AFL drug policy working, but...

Last week the AFL announced the results of its drug testing for 2011 and quickly announced that only six tests proved positive for the season, none in the precarious second or third strike range, with the AFL reiterating that any third strike or serious indiscretion would be made public without hesitation.
The AFL's drug policy is generally perceived as being lenient on wayward players as the system is designed to avoid a three strike scenario and getting players over their drug problem rather than administering punishment.
Before a player has a second or third positive test, the player in question is referred to an independent medical facility for treatment and not the AFL or club doctor who are required to report any drug abuse. Once the player is in the care of an outside medical facility, the private physician will act in what he thinks is the player's best interest, which means under the patient/doctor confidentiality agreement, progressive rehab test results cannot be passed on to a third party i.e. the AFL or the club.
The reason players don't reach the ''third strike'' automatic suspension stage is, because under the current testing system they are highly unlikely to register an official third strike. A player undergoing treatment or rehabilitation is automatically exempt from testing by the AFL, but during that time the same player is at liberty to play for his club without impunity. It relies on the player's private physician to determine when the treatment is over and as the AFL has no predetermined hard and fast timelines over rehabilitation matters, a second or third "test" can be parried indefinitely.
To get pinned, a player would have to return three positive results within a four year time frame; and similar to the traffic infringement demerit point system, any previous drug indiscretions against a player are negated to zero after 4 years.
The AFL's illicit drugs testing has for a few years now returned zero positive results on match days, which really only proves one thing, that tests are being regularly carried out.