CENTRAL Victorian Football chief executive Steven Oliver doesn’t believe the issue of performance-enhancing substances is of any concern at local level.
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AFL club Essendon is now under investigation by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and the AFL’s integrity unit into supplements given to its players last year.
The Essendon scandal, coupled with cyclist Lance Armstrong’s recent confession that he doped, has placed the issue of performance-enhancing drugs back in the spotlight, but Oliver believes there’s no cause for concern at country football level.
“We don’t believe there are any issues with this type of thing in country football,” Oliver said yesterday.
“But if it did happen or was suspected of happening, we would seek advice from AFL Victoria, the AFL and the Australian Sports Drug Agency... it would be simple as that.”
While AFL players are tested for both performance-enhancing and illicit drugs, Oliver said such testing would be too expensive to employ in country football.
“It’s a very expensive process for these tests, but we don’t believe there to be an issue,” Oliver said.
“If we believed it was an issue we’d seek advice as the AFL do from the absolute professionals in the world of drugs in sport.”
