THE FEDERAL Government insists the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has enough money and resources to do its job.
Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley, who tested positive to a banned substance after a match-day test in July last year, is still awaiting an AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal hearing more than eight months after the initial sample was taken.
The elongated timeline of the Crowley case has again raised questions about whether the national anti-doping body's policies need evolve to tackle issues involving team sports.
The combination of the prolonged Essendon saga and the new Crowley case brings to the surface the issue of ASADA's ability to deal with multiple high-profile investigations at the same time.
However, a spokesman for Federal Sports Minister Sussan Ley said the Federal Government did not consider insufficient funding to be an issue for ASADA.
"ASADA received additional funding to support its activities under Operation Cobia and the Government is comfortable ASADA has the necessary resources to fulfil its functions," he said.
When contacted for comment, ASADA constantly referred back to the legislation that governs its operations, saying it could not publicly comment on specifics to protect athletes' privacy.
Former ASADA CEO Richard Ings said the anti-doping body had done "a pretty reasonable" job in analysing Crowley's samples in timely fashion.
"Basically the ASADA part of the process, from collecting the sample, sending it to the lab, doing the 'As' and the 'Bs' and notifying all the parties took around 10 weeks. That's pretty reasonable. That's a pretty decent timeline," he told radio station 6PR on Tuesday.
"But the AFL on receiving these matters issued an infraction notice on the 1st of October last year. That's nearly six months ago and there has been no tribunal convened and that is far too long.
"The additional fee per sample is $312 to expedite a sample. And that means if the AFL pay that money a sample result can be returned not in 3-4 weeks but in probably around 72 hours."
The AFL's only public comments on the Crowley matter have been two press releases: one confirming that Crowley had received an infraction notice, and one outlining the timeline of events leading to the Docker's provisional suspension.
The League has not answered further questions about the delay of Crowley's AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal hearing.
The AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal is due to hand down its findings on doping charges against Stephen Dank and 34 past and present Essendon players on March 31, having spent much of the past three months hearing evidence from all parties and deliberating on its verdict.
ASADA has already indicated chief executive Ben McDevitt will hold a "full media briefing" on Operation Cobia at that time.
