Earlier today, the Federal Government and the Australian Crime Commission held a media conference in Canberra, attended by our CEO Andrew Demetriou and the CEO’s of other major Australian sports, to detail the findings of a 12-month investigation, the Report on Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport.

This report has detailed wide-ranging concerns across many sports and left Australian sports fans today with a deep sense of disappointment.

This is about the welfare of players at all levels. It’s about fairness – the essence of our game.

As the AFL Commission Chairman, and the head of our sport, I share this disappointment, this anger and this distress.

Upon the end to today’s briefing in Canberra, I arranged for  the AFL Commission to be immediately called together for an emergency meeting to determine our action and our response.

It is the role of the AFL Commission today to lead our game to ensure that supporters of Australia’s only indigenous sport – our 800,000 participants, our 700,000 club members and the seven million fans who attend AFL games – have nothing but the highest confidence in our game, our clubs, our players, our coaches and our administrators.

In 2008, the AFL Commission instructed the AFL executive to establish an AFL integrity unit, with wide-ranging powers in our game to ensure full compliance with our rules and regulations, and the wider Laws of our land and the requirements of WADA, under the performance-enhancing drug code.

We have been committed to this action for more than five years, and have taken many actions around competition integrity, but today’s news from the Australian Crime Commission has shown us that Australian sport is not immune to the problems sports overseas have faced. The world has changed and we have to respond to it. We are required therefore to act more strongly, and our Commission met today to ensure that football fans know that continued action and the protection of the integrity of our game is our highest priority.

In a moment, I will ask Andrew to detail the resolutions agreed to by the Commission this afternoon. Let me clearly say to our clubs, coaches, players and administrators, the AFL Commission has instructed the AFL Executive to begin its work immediately and with the highest priority.

The four key staff members in each club – the President, the Chief Executive, the General Manager of Football and the Senior Coach   – will be required by the AFL Commission to personally meet with the AFL at the soonest opportunity to understand the work we are about to undertake to further protect our game from the insidious elements that seek to infiltrate all sport, not just our game.