ASADA boss David Sharpe has said it's time all parties to the Essendon saga "moved on" to reset relationships after the damaging affair.

"I think it's time to realise we all need to move on. We have come a long way since then and really, mostly, it's about partnership together," the anti-doping chief said.

"I think that [Cobia] investigation was actually needed by Australian sport and Australian government authorities to bring us closer together and to realise that we needed to work in partnership."

Mr Sharpe was responding for the first time publicly to questions about the Wood review into sporting integrity, recently released alongside the National Sport Plan.

He said if reforms recommended by the review are implemented, the protracted conflict and confusion that marked the handling of the Essendon supplements affair would be avoided.

In short, the reforms would allow ASADA to harvest more information, and bite back at critics.

But, according to the anti-doping chief, it would all be done in a spirit of co-operation and "engagement" with sport — unlike the bitter feud with the AFL that marked the Essendon affair.

Under his year-long tenure, Mr Sharpe had to bone up on the reputational damage wreaked by the Essendon scandal, and re-make the agency to better connect with the public, athletes and sports, particularly the AFL.

Mr Sharpe said all parties involved had changed since the unprecedented challenge posed by Essendon, but pointed to particular reforms that would make ASADA both more powerful, and a more palatable partner for the professional sports' integrity units.

The reforms would give ASADA's chief executive more ability to "correct the record".

Relations between ASADA and the AFL soured over the long-running Essendon supplements saga. ( AAP: Tracey Nearmy )

Currently under the Act, he could only respond if the criticism is made by an athlete or support person — not, for instance, journalists or Twitterstorms, as happened during the Essendon saga.

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion, every journalist is entitled to write this story based on their sources, but unfortunately, the ASADA Act precluded ASADA from being able to correct the record of what was actually happening without going into specifics of operations.

"So I think it would have better informed the public via the media if ASADA had been in the position where they could have commented."

The Wood plan would also give the agency more power to compel an athlete to give information, but only to the same extent as AFL contracts already do.

Critically, the reforms would go some way clear up the hotchpotch of uneven legal protections that saw critical information unable to be passed effectively between the then-Australian Crime Commission, ASADA and the AFL.

If implemented, Mr Sharpe said it would allow ASADA "to provide a higher level of intelligence to supporting agencies and work in partnership with them without risk of that them facing any prosecution having issues under the Act".

He sought to strike a soothing note when asked about a recommendation by Justice Wood and his panel that sports "work with" the proposed new integrity commission to share intelligence about illicit drugs.

Justice Wood said the fact ASADA is given no data from illicit drug testing is a "missed opportunity" for ASADA and law enforcement.

Professional sports including the AFL are understood to be nervous about losing their control over these results — which in the AFL's case was already highly contentious with players and their union.

Mr Sharpe said he was in favour of having de-identified data in order to target areas or clubs for either intelligence or education purposes.

He said players testing positive "firstly need to put themselves into a position where they are vulnerable to actually purchase an illicit drug in the first instance".

"So are they potentially compromised? Is there an area or a particular region that is more prone to infiltration of organised crime that exploit young athletes? It's that sort of data, not specifically individuals, that that (reform) is aimed at."

Mr Sharpe said ASDA already had the power to inform sports that their policies were not compliant under its Act, and that the agency wanted many sports to toughen up their policies.

ASADA boss David Sharpe wants co-operation on 'whereabouts' policy to avoid cases like GWS' Lachie Whitfield (C). ( AAP: Dean Lewins )

For instance, the policy concerning an athlete's "whereabouts", where an athlete in an Olympic sport is slugged with tough sanctions, compared to the AFL — where the Lachie Whitfield saga resulted in a messy negotiation and no breach of anti-doping rules.

Asked whether he wanted the AFL to toughen its approach, Mr Sharpe said, "I'd like to see everyone toughen up their policy, not just the AFL. I think it's critical that to enact the ASADA Act and powers that we have that 'whereabouts' (policy) as best we can".

"I think everyone needs to work on that and how it's approached, including ASADA," he said.

The ASADA boss said the agency already has much of the financial security, added powers and emphasis on engagement with sporting organisations through this year's federal Budget, and a new "operating model" within the agency from the start of this financial year.

Given the doubts raised privately about whether Justice Wood's vision for a revised sporting integrity landscape will ever come to pass, given the amount of hand-holding it will need, it's just as well ASADA isn't putting all its hopes in that basket.