Ben McDevitt has been pitched into the role of firefighter these days, detouring him from the responsibility as chief executive of ASADA, the government body responsible for combating drugs in sport.
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If the Essendon drugs crisis was a bushfire that swept through the AFL landscape, spot fires persist in flaring up and McDevitt was forced to attend the Senate on Friday to extinguish the latest.
Of the seven documents demanded by the independent senator from Victoria, John Madigan, only one was handed over by Senator Fiona Nash, the minister responsible in the Senate for the Federal Minister for Sport, Sussan Ley.
The document — a 2009 review of ASADA ordered by former federal sports minister, Kate Ellis — was released in redacted form and is largely irrelevant to the Essendon case, which Senator Madigan has been zealously pursuing.
Senator Nash then handed over proceedings to chief McDevitt, who refused to release the other six, including the independent review of Operation Cobia by former Federal Court judge Gary Downes – an examination of ASADA's investigation into Essendon and Cronulla players.
McDevitt, who now speaks fluent legalese, told Fairfax, "My legal advice from the Australian Government solicitor was that in the present circumstances, serious doubts attend the lawfulness of any voluntary disclosure of the subject documents by the minister.
"The documents contain material, relating to particular athletes and support personnel, still being investigated.
"Furthermore, there are other persons and witnesses whose reputations could be tarnished."
A key concern of McDevitt was that the material could find its way into the media, with selected journalists given access.
"The release of these documents would have seriously prejudiced ongoing investigations, or the information could have been used to jeopardise one or more current proceedings, such as the Stephen Dank appeal, which is yet to be heard by the AFL Appeals Tribunal.
"It would have also been a blatant breach of the athletes' right to privacy."
McDevitt said the documents also contain the same type of uncorroborated claims of possible violations by athletes that have recently surfaced in the media, without any reliable evidence to support anti-doping violations. The sources of some of these claims, such as Darren Hibbert and Stephen Dank, have consistently refused to talk to ASADA.
McDeviit said, "I also told Senator Madigan some of the information was owned by other government agencies, which, under the legislation, I am not prepared to release."
He explained that federal government agencies, such as Customs, who pass on information to ASADA, would have been reluctant to do so if their work was revealed in the Senate and subsequently, the media.
Furthermore, political interference in Australia's anti-doping effort is explicitly banned under the World Anti-Doping Code.
Senator Madigan inquired on the confidentiality of the AFL Tribunal decision on the 34 Essendon players and McDevitt reminded him that on the day it freed the players from doping charges, he [McDevitt] publicly called for the full release of the report.
"All parties must agree," he explained. "I agreed, so did the AFL but only two of the 34 players did.
"I called the AFL chief executive today and he said he would make inquiries whether the other 32 are willing to have the decision made available."
That finding could be directly published by the AFL or ASADA, without seeking the permission of the Senate.
Warming to the fire-fighter analogy, McDevitt said, "I wish I could spend more of the tax payers' resources on fighting drugs in sport instead of trying to douse distracting spot fires which have flared up post the Essendon inferno."
Turning the hose on those who demand he pursue the Gold Coast Suns and the NRL's Sea Eagles, he he said, "I'm always ready to hear corroborated evidence and if it is deemed credible, we will pursue it."
