A parliamentary inquiry has heard the NRL is secretly collecting intelligence on players they suspect may be using drugs.
Details of athletes they believe should be targeted for testing are also being shared covertly with Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), Australia's anti-doping organisation, according to reports in The Guardian.
While it’s been widely understood the AFL has been compiling similar lists in recent seasons, this is the first time the NRL has been publicly linked with similar activity.
As part of a broader enquiry into the effectiveness of Australia's National Anti-Doping Scheme chaired by Josh Burns MP, senior SIA officials were questioned about the way testing is conducted—and often highly targeted through covert intelligence gathering—within Australia’s major sporting codes.
“It’s a fine line between providing names and context to names and maintaining privacy and confidentiality of intelligence, essentially, or information sources behind why that name may appear on a list. That’s the balance,” SIA chief executive Dr Sarah Benson explained of the way athletes are often targeted using ‘inside information’ within the AFL and NRL.
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“Only the NRL and AFL have provided names for possible target testing in a specific ‘list’ format (as opposed to providing intelligence through other singular one off sources such as email, phone, or SIA anonymous tip-off lines),” Sport Integrity Australia revealed in an accompanying submission to the enquiry.
“We also actively seek input from government funded sports to identify athletes and cohorts suitable for testing.”
The revelations follow an NRL season that saw the issue of illegal substances thrust into the spotlight when an investigation by Queensland police saw South Sydney hooker Brandon Smith charged with supply of drugs following an incident on the Sunshine Coast that also involved Sydney Roosters forward Victor Radley.
Radley was not charged with any offence, but was later banned by the Roosters for 10 matches.
According to the NRL website: “The League’s Anti-Doping program works collaboratively with Sport Integrity Australia to protect the game against doping through education, intelligence gathering, testing, and results management.”
“The testing program uses all intelligence and research available to identify the areas of highest doping risk and tailors its testing programme accordingly.”