Please find below a transcript from Michael Voss’ press conference at Enoggera Army Barracks on Friday morning.

Journalist: Vossy, what did you make of the press conference yesterday with the ACC and the claims about drugs and organised crime, and the links with sport?

Voss: Well, clearly we don’t want it. That’s first and foremost. I think, as a sport, we clearly don’t accept it and we look forward to what the findings can show and then we get the chance to eradicate it from the sport. So the AFL will obviously beef up that part, in terms of the integrity area, and I welcome that. It’s a good little wake-up call for everyone – just to review how you’re going about things, and how you do things. But also a chance, if there is any suspicion there, to be able to eradicate it, and then we can move on.

Journalist: So, as a club, you’ve got nothing to fear from these investigations?

Voss: No, I’m fairly confident.

Journalist: You’ve been involved in the sport for decades – was there ever anything on your radar?

Voss: It’s always in the back of your mind. I think what we really try to ram into the players – and to everyone for that matter, because this is actually an industry thing, not just related to the players – is that everything we do has got to be taken through the doctors. That’s just paramount. It must happen. And you know that what you’re throwing into them, a lot, is that if you put anything in your mouth, you’re responsible for it. And that’s been spoken to us a lot, every single year, and it almost feels like every second month that we’re referring to it. So from that end, we’re making sure that we get the chance to review what we’re doing and that’s why I sit here and remain very confident, for us, that we’re good.

Journalist: Does the Club do its own testing above and beyond what ASADA does? What’s your testing regime like?

Voss: There’s no testing regime. For us, our testing regime is making sure that everything is passed through the right channels. We put complete faith in what’s actually getting tested (by the AFL) and how it’s getting tested and we welcome it if that requires more testing. So be it. If the findings out of it are that they want to ramp it up, then I think it’s good for the sport, good for the code. It’s been a topic amongst sport in general in the last four, five months and as a result of that, I think fans want to know. I think where I’m at is just that we’ve seen the findings, we’ve heard the findings, we want to be able to find out who it is so we can move on. That’s probably where we sit right now.

Journalist: Are you concerned the fact that they’re not naming names, when clearly they’ve got names and clubs in particular that they’re looking at, is going to start hurting everyone? Because, at the moment, it’s just sport in Australia, very broadly.

Voss: I understand the important communication pieces that happen, but I think everyone’s looking forward to that moment. I think the fans are, and I know we are, because until that actually happens, I guess everyone’s implicated until otherwise shown. When that moment comes – I think the fans will be looking forward to it and I know we certainly are.

Journalist: What do you say to the fans who might be losing faith in sport?

Voss:  I guess you can look at it in a couple of different ways. Certainly it’s a watershed moment, that’s for sure. It’s a very serious incident, but it’s also a chance to be able to make sure that they can be fully aware that the integrity of the game will always be guarded. I think the response from the AFL has been quite swift and there’s a lot of actions that have come out of the back of it. You can clearly tell, already, that they’re going to make sure that this is a really important part of the game that’s always upheld. So the fans have nothing to worry about in that area if that’s a concern for them. So let’s hope that the product remains exactly the same – we’re confident that it will.

Journalist: What’s actually in place to prove that there isn’t anything involved with the Lions?

Voss: We obviously have to make sure that everything’s in place from our point of view. That’s all we can ever do. We can look at the wider community and what’s actually happening, and we get a chance, as the Lions, to learn off that. I think I’ve already stated what’s clearly communicated to the guys about what available resources there are, so if they have anything in the back of their minds that they’re not sure about, they can check. You’ve got various avenues, like ASADA, that you can check off against. There’s lots of different areas that you can make sure that you’re getting things right.

Journalist: I believe the club’s had a relationship with Mr Dank in the past. Is that something that brings fresh concern to you now? Do you go back and review what that involved, or are you quite comfortable that it was all above board?

Voss: Well, we still do that, you’ve got to. It would be negligent not to. But, like we said, he was limited involvement. I’m not concerned at all.

Journalist: Are you concerned that, given there was limited involvement, that the Club might be tarnished by it?

Voss: I think we’re at a point where, at the moment, that cloud’s hanging over the whole code. So if you’re asking me that question, I’d say yeah, we want to clean that part up. I think we’re all looking forward to when that can actually get done. We also understand that there’s a lot of work that’s got to go in between now and then. I’m looking forward to the moment when that can be communicated so that we can go about our business. But for us, clearly we’re going to check what we do. We are clearly going to do that. In terms of us being able to move on, it’s important we do that too.

Journalist: Are athletes under pressure to take banned substances?

Voss: I don’t think so. I think it’s a choice. It’s a clear choice.

Journalist: Is there any uneasiness Vossy? You’ve obviously got 40-odd guys in your squad.

Voss: That’s why we have all those things in place. We make sure that if there’s any ambiguity about anything, that it’s covered off. No, I trust the people that we’ve got in place, and I trust our program. I think they do an exceptional job and I think our players are well and truly communicated with, as well as our staff – no, I don’t have that concern.

Journalist: Have you spoken to your players about this specific issue in the last 24 hours?

Voss: Of course we have.

Journalist: What was the message?

Voss: To reinforce the exact same thing that we’ve said to them a number of times. That you must make sure that, if you are unsure about anything, then it has to be passed through the doctors. That’s part of our protocol that’s been around for a long time and will continue to be. If they’re unsure of anything for any reason, they’ve got that avenue to talk to.

Journalist: What would you say to any whistleblowers who might have any information?

Voss: I would encourage them to come forward. Going back to the original point, as an industry, we want to be able to move on. Otherwise the blanks are going to get filled in by everybody else. We don’t want that to happen. The last thing we want is for people who are innocent in this to get implicated. That’s the worst kind. If that means that AFL want to instigate a whistleblower policy, if you want to call it that, then I welcome it, because it (drugs) needs to be out of the sport.

Journalist: It’s a very long time ago, but have you got any concerns about Shane Woewodin’s dealings with Steven Charter?

Voss: No. That’s a silly question. No I don’t.