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The 2007 AFL Season was the 111th season of the Australian Football League, the highest-level professional Australian rules football league in Australia. The regular season commenced on 30 March 2007, and concluded with the 2007 AFL Grand Final on 29 September 2007, with Geelong defeating Port Adelaide by 119 points, the highest winning-margin in an AFL Grand Final, to claim the 2007 AFL premiership.
On Friday 24 August, the Seven Network broadcast some details obtained from players' confidential medical records on its nightly news program. It allegedly purchased these details for $3000 from a woman who found them in a gutter outside a medical clinic in Melbourne. The network said that these records contained details of illicit drug-taking by players at a particular club in the AFL, including both the name of the club and the players involved.[21]
The woman in question and a male accomplice have since been charged with "theft-by-finding" and faced Heidelberg Magistrates' Court on 6 December 2007.[22] They subsequently pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a 12-month good behaviour bond and ordered to pay the money they received from Channel 7 into a court fund.[23]
The AFL currently has a "three-strikes" drugs policy (for non-performance-enhancing drugs),[24] under which only the player and the club doctor are aware of any positive tests until a "third strike" is received. After the third strike, the club is made aware of the situation and the player may face disciplinary action. This policy has faced criticism for leniency[25] from anti-doping bodies, particularly the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA),[26] and as such has attracted much media scrutiny and public debate.
In this case, the name of the club involved was revealed by Seven on air, but not the names of the players. Before the end of the news program (at which time Seven had promised to actually reveal the names of the players), the AFL obtained a court injunction from the Supreme Court of Victoria which prevented this – and will also continue to prevent the publication of any part of the records, including the name of the club (even though it had already been released) and players involved.[27]
At first, Seven vigorously defended its broadcast and stated that it had done only for the purpose of "highlighting" the issue of drugs-in-sport. It challenged the injunction, then faced a backlash both from the AFL and the AFL players themselves. For the whole of the last round of the season, the AFL players boycotted Seven, refusing to answer any questions posed by its journalists.[28] In one case, Seven was not invited to (and, had it still arrived, would have been actively denied entry to) an AFL Players' Association (AFLPA) press conference.[29]
Shortly after the completion of Round 22, faced with ongoing player boycotts and the possibility of a Brownlow Medal snub,[30] the Seven Network issued a statement "regretting" any harm the broadcast may have caused to the AFL, the clubs and the players, and promised not to broadcast or reveal any of the details of the medical records in future.[31]
The AFLPA, which had previously demanded an apology from the network over the incident, said that it understood why Seven could never issue a full apology "for legal reasons" and that it would be taking the "statement of regret" as an apology instead.[32] The player boycott has since been lifted.
The scandal has come to be known in the popular media as "Guttergate"[33] (referring to the Watergate scandal).
Three years later, the AFL suspended the first ever player to be charged under its "three-strikes" drugs policy. On 31 August 2010, Hawthorn's Travis Tuck was suspended by the AFL Tribunal for 12 matches and fined $5,000 after he was found in a car by police suffering from what appeared to be an alleged drug overdose.[34]
The 2007 AFL season is notable for the unusually large number of players who retired, particularly senior and "champion" players.
Fos Williams, John Cahill (footballer), Bob McLean (Australian footballer), Australian Football League, Russell Ebert
Essendon Football Club, Norm Smith, Hawthorn Football Club, Jim Cardwell, Carlton Football Club
Sydney Swans, Brisbane Bears, Essendon Football Club, Collingwood Football Club, St Kilda Football Club
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Football Club, Hawthorn Football Club, Carlton Football Club, North Melbourne Football Club
West Coast Eagles, Sydney Swans, Western Bulldogs, Brisbane Lions, Melbourne Football Club
Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne, Collingwood Football Club, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australian rules football
St Kilda Football Club, Hawthorn Football Club, Western Bulldogs, Essendon Football Club, West Coast Eagles