Why I don’t care about drugs in Aussie sport
Columnist By Ryan O'Connell, 15 Feb 2013 Ryan O'Connell is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- AFL, Australian Crime Commission, NRL
A composite image of David Gallop CEO of Football Federation Australia (FFA) (top left), Andrew Demetriou, CEO of the Australian Football League (AFL) (top right), David Smith, CEO of the National Rugby League (NRL)(bottom left) and Bill Pulver, CEO of the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) (bottom right). AAP Image/Lukas Coch
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For a self-confessed sports nut, my following of the Australian Crime Commission’s report into drugs in Australian sport has been strangely lackadaisical. To say I’ve been detached from the drama would be an understatement.
I haven’t watched a single second of the television coverage, nor listened to a single second of the radio coverage. From a media point of view, the most engaged I’ve been with the topic is reading the odd newspaper headline, and casually scanning online stories.
The chatter amongst friends and family is probably where I have learnt most of my knowledge about the whole drama. Yet even then, my reluctance to fully enter the conversation has been duly noticed.
It seems strange that someone who writes for a sports opinion website doesn’t have an opinion on the biggest sports story in recent times.
The truth is that when it was first reported that drug use in Australian sport was allegedly rife, I wasn’t overly shocked, even if I was disappointed.
I think it’s arrogance or being naive – or a combination of both – to believe that Australia would be free 100% from drug cheats.
While as a country we love to believe that all Australians compete ‘hard but fair’ in the true Anzac spirit, you surely must have your head firmly in the sand if you think that some professional athletes in this country wouldn’t do anything they could to perform at the highest level.
Let’s just pause there for a second and analyse what a professional athlete is: someone who gets paid based on his or her athletic performance.
Is it really any wonder that some athletes will try to gain an unfair advantage in order to succeed at the highest level?
Think about what happens when you perform at the highest level. You win.
You’re rewarded with a larger contract. You receive more media coverage. You become desirable to sponsors.
You’re more attractive to the opposite (or same) sex. You become a celebrity. Kids ask for your autograph. You get the VIP treatment everywhere you go.
You’re revered and respected throughout the nation, and perhaps even internationally.
Being great at sport, particularly in this country, is certainly not a bad thing.
Considering all that, is it really any surprise that some individuals adopt a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality?
Not for one minute am I condoning drug cheating. But I certainly understand the motivation behind doing it.
Nor am I pardoning those that do cheat. I’d be more than happy to see cheats receive life bans, and if appropriate, face legal action and jail time.
However, I’m a realist. I know, deep down, that a percentage of elite level athletes will have done something illegal in order to be where they are.
And that’s why I wasn’t overly surprised by last week’s announcement, because my head is not in the sand.
Yet here is the delicious irony – when it comes to drugs in sport, I don’t put my head in the sand, and yet I most certainly do.
Whilst I don’t pretend that every Australian athlete is clean, I simply don’t think about it either.
I watch sport believing that everyone is clean. Why? Because ignorance is bliss, and I don’t want the knowledge that some athletes aren’t clean ruining sport for me.
I don’t want the big moments diminished by a nagging doubt. I don’t want feats of athletic brilliance tainted by suspicion. I want to watch and enjoy the spectacle that only sport can provide.
If it’s proven later that someone cheated, I’ll deal with it then. But I don’t want a moment of pure joy ruined by the suspicion of guilt, especially if said athlete is actually found to be innocent.
And that’s why I don’t care about the ACC’s report.
Especially until any individuals are actually named, along with exactly what they have allegedly done. Until then, it’s just a tabloid journalists’ dream, and athletes and a fans’ nightmare.
I love sport.
But if I’ve been cheated on, I’ll worry about it when I actually know.
After all, it’s better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.
Ryan is an ex-representative basketballer who shot too much, and a (very) medium pace bowler. He's been with The Roar as an expert since February 2011, has written for the Seven Network and NBA Down Under, and been a regular on ABC radio. Ryan tweets from @RyanOak.
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- Explore:
- AFL, Australian Crime Commission, NRL
February 15th 2013 @ 2:38am
Jake said | February 15th 2013 @ 2:38am | Report comment
Good read, mate. Nice work dropping ‘delicious’ into a sentence about sport too!
February 15th 2013 @ 3:04am
BennO said | February 15th 2013 @ 3:04am | Report comment
So you do care, you just don’t want to know.
I roughly agree with you. Of course some Aussies are on the juice. That’s to be expected. Disappointing but expected. I’d like them all to be clean and support efforts to ensure that.
The thing that I care the most about in all this is the match fixing. How many games did my team get handed to them? If some of the players aren’t playing 100% cos they’re manipulating the result, then I don’t want to waste energy caring about it. I’d be a fool to do so.
February 15th 2013 @ 9:58am
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 9:58am | Report comment
Totally agree BennO. There is a big difference, in my opinion, between cheating in order to do everything you can to win, and manipulating the results (even losing on purpose). Knowledge of match fixing totally changes the way you engage with a sport.
February 15th 2013 @ 10:59am
Christo the Daddyo said | February 15th 2013 @ 10:59am | Report comment
How is cheating not manipulating a result?
February 15th 2013 @ 11:04am
TC said | February 15th 2013 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Ryan is making a distinction between breaking rules to gain an unfair advantage over your opponent to win, as opposed to one or either team, or both, or the ref, contriving a pre-determined result.
At least in the former, both are doing their best to win the contest.
February 15th 2013 @ 11:13am
Christo the Daddyo said | February 15th 2013 @ 11:13am | Report comment
Hmmm… A slight distinction, yes I can see that. But I’m not sure it really matters in the end. The result is still compromised if you take the view that sport should be played within rules.
February 15th 2013 @ 12:06pm
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
Sorry, I should have clarified, because it’s a fair point you raise. My point was more that you can cheat and still not even win, but if you set out to lose, the result truly is compromised.
February 15th 2013 @ 3:41am
Ben said | February 15th 2013 @ 3:41am | Report comment
I like your take on this. The whole world is messed up, so why shouldn’t sport be too?
February 15th 2013 @ 5:34am
sheek said | February 15th 2013 @ 5:34am | Report comment
Ryan,
I’m much the same as you. When the supposed darkest day in sport was followed up by ……………….. nothing, I realised there must be other dastardly forces at work. This is hokus pokus, smoke & mirrors stuff.
I was going to say a lot more, but heck, why give this rubbish any more oxygen.
February 15th 2013 @ 7:44am
Allanthus said | February 15th 2013 @ 7:44am | Report comment
Sheek, Ryan I hear you both, I’m sure we all accept that bad stuff has happened, is happening and will continue to happen, and hope that the cheaters are detected and tossed out. But let’s not have that steal the focus from what we’re really interested in – Super Rugby starts tonight, Black Caviar tomorrow, AFL, NRL, India test series, A-League finals and so on and so on…
When the Drugs Summit came on last night on Ch 7, I took one look at the panel, turned the tv off and went and did the dishes instead. I couldn’t have watched if you paid me. It’s only been 10 days or so and this lemon is squeezed beyond dry already.
The day this broke I posted that we should be wary, because of the prominent role played by Jason Clare and Kate Lundy. I’ve no doubt that they’re personally genuine, but in federal politics, genuine interest ALWAYS gets overriden by political expediency. This was an opportunity to get Gillard/Rudd/Mining Tax off the front pages and instead show a government which was strong and in control.
Even if it is shown that there is meat on the bones, and extra funding is required to stay ahead of the cheats, don’t expect this or any federal government to actually find the money, and facilitate a solution – their world is the world of grand statements, table thumping and one-upmanship. I wonder if Bill Pulver had his time again he would agree to standing alongside them like a finger puppet, wondering what on earth this actually had to do with the ARU.
February 15th 2013 @ 11:25am
Dan said | February 15th 2013 @ 11:25am | Report comment
Dastardly forces at work? Oh god, I seriously hope you’re not taking the parrot’s line that this is some bizarre Labor cover-up… I’ve never heard anything so absurd.
That said, I personally, don’t care about this scandal, just like I don’t care about the Craig Thompson one, or the pathetically narcissistic James Ashbey “save the nation by bringing down Slipper and the gov” one. Sport, like politics, is cut throat stuff and people will always live on the edge of the rules and beyond them if they think they can and it’s worth it. But at the end of the day I know who I like and know who I don’t (in both sport and politics) and I’ll not be changing my views unless something genuinely shocking comes to light.
February 15th 2013 @ 12:14pm
Allanthus said | February 15th 2013 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
Dan, no it’s not a “Labour cover-up” and no I certainly don’t listen to The Parrot, I flagged this on day one.
What is likely to have happened is that the ACC investigation, for what it is independently worth, would have been discussed in caucus and the press conference devised as a political strategy. Hence the grandstanding by Ministers Clare and Lundy to portray a concerned and capable government leading the fight against drugs and corruption.
To avoid turning this into a partisan political debate I don’t doubt that the Libs would have done similar in the same situation – which is my point, that it is the political arena which has forced this very unsatisfactory situation, more than the actual extent of the wrongdoing, and the investigation itself.
You might want to check out Wayne Smith’s backpage lead in today’s Australian, which includes comment from John Black, ex Labour Senator who headed a govt inquiry into drugs in sport in the late 80′s. Among other things he says, “…it kept the Obied inquiry off the front pages for a week so that was the purpose of it. It was clearly some kind of media diversion but it was at the expense of sport.”
February 15th 2013 @ 12:43pm
TC said | February 15th 2013 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Well put Allanthus. There is little doubt that there has been political interference in this process (and I agree, both sides of politics would have done the same thing).
Firstly, the descriptor of banned substances being “widespread” in sport quickly became “widespread” in the NRL and AFL, and even then, with each passing day, that’s getting watered right down.
Lundy’s over the top theatrics are at complete odds with what we know so far. In fact, everytime she opens her mouth on the subject, we’re all thinking don’t say anything – it’s not helping!
And then there is the fact that the utterly uninteresting involvement of body builders and anti-aging clinics has been left completely out of the political discourse, one presumes because just a mere mention of the country’s two top codes is sufficient to get front page attention, while the other things are not (and not to mention that body builders have been using roids for decades and no one gives a damn).
Finally, we have the news that the AFP and various state police forces have been sitting on the ACC’s “intelligence” for five months, and have taken zero action, which gives a hint of the worth of that “intelligence”.
All in all, smacks of political interference big time.
February 15th 2013 @ 1:19pm
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
When it comes to politics, I’m Harvey Norman. . .
.
.
.
.
(no interest)
February 15th 2013 @ 1:29pm
Allanthus said | February 15th 2013 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
Yes, if only we could avoid it.
Any of us old enough to have lived through cancelled Springbok tours, protestor violence, boycotted Olympic Games etc… know only too well that sport and politics do in fact mix – whether we like it or not.
The longer this saga goes on, the less substance there is revealed to the allegations, the more weight to the premise that this was elevated and handled like it was, as a political tool. Which in effect supports the premise of your article Ryan, and is a major reason why this whole event is such a turn-off.
February 15th 2013 @ 2:17pm
A1 said | February 15th 2013 @ 2:17pm | Report comment
Harvey Norman. Thats gold
February 15th 2013 @ 4:08pm
sheek said | February 15th 2013 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Ryan,
We ignore what happens in politics at our peril.
That’s partly why guys like Obeid, McDonald & Thompson get away with what they did. Because the rest of us “can’t be bothered.”
At the risk of being uber-melodramatic, most Germans of the late 1920s & early 1930s couldn’t be bothered with politics. By the time they realised that perhaps they should take an interest, they had a jackboot at their throats.
We should never underestimate the desperate lengths politicians will go to to grab power or hold onto it. Even in supposedly egalitarian friendly Australia.
February 15th 2013 @ 4:38pm
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
It’s not that I ignore it, Sheek. It’s that I have zero interest in discussing it in this forum, and in this way.
February 16th 2013 @ 12:22pm
sheek said | February 16th 2013 @ 12:22pm | Report comment
Hi Ryan,
Obviously I misread the “When it comes to politics, I’m Harvey Norman (no interest).”
It’s a good line. A workmate of mine uses it all the time (in reference to himself).
My reply about ignoring the perils of politics was in this general context.
It appears to me in this current drugs announcement fiasco, the seedy side of politics is inexorably tied into the narrative, meaning (IMHO) we can’t ignore the politics, even if we wanted to.
February 15th 2013 @ 2:50pm
matt h said | February 15th 2013 @ 2:50pm | Report comment
I would agree that at the very least, the timing of the report, which seems to be before the ACCC or ASADA are actually ready with any finished product evidence, has been tampered with.
February 15th 2013 @ 3:33pm
Dan said | February 15th 2013 @ 3:33pm | Report comment
So basically you’re saying you think it is a conspiracy then. To be honest I haven’t been paying attention to the story and I don’t read Murdoch (I can just go to the Liberal website if I really want to know what they think), so I haven’t seen what you’re on about from the 80s.
It doesn’t really matter in the end… by year’s end it looks like we’re going to have a dim-witted umming and arrring PM that takes his orders from the morally putrid Vatican and the equally bilious Rinehart. Race to the bottom here we come!
February 15th 2013 @ 4:35pm
Allanthus said | February 15th 2013 @ 4:35pm | Report comment
Not at all Dan, the instances of possible drug cheating etc… are not a govt conspiracy. The ACC is independent and their investigation is what it is.
What I am saying though, is that they have been hijacked and used as a political football. With the result that the longer this runs, the potential outcome from the investigation is starting to appear as though it won’t reconcile with all the huff and puff from the original announcement.
Which is starting to jack a lot of people off.
February 15th 2013 @ 4:38pm
Allanthus said | February 15th 2013 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
Dan, also to clarify, John Black is from the 80′s but his comments are very much with respect to the current situation.
He’s a Labour guy who has been in this very situation. As such his comments are damning.
February 15th 2013 @ 7:28am
Brandon Marlow said | February 15th 2013 @ 7:28am | Report comment
I love how drugs in Australain sport creates such a fuss, but in America it’s nothing. Hedo Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic in the NBA was suspended yesterday for performance enhancing drugs. His sentence? A 20-game suspension.
February 15th 2013 @ 9:13am
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 9:13am | Report comment
Have you seen Hedo play this year? If they were meant to be performance enhancing, he needs a new dealer!!
February 15th 2013 @ 7:26pm
Brandon Marlow said | February 15th 2013 @ 7:26pm | Report comment
Same can be said with Essendon and their performance enhancing/illegal supplement scandal haha.
February 15th 2013 @ 11:39am
AndyRoo said | February 15th 2013 @ 11:39am | Report comment
Keep in mind that is less than a quarter of the regular season too!
So about 6 weeks in the NRL/AFL.
February 15th 2013 @ 8:34am
sledgeross said | February 15th 2013 @ 8:34am | Report comment
Good read mate, been in the same boat as all of you blokes. Im sure it happens but if its to the extent that these allegations are asserting, Id be surprised.
February 15th 2013 @ 9:18am
TC said | February 15th 2013 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Ryan
I understand these sorts of responses, but looked at from another perspective, it gives far too much credence to a process that has reeked from incompetence from day one.
So an alternative response is: I’ll ignore it until the Government and ACC look halfway competent (and that might be a long time coming).
February 15th 2013 @ 12:27pm
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
I was hoping to communicate that (at present) I give it very little credence!
February 15th 2013 @ 9:48am
A1 said | February 15th 2013 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Great piece and totally agree. The whole thing is a disgrace at this point and I wish it would either go away or be resolved quickly.
February 15th 2013 @ 9:50am
Wil said | February 15th 2013 @ 9:50am | Report comment
Nice article. Completely agree. Funny, I abhor drugs in athletics and bicycling and all individual sports. But in the professional football codes.. Well it is no surprise really, the money and performance pressures are in a different league.
One of the interesting quirks of the salary cap in Australian sport is that since teams are set on how much they can invest in players, they then invest more in “sport science”. So you end up with teams of biochemists and doctors trying to keep the team running at the highest level. What further impacts this is that sport “drugs” are no where near a black and white science. AFL uses (used?) caffeine tablets for performance enhancing. What about legally obtainable drugs for injury recovery or management? Or a brand new not tested formula? How about just during the off-season or when injured? Things do get specifically banned but there will be always a grey area of how much they can get away with and in professional sport every one is trying to get away with as much as they can get away – you play by the whistle, not the rules.
February 15th 2013 @ 10:17am
Wil said | February 15th 2013 @ 10:17am | Report comment
Oh, shows you how much I have been following in this, I have only really kept up with what is going on at Essendon and thought that applied to the rest, i.e. team sanctioned (or under the table) drug use rather than individuals taking care of their own drug use. If it is individuals, then who cares, deal with them individually.
I still find what Ben Cousins did and got away with worse than performance enhancing drugs in sport anyway.
February 15th 2013 @ 11:08am
BigAl said | February 15th 2013 @ 11:08am | Report comment
What Ben Cousins did, he did to himself, and as far as I can see he has got away with nothing.
February 15th 2013 @ 12:46pm
TC said | February 15th 2013 @ 12:46pm | Report comment
He was arrested and taken into custody by police. Shockingly, they found a viagra tablet on him (is that banned under WADA, it appears to be in the category of performance enhancement).
February 15th 2013 @ 9:56am
Bobo said | February 15th 2013 @ 9:56am | Report comment
I care about the report, insofar as I want sport to be cleaner, and I want organised crime rings to be crushed.
One thing that I am amused by, and it seems to be a particularly Anglophone way of looking at doping, is your stress on individuals – “Considering all that, is it really any surprise that some individuals adopt a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality?” As someone who is more informed with the way doping is done in Europe, I can say that the most common form of doping is that which is administered by a team. It takes a lot of organisation to install effective programs for blood doping in particular. It’s also especially nefarious – in both the USPS scandal and Jesus Manzano’s testimony to the Sapnsioh courts this week, the same message was given to athletes – ‘you take the needle/drip, or you are sacked.’
It’s one thing to be tempted by fame and fortune – another entirely when your job depends on being a human pincushion and shutting up about it.
Having said that, in almost every team in which team organised doping existed, there were those who refuse to dope, yet still performed at a level sufficent to avoid the guillotine. They are the real champions.
February 15th 2013 @ 10:04am
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Bobo, I think you answer your own amusement when you detail that doping is different in Europe. This piece was generally about Australian sport and the ACC report, which is why there was probably an Anglo slant on it, and why I used the word ‘individuals’. Whilst there is no doubt that teams/clubs have a responsibility, if not blame, in drug cases here in Australia, the focus is more on the individuals and the choices they make/made.
February 15th 2013 @ 11:47am
Bobo said | February 15th 2013 @ 11:47am | Report comment
I hope you are right. I am not sure you are.
As a sports journalist you would know of the rumours in the ABC of another report regarding an Olympic sport (not cycling) that suggests that there is institutional and teamwide doping in a national team. I hope the rumours are untrue, but have no reason to believe that there is any difference between the way things are done here and they way they are done in Europe. A blue passport doesn’t turn us into angels.
February 15th 2013 @ 12:08pm
Ryan O'Connell said | February 15th 2013 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
“A blue passport doesn’t turn us into angels.”
Totally agree, and that’s the point I was trying to make with the following paragraph.
While as a country we love to believe that all Australians compete ‘hard but fair’ in the true Anzac spirit, you surely must have your head firmly in the sand if you think that some professional athletes in this country wouldn’t do anything they could to perform at the highest level.