John Worsfold says he knows how Nathan Buckley and Eddie McGuire feel at being lied to by players and believes he did everything he could to address the West Coast drugs culture of the 2000s.

The Eagles' successful period has again been put under scrutiny in the wake of revelations in the confidential Gillard Report into drug problems at the club during that time.

The disclosures prompted AFL legend Kevin Bartlett to put a "black line" through the Eagles' 2006 premiership, but Worsfold argued that was reaction by a person who did not have all the information.

"I think he's just making an emotional comment on part of the information that he's elected to believe," Worsfold said. "He doesn't know the full story by a long shot and if he was there and understood everything he would have a different opinion."

Worsfold said it was "disappointing" when players did not tell the truth and he could sympathise with the Magpies, who have found themselves in an awkward position this week after Jordan De Goey initially claimed to have broken his hand as he played with his dog, only to later tell them the injury had occurred during a bar fight.

The report said Worsfold was told by "at least three fairly reliable sources", including police, "that some players were taking illicit drugs" with Ben Cousins and Michael Gardiner mentioned, as were their connections to Perth's criminal element. However, when he spoke to the players, he was told "there was nothing to worry about".

Worsfold told 3AW on Tuesday he struggled to see how he could take action based on "random" rumours. "I still think that it was dealt with the things as they were presented to me and in a way that I felt I was able to with a lot of limitations legally of what you can do," he said.

Worsfold played down the report's details that examined the Eagles' rampant drug-taking culture between 1998 and 2007 and was published by News Corp on Tuesday, saying he had didn't look at it in "great detail".

"I wasn't too concerned it was going to unearth anything that hadn't been dealt with 10 years ago," he said.

Worsfold said the club put action into place to address its drug problem after the release of the report. "The West Coast Football Club did so in a very strong fashion," he said.

For Bartlett, it was the last straw after years of giving West Coast the benefit of the doubt.

"With what we've known in the past and observed with news stories over the years regarding troubled times for the West Coast Eagles players, I've had an asterisk next to their 2006 premiership win. After reading Judge Gillard's report today, I'm taking away the asterisk and putting in a black line through that flag," Bartlett said on SEN radio.