The Western Bulldogs Football Club has issued the following statement in response to Herald Sun reports regarding the AFL's investigation into the communication of game sensitive information from late 2015.

The AFL investigated this matter 12 months ago, and the Western Bulldogs have accepted and abided by the outcomes of that investigation, and have moved on.

The Western Bulldogs also believe the other parties who have been considered to have been exonerated by the investigation are entitled to the benefit of that finding.  

The Western Bulldogs reported our concerns and the evidence we had or had heard about and it was the AFL’s job to then investigate those matters and hear all sides to the story and make a decision.  

The AFL, unlike the Club, had the opportunity to compel answers from non-WBFC people and to examine evidence from them. 

The AFL made a decision based  on all the evidence it considered relevant.  We referred the matter and made submissions based only on the information available to us.

The publishing of our submissions and not those which answered them to the AFL is one-sided and unfair to a number of people named in them, and ultimately also to us and our Club.

The Club strongly condemns the publishing of these confidential documents.  The overriding public interest here is that Clubs, players and employees in our industry must have confidence that they can fearlessly communicate  all issues they believe justify an integrity investigation so that the investigation and adjudication can be as fair and comprehensive as possible

The public interest is served by a high level of integrity of sporting competitions and their compliance and review procedures.  And those competitions and procedures are only as strong as the preparedness of member clubs and individuals to perform their duties, to report matters they conscientiously believe ought to be investigated and to disclose to  the authority  the evidence and the basis for the reports.

The Western Bulldogs  believe that the leaking of these confidential documents represents a misappropriation and misuse of Club property, and we will seek further legal advice as the use of the documents.