It is very confusing as to why the GWS Giants did not self-report to the AFL last year when player Lachie Whitfield was for some reason unreachable to drug testers at Craig Lambert’s house, says Brian Waldron.
ASADA is reportedly planning to charge the 22-year-old who claims he went to the welfare manager’s house for three nights due to an issue with his then girlfriend.
Graeme Allan, who is now at Collingwood, was also believed to be involved in the ordeal that could end Whitfield’s career with a long suspension if they cannot prove his actions were not relating to drugs.
“Look where do you start?” said Waldron on SEN radio.
“It’s been going on for so long… why has it taken since the middle of 2015 for this to happen?
“I think the AFL has had a continuation of issues relating to drug-related offences and concerns around drugs in the game.
“This is not one that’s going to go away easily and I think the problem that we have here is they’ve come out today, they’ve hired the big smoking guns, and now it’s the girl’s fault.
“That’s akin to saying the dog ate my homework.
“Did these guys conspire to hide a player away from being susceptible to a potential ASADA drugs test, and if so, why?
“Had they just come forward and self-reported, and said I think this has taken place – then that’s the end of it.”
Waldron believes there is now a lot of pressure on Magpies president Eddie McGuire to make the right move and stand Allan down until the investigation is complete.
He suggested that McGuire could not afford to be involved in another scandal and that signing Allan to a big deal at the club was a huge risk given what has happened at the Giants.
“The bigger issue in this for the Collingwood Football Club, my understanding is Lambert will be stood down,” said Waldron.
“Collingwood is faced with a huge issue here, not just Collingwood but Eddie McGuire is faced with a huge issue here because Eddie was the one that backed Gubby into a big four-year contract.
“He has a lot of runs on the board, but having said that, in the last three years we’ve had a number of issues – we’ve had the Adam Goodes issue, the whole Malthouse/Buckley issue, the issue earlier this year with Caroline Wilson.
“Knowing that he (Allan) potentially had a (drugs-related) case to answer they still went ahead and employed him as their football manager – it is a huge issue for the club.
“It seems to me they have to put mateship aside and stand Gubby Allan down as soon as it goes to the next level.”
More than that, Waldron insisted for the second time that Paul Roos would be working at Collingwood in some capacity in the near future.
“The mail is that Paul Roos is going to Collingwood anyway, we said that last week,” he explained.
“That’s as strong as you can get… so is Buck’s a dead man walking?
“I still think Roosy will turn up there, he may not turn up in the number one seat but he’ll turn up in a role there, because that’s what Collingwood do.”