not just in (AFL) footy.
“Probably footy was seen as being pretty clean and, by and large it is. It has just been one situation that has come up.
“Whenever you get extra scrutiny and pressure on a sport, there is always going to be people looking for that extra per cent, whether legally or illegally.”
The AFL is believed to be on the verge of introducing a rule that club doctors must authorise every aspect of player treatments.
The AFL is also tipped to make sure clubs scrutinise in greater detail the qualifications of sports science and conditioning staff.
The competition’s banned substances list is expected to be expanded beyond that of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
