Former GWS football boss Graeme Allan told a staff member to delete an email from Lachie Whitfield's girlfriend raising alarms about the player's alleged drug use and behaviour.
Whitfield's girlfriend had emailed a player welfare worker at the club, Brett Hand, expressing concern at her boyfriend's behaviour, possible drug use and hiding from drug testers.
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Hand is understood to have approached Allan about the email and was told by Allan that he would deal with it and to delete the email. He is understood to have told Hand the girlfriend was erratic, difficult and he would handle the matter.
Hand deleted the email but is not accused of any wrong doing as he was following instructions from a manager and believed the matter was being dealt with.
![Graeme Allan, centre, denies any wrongdoing.](/web/20160929121606im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/4/x/k/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grqoo3.png/1475072051504.jpg)
Allan, who has replaced Neil Balme as football director at Collingwood, had also deleted text messages between him and Whitfield and player welfare worker Craig Lambert from his phone.
An AFL investigation into the matter discovered the missing text messages and email.
The text messages and email are at the heart of the AFL investigation into claims the player was deliberately hidden away from the club at the home of welfare manager Lambert in case drug testers attended to test him.
The fear, as expressed in the text messages, was that he had taken an illicit substance that might have been laced with a performance-enhancing substance such as had occurred with Collingwood pair Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas.
![Concerns: Lachie Whitfield's girlfriend was worried about the player's alleged drug use and behaviour.](/web/20160929121606im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/7/v/9/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grqoo3.png/1475072051504.jpg)
Avoiding an illicit drug test would only have drawn a strike under the AFL's illicit drug code but seeking to avoid a test out of fear of performance-enhancing drugs being present falls under the WADA code and if found guilty draws a mandatory minimum four-year ban for the player and the two officials, Allan and Lambert.
The AFL concluded a long and protracted investigation before presenting the brief to ASADA who considered the details and returned the brief to the AFL requesting they get legal advice on the next move.
The AFL is understood to have since received that legal advice and is deciding how next to proceed.
There is understood to be some scope to charge the players with conduct unbecoming under the AFL's rules. There are no mandatory penalties for someone found guilty of that charge.
Allan and Lambert have consistently protested their innocence to their new clubs. Lambert is now employed at the Brisbane Lions.