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GREATER Western Sydney will not be stripped of picks at the 2016 NAB AFL Draft over the Lachie Whitfield affair.
AFL.com.au understands if the Giants are to be charged, they will have the opportunity to argue their case before the AFL Commission. There is no time for that to happen before Friday night.
While its understood the Giants’ No.2 pick was never in jeopardy, the AFL had been weighing up whether to strip the League’s newest club of selections 15 and 37.
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The door remains open for the Giants to be stripped of picks in next year’s draft.
Whitfield and former Giants employees Graeme Allan and Craig Lambert have been suspended under the AFL’s all-encompassing ‘conduct unbecoming’ rule.
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Whitfield received a six-month ban, Allan and Lambert were each rubbed out of the game for 12 months.
Allan subsequently resigned from his new position as Collingwood football manager.
The negotiated outcome, which was this week ticked off by ASADA, prevented any action under the anti-doping code.
The charges stemmed from advice Whitfield was given, recommending he stay at Lambert’s house to avoid the possibility of a drug test.
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GWS is adamant the individuals responsible weren’t acting on the authority of the club itself, and therefore the club shouldn’t be penalised as a whole.
Industry speculation about possible legal action appears to be nothing more than that, with the Giants now extremely unlikely to take AFL Headquarters to court.
The only possible scenario that could see the Giants lose their second and third picks before Friday night would be for them to concede defeat and voluntarily hand them back.
That seems unlikely given the Giants' public stance so far.
However there is a recent precedent. Adelaide handed its first two selections back to the League in 2012 in the wake of the Kurt Tippett salary cap scandal.
The AFL said it had 'no update' when contacted on Wednesday night.
