AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has rejected claims ASADA offered new reduced six-month bans to Essendon players over the club’s controversial supplements program.

Media reports emerged on Friday that the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority had tabled a deal with the chief executive that would allow players to have sanctions cut on condition they accepted taking performance-enhancing substances in 2011-2012.

However, McLachlan said he was not aware of any such offer and had spoken to his ASADA counterpart Ben McDevitt on Friday morning to confirm nothing had been tabled.

“I rang Ben to make sure that I hadn’t somehow missed something or got that wrong,” he told Fairfax Radio in Melbourne on Friday.

“He said categorically `no’.”

McLachlan said McDevitt indicated earlier this year, after players were issued show-cause notices, that the ASADA Act had provisions to reduce sanctions for “substantial assistance” or “no significant fault”.

“So I think that six-month thing has been around and broadly well-known, but I haven’t had a deal put on my desk,” he added.

Asked whether there was an existing offer on the table to the Bombers players for reduced sanctions, McLachlan replied: “I don’t know specifically and I don’t want to comment beyond that.”

The CEO admitted the situation had been complicated by the suggestion that 17 current and former Cronulla NRL players could have their bans reduced and backdated because of the “inordinate delay” in ASADA’s investigation.

“If it’s true what … the offer to the Cronulla players is, that the (ban) gets backdated, it may be that they serve a minimum of three months,” he said.

With the Federal Court yet to hand down its decision on the legality of the AFL and ASADA’s joint investigation into Essendon’s supplements program, McLachlan said everything else had essentially been “frozen”.

But he hoped things would be resolved in time for next season.

“I certainly hope that we go into 2015 with resolution and clarity,” he said.