FORMER West Coast coach John Worsfold has defended his handling of the Eagles' illicit drug-taking culture in the mid-2000s after a confidential AFL report into the troubled era was published on Tuesday.

Worsfold, who guided the Eagles to the 2006 premiership, said he was not concerned the report by retired Supreme Court judge William Gillard, QC would "unearth anything that hadn't been dealt with 10 years ago".

The report, which was published in full by News Corp on Tuesday, suggested club chiefs, including Worsfold, did not act appropriately on advice from "fairly reliable sources" that players were taking illicit drugs.

Worsfold, now coach of Essendon, said the Eagles had taken strong action when there was sufficient evidence and not just "random people ringing me with rumours".

"I still struggle with that, about what action you do take when someone implies something but with absolutely no evidence other than they think something," Worsfold told Sportsday Radio on Tuesday.

"I really still battle to say 'how do you act on that?'

"All the stuff that we hear about and read about didn't just happen in a week, it happened over a period of time.

"And I still think I 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 obviously legally."

Worsfold said the Eagles had used the Gillard report to implement programs that would prevent a similar culture from ever developing again.

He said critics including Richmond great Kevin Bartlett, who believed the 2006 premiership should have a "black line" through it, did not know the full story.

"I think he (Bartlett) is just making an emotional comment on part of the information he's elected to believe," Worsfold said.

"He doesn't know the full story by a long shot and if he was there and part of it and understood everything, I think he would have a different opinion."