All 18 clubs will demand clarity from the AFL on its illicit drugs policy following allegations of secret testing enabling some players to dodge detection, Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says.
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The Demons are at the centre of explosive allegations - made by their former club president and ex-club doctor turned whistleblower - that players had faked injuries and pulled out of games to avoid match-day drug testing.
Goodwin insisted the allegations were "news to me" and said he had "no line of sight" on the alleged clandestine tests facilitated by the league.
"Every club's interested now to find out more information," Goodwin told reporters on Wednesday.
"I'm sure that's a given right across the competition and we're one of those (clubs).
"Every person in clubland would want answers and want understanding of how the policy works, and is it a success. We're no different to that.
"We've been through a bit (as a club) but this is an AFL policy and we'll be asking the appropriate questions and getting the answers that we need."
On Tuesday night, Federal MP Andrew Wilkie told parliament of the allegations made by former Melbourne club doctor Zeeshan Arain, ex-club president Glen Bartlett and Shaun Smith, father of Demons player Joel Smith.
Joel Smith has been provisionally suspended since October, when he was notified of a positive cocaine test following the Demons' win over Hawthorn on August 20.
Arain, who spent eight years as Melbourne's head doctor, was sacked by the Demons in October 2020 after raising questions about the club's culture.
"I don't have a thought about the ex-doctor or where that sits," Goodwin said.
"This is new information and this (illicit drugs policy) has been in place for a long time.
"This is an AFL policy. It's got nothing to do with our doctor, our ex-club doctor - this is an AFL-wide thing."
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon on Wednesday confirmed urine tests have been part of the illicit drugs policy "for some time".
But Dillon sidestepped questions about players being instructed by their clubs to fake injuries if they tested positive for illicit substances, consistently falling back on the line that it was "private medical information".
Goodwin said the allegations would not make him second-guess the information he receives from club doctors, insisting he has "never questioned anything" about players being pulled out of games.
"When you start to digest the information that you get given, you take it on face value," Goodwin said.
"This is a process that the AFL, the AFLPA and the club doctors put together from a confidentiality perspective, so to have no line of sight is not unusual.
"But I've got enormous trust in our doctor, in terms of them being able to do their job, so I'm not going to question how they go about their business."
Essendon coach Brad Scott, who served as the AFL's general manager of football before joining the Bombers in September 2022, said he did not know of players pulling out of games to avoid match-day drug testing.
"There is a world's best practice which involves a level of confidentiality and I can unequivocally say in my time in football I have never been alerted to the fact that a player has tested positive to an illicit substance, unless it's out in the public domain," Scott said.
"I'm not part of that process and to my knowledge no senior coach is."
Sydney chief executive Tom Harley and coach John Longmire also denied knowledge of the alleged secret tests on Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
