At the end of another tumultuous week following the revelation of links between Melbourne's club doctor Dan Bates and controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank, the Demons president said the current environment threatened to deter good people from accepting positions of power.
McLardy would not elaborate further on how the club had found itself caught up in the supplement saga, but offered a strong stance on the importance of maintaining the purity of the sport.
"I just want to reinforce that the issue of drugs in sport is a blight on our great game," McLardy said at the club president's function on Sunday.
"We, the Melbourne football club, are committed to supporting the AFL to do whatever it has to to ensure the integrity of the competition."
Bates stepped down from his role on Friday, pending the outcome of an investigation by ASADA and the AFL into a pre-season supplements program at the club.
The microscope has been on the Melbourne Football Club since the start of the season, and McLardy hinted it was only natural that people at the club would be starting to feel the strain.
"The AFL is currently looking at ways of reducing the pressure on players. The AFL should add to that to ensure we continue to attract those with the highest values to leadership positions in our game," McLardy said.
"Too much unwanted pressure, from those in the so called 'cheap seats', or worse still some of the journalistic commentators behind the cheap seats, and we will end up with the wrong types of people in positions of influence and then our game would have another major, major problem."
Ben Guthrie is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_BenGuthrie
