The AFL has made significant changes to its anti-doping, gambling and match-fixing codes in an attempt to protect the dwindling integrity of the game.
In the wake of last season’s ongoing Essendon supplement scandal, the AFL has gone to new measures to distance itself from unwanted associations with doping and illegal activity.
The league has introduced a crackdown of locker-room access and phone use as both a method to deter gambling issues and to remove unwanted identities associated with some players.
The standout example is this case is Richmond’s Jake King and his ties to a former Bandito member, seen together in the club rooms last season and more recently snapped by prying paparazzi.
Players will no longer be allowed to use phones in change rooms and a team limit of 10 staff, nominated prior to each home and away game, will have access to communication devices such as phones and tablets during games.
Recent technological advances that have seen tablets used as a coaching device during games will still be allowed during game breaks.
The 2013 doping scandal which engulfed Essendon became the top AFL headline for portions of last season as a result the league has tightened the circumstances to which injections can be administered to a player. Under new rules, injections can only be used to treat existing medical conditions.
“No person may possess needles or injectables other than the club medical officer,” AFL rules now state.
Gambling has become a league-wide no-no as all players, officials and staff throughout received notice of a new betting ban.
The new rules come on the back of the hiring of former Victorian police homicide squad detective Toby Keane joining the AFL’s integrity department.
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