All that article says is Tom Browne reported the AFL is sceptical, it doesn't actually say anything from the AFL directly. It's a bit like the Hocking one which was something like 'word is Steve Hocking watched Richmond closely in the hub and wasn't happy with how they manned the mark' but there's never been anything I'm aware of directly attributed to Hocking.
If those same journo's were reporting something from within Richmond in those terms, this forum would jump on them for making up unsubstantiated crap, and rightly so.