Effective from October 1st this year, the Australian Sports Commission has launched its Illicit Drugs in Sport Policy (PDF available here). It’s come with little fanfare. The policy will apply to AIS Athlete Scholarship Holders, and Athlete Support Personnel and employees and Board Members of the ASC, as well as anyone else who agrees to be bound by the policy. What is most interesting about this policy however, is the number of strikes. Effectively, a 3-strike policy with a 4th strike resulting in termination of AIS scholarship. Given the broad public debate that has surrounded the AFL and its 3 strikes policy, it’s astounding that this piece of news effectively went through to the keeper.

The AFL has announced the fixture for the 2011 AFL NAB Cup, the pre-season tournament leading into the main season. As expected the AFL have made some major changes to allow 18 teams to compete and possibly aimed at combating waning interest in the pre-season tournament.

The Cup will see the debut at AFL level of 17th team the Gold Coast Suns, whilst the 18th club, currently known as Greater Western Sydney, will also debut, although their full AFL arrival is not until 2012. Sadly for Australian fans, the historic debut of both clubs will only be available on pay television station Foxtel - something likely to be an increasing occurrence under the next TV rights agreement and likely relaxation of anti-siphoning laws by the Federal Government.

AFL Chief Operating Officer Gillon McLachlan announced the six divisions for round one of the revised 2011 competition, where the AFL’s 18 clubs will be placed in six pools.

Australia’s Association Football World Cup bid was bedded down in time for the submission bid book to be delivered in May this year. WFN reported on the MOU that satisfied rival codes. And along the way to the December 2 decision day, Australian’s have heard both good and bad things about the bid and some of the ‘FIFA’ style interactions that go on around that. However, the odd thing is FFA supremo Frank Lowy, Australia’s richest man, down playing expectations whilst at the same time attempting to broadside the AFL as if to set the retribution wheels in motion before the fact – just in case the bid should fail.

Across the weekend, the SANFL Grand Final played out. Normally held the week after the AFL Grand Final, this year the SANFL Grand Final was up against both the AFL on the Saturday afternoon and the NRL on the Sunday evening.

After the stunning drawn AFL Grand Final the teams went to battle in the re-match the following week, with Collingwood, the best team during the minor round, not letting St Kilda get close the second time around. Collingwood 16.12 (108) defeated St Kilda 7.10 (52). Below are Bigpond highlights via Youtube.

The AFL today announced changes to the Laws of the Game for the 2011 Toyota AFL Premiership Season, following an extensive period of consultation throughout 2010. AFL General Manager Football Operations Adrian Anderson, Chairman of the Laws of the Game Committee, said the Commission had approved the following:

1) An alteration to the interchange system, whereby AFL teams will have a bench comprised of three interchange players and one player to be used as a substitute;

2) A change to the Advantage Rule, whereby the player and not the umpire will decide if there is an advantage to a team in playing on after a free kick;

3) Simplify the rough conduct (bumping) rule and make consistent with head down over the ball, so that a player who elects to apply a bump in any situation is liable if he makes forceful contact with the head, unless:
a. the player was contesting the ball and did not have a realistic alternative way to contest the ball; or
b. the contact was caused by circumstances outside the control of the player which could not be reasonably foreseen.

It will be interesting to see how widely these rules are adopted by international leagues who usually use their own discretion when it comes to implementation of new laws (as implementation may be hampered locally by cost or extra administration required).

The AFL, Richmond Football Club and Queensland Government today announced that they had formed a partnership that would see Toyota AFL Premiership Season matches played at an upgraded Cazalys Stadium in Cairns in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Richmond will play a home match against the Gold Coast Suns at the stadium every year for the next three years.

It also brings AFL football closer to PNG. While the SUNS currently have Stanis Susuve listed, the Tigers also have scholarship listed players from PNG in Gideon Simon (pictured) and Nathan Malbak who will be happy to have top level footy on PNG's doorstep.

A club from Sydney's west are the 2010 Sydney AFL Division Four Premiers. Quite incredibly the Premiership was won in the Auburn Tigers' debut season and in promising signs for the AFL's development plans for the region (2012 sees a Greater Western Sydney team join the AFL) the vast majority of the team are of a non-Australian background.

Ending months of speculation, the Gold Coast SUNS today announced Geelong champion midfielder Gary Ablett has confirmed he will join the club for the next five years. The 2009 Brownlow medalist, dual Geelong premiership player and four-time All Australian, is widely recognised as the best player in the AFL competition.

Gold Coast SUNS CEO Travis Auld said the announcement is the biggest endorsement of the new AFL team yet with Ablett joining recent player signings Nathan Bock, Nathan Krakouer, Michael Rischitelli, Campbell Brown and Jarrod Harbrow.

The AFL has provided us with the international broadcast schedule*. Please note there is no ICS broadcast into China. Please see below for details.