{"id":494880,"date":"2026-03-11T21:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T22:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=494880"},"modified":"2026-03-12T02:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:24:16","slug":"the-tougher-the-better-swans-boss-bold-drugs-call-for-afl-brass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=494880","title":{"rendered":"'The tougher the better': Swans boss' bold drugs call for AFL brass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Swans<\/a> chair Andrew Pridham has called for the AFL<\/a>'s bold new drugs policy to be extended beyond players to include club's top brass.<\/p>\n

Under the new policy, which has yet to be formally signed off by the AFL and the AFLPA, testing will be conducted on a sample of the player's hair, rather than urine samples.<\/p>\n

Hair tests can detect illicit drugs over a longer period of time than urine tests, which means an increase in positive tests becomes a possibility.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> \ufeffBartel whacks coaches calling for Origin shake-up<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie withdraws after 'scary' crash on 'unsafe' course<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> Great grills Eels over 'reckless' $2.6m play for Origin star<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to The Age<\/em><\/a>, Pridham said the change to the drugs policy was a welcome one, but wants it taken even further.<\/p>\n

"There is no place for illicit drugs in the AFL, or Australia for that matter," he said.<\/p>\n

\"AFR<\/p>\n

"The tougher the regime the better, in my opinion. I applaud the AFL for making changes.<\/p>\n

"Strong thought should also be given to extending the testing from just players, to senior officials, presidents, CEOs, commissioners and coaches.<\/p>\n

"The AFL, as Australia's leading professional sport, should be setting a positive example to our fans, and in particular, kids. Taking drugs of any sort needs to come with consequences."<\/p>\n

The move to hair testing is one of several key changes to the policy that was first introduced in 2004, and last updated in 2016.<\/p>\n

Should the new policy be accepted in full, players would contribute financially to their treatment in a bid to increase accountability over their rehabilitation, while AFLW players will be covered for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"Drug<\/p>\n

The new policy also does away with the old 'three strikes' code. While players will still be suspended if they record a second positive result from a random test, those who self-report will not cop a strike.<\/p>\n

Eddie McGuire, who had for months been pushing for the decades-old policy to be updated, was rapt on Tuesday night after news of the change broke.<\/a><\/p>\n

"It's a societal issue. So take all the shame out of it," he said on Nine's Footy Classified<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"What we need to do … is get to a position where if a player is hair tested, if they come up (positive) then they have to be rehabilitated, not punished. Really lean into the medical side of things, but you can't play, because illicit drugs are generally performance enhancing drugs as well.<\/p>\n

"We've seen players run the gauntlet way too much, and it's not helping players. We are losing players."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney Swans chair Andrew Pridham has called for the AFL's bold new drugs policy to be extended beyond players to include club's top brass. Under […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":494884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=494880"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494889,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494880\/revisions\/494889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/494884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=494880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=494880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=494880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}