THE AFL's chief medical officer Dr Peter Harcourt says 'everything is on the table' during a review of the illicit drugs policy.
On Monday, Dr Harcourt said a proposed trade-off between a stricter illicit drugs policy and keeping annual testing results private was fair.
Admitting frustration that positive aspects of the policy has been lost in the discussion about its effectiveness, he said his job will be to administer whatever plan the various stakeholders agree to as part of the review.
“Everything is on the table,” Harcourt said.
The AFL and the AFLPA are in ongoing discussions about updating the review, with representatives of some clubs calling for a tightening of the current three strikes policy, with stiffer penalties suggested for each positive test.
The AFLPA has agreed to in-competition hair testing to ascertain the extent of the problem, and an updated illicit drug policy is expected to be in place by the end of the season.
Harcourt said the players' desire to stop the annual results of testing being made public represented a general view that the communication of the policy has not worked.
He said the question of self-reporting was one of the items for review but the significance of the issue had been overstated in much of the analysis of the policy.
"On the issue of self-reporting, I haven't seen the extent of the problem as much as it has been reported but it creates reputational issues for the policy itself, so I think it is on the table," Harcourt said.
"It is not an important part of it. There are much more important elements to the policy than that particular part of it."
Harcourt was speaking at a men's health awareness campaign backed by the AFL Coaches Association that called for men to have regular check-ups to test for prostate cancer from the age of 50 (and from the age of 40 if there was family history of the disease).
AFLCA CEO Mark Brayshaw said the coaches supported the initiative in order to break down the stigma men feel in going to the doctor and having their prostate checked.
One in five men get will get prostate cancer in their lifetime and the older a man is, the more likely it is he will get prostate cancer.
Melbourne coach Paul Roos and Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade are ambassadors of the awareness-raising campaign.
