The AFL needs to keep a focus on ensuring players are ready for life after football, outgoing league chief executive Gillon McLachlan says.

The spotlight this week has turned on how players are leaving the AFL after former St Kilda star Sam Fisher was charged with trafficking large commercial quantities of illicit drugs.

Former teammates, including ex-Saints Nick Riewoldt, and friends have spoken about Fisher's struggles after retiring from the AFL in 2016.

McLachlan backed the AFL's illicit drugs policy but admits the industry could be doing more to prepare footballers for their exit from professional sport. 

"We're one of the few sports in the world that has an illicit drugs policy that's got health and welfare at its core.

"There's a point where there's individual accountability and people have to make their own decisions.

"Where I think the industry, the players association and the clubs have to keep focusing its attention is on transition.

"While players are playing and being the best footballers they can and working hard at that, but also keeping an eye on life after football and the transition.

"That's a big part of the opportunity and that goes beyond Sam's particular case.

"For a lot of players, actually finding that transition is difficult and we've got to keep working out about how that transition is talked about; whether people are doing part-time work, trades or courses or some sort of study and actually having an eye on life after football."

Saints legend Riewoldt made an impassioned plea, saying Fisher's case should be a "cautionary tale".

"So many players right now are slipping through the cracks of the AFL system and when they come out the other side their lives are ending up in pretty horrific condition," he told Fox Footy's On The Couch on Monday.

"Let this be the line in the sand moment."

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AAP