The Roar can reveal that a year ago ASADA confirmed with the ARU it was clean, as far as doping is concerned. The doping scandal in Australian sport revealed by the Australian Crime Commission’s report is mired essentially in the AFL and the NRL.
The NRL is particularly exposed (and this is admitted by journalists working for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, the two newspapers that passionately support the code) because it has never had a central drug integrity unit.
The NRL was an organisation that essentially ran the premiership tournament. The clubs were left to manage their own activities and to set up their own medical units.
This is in contrast, say, with the ARU or the AFL which have (if they want to exercise the power) significant control over what happens to their players, on and off the field.
There were 222 tests of Australian rugby players last season, for instance, carried out under the control of the ARU.
The appointment of Nick Whitlam QC by the Australian Rugby League Commission to examine the medical practices of a number of rugby league clubs is illustrative.
The Whitlam inquiry probably needs to transform into an ongoing unit after it has completed its present brief.
The PR of the ACC’s report has been a fascinating exercise to follow, and a clue to the weight of the findings and to the report’s future impact on cleaning up Australian sport.
The publication of the report by the Minister for Sport Kate Lundy, with the CEOs of the major Australian professional sports present, provoked headlines that one never imagined were possible in an Australian context.
Publication day was quickly identified by the tabloids as “the darkest day” in Australian sport.
This sense of a watershed moment in Australian sport was heightened by the sombre and almost repentant responses from the CEOs. They all promised to do everything possible to clean up whatever needed to be cleaned up in their sports.
For their part the politicians involved, Kate Lundy and the rising federal Labor star Justice Minister Jason Clare, insisted the report was the first salvo of what was going to be a continuing bombardment against illegal doping and match-fixing, and against players and clubs that condoned the doping and, especially, against the criminal elements who were pushing the trade in the use of illegal supplements.
The ACC said it had hard evidence to back up its conclusions and it was prepared to offer some leniency to players, clubs, doctors and sports scientists who came forward to dob themselves in.
This initial favourable reaction from virtually all parties with an interest in the matter, however, was in danger of being overwhelmed by Saturday.
There was strong criticism from a number of influential voices that the ACC report had not named names, either of players or clubs, and that the evidence of drug abuse was more assertion than proof.
On Sunday, the AFL revealed the possibility of most of the Essendon club having been involved (again possibly unwittingly by the players) in the use of illegal drugs or illegal usage practices.
The AFL insisted, however, that to their knowledge this was the extent of the problem, with the possibility of one other player from another club being implicated.
On Saturday, The Australian newspaper, which led its sport section with several excellent pages, aside from a bizarre report on the ARU’s handling of drugs by Wayne Smith, gave this generic headline to its extensive coverage: Crime commission under siege.
The lead story of the coverage was written by Brent Read.
The headline of the story, “Show us the drug abuse evidence”, was an accurate summary of its content.
A key quote in the story was this from the rugby league guru and administrator, Phil Gould: “Nobody has been named, no club has been named and no sport has been named. It’s a broad-brush condemnation of Australian sport everywhere.”
Some of the biggest names in Australian sport, the likes of Brett Lee, Paul Roos and Wayne Bennett, were listed as supporting this Gould line.
Bennett, in particular, questioned the work of the anti-doping authorities and suggested that they somehow allowed a drug culture to “fester”.
Gould had also questioned the ACC’s “grandstanding announcements” in his Sunday column in The Sun-Herald.
“I would say that at this point in time, our code of rugby league is the cleanest and most responsible it has been in the entire history of the game,” he argued.
But the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday that “seven NRL clubs, a number of AFL clubs, three A-League clubs and 90 individuals across all sports are under scrutiny.”
There was more detail, slightly at variance with the SMH, in The Sunday Telegraph. A story written by its Canberra correspondent Samantha Maiden (perhaps explaining the seeming inside information from the ACC) and Linda Silmalis suggested that six NRL clubs have been “snared” in the ACC’s report.
The NRL, the reporters claimed, know the six clubs which are being investigated by Tony Whitlam.
The article also quoted the ACC chief executive John Lawler: “I am very confident in the report’s findings. This is no beat-up. We have sworn testimonies. We have corroborated evidence.”
As an aside, there have been reports that some of this evidence has come from phone-tapping, which has been undertaken for more than a year.
I have often been critical of The Sunday Telegraph, on a number of different issues, but on this matter the newspaper has been a model of responsible journalism.
The Sports Editor, David Riccio, deserves a compliment on a lead story that carried the headline “The NRL has to name and shame.”
The article made a number of important claims:
* “Match-fixing and illicit drug connections within the NRL are the report’s main focus – and the authorities are anxious for NRL bosses to reveal the names of clubs under suspicion.”
* “The NRL convinced other codes to appear at last Wednesday’s press conference in Canberra, even though the other sports are far less implicated in the report.”
* “Crime Commission chief executive officer John Lawler claimed the investigation wasn’t a ‘beat-up’ despite the NSW Police suggesting there wasn’t enough evidence for charges to be laid.”
* “Frustration is also at fever pitch among the 16 NRL clubs, with club chief executives accusing the NRL of having ‘all care and no responsibility’ over the issue.”
These points, it seems to me, effectively kill off any suggestion by Phil Gould that the ACC report is a beat-up and that it is somehow intended to implicate the rugby league code without much evidence.
As Ray Hadley says at the beginning of his rugby league match calls, “It’s game on!”
For the NRL, that is.
BrainsTrust
Guest
The biggest drug sport in the world is obviously NFL , a sport that has a large number of positions dependent on muscle mass and has a lot of money in it. With the money available in the sport they even developed steroids that were undetectable. This country is like the Americans with its drug hysteria the point is the Americans are careful to apply it to Olympic sports and not their own home grown product so NFL manages its own testing. Basketball has rumours of frankenstein amounts of human growth hormone rumoured to be given to young players to gain inches in height but drugs don;t seem to have a role after that. Baseball players have been caught but its not a major component of the sport. The American government doesn;t interfere with them so the Australian govenrment shouldn;t interfere with AFL certainly, rugby league might as well forget about it on that basis as well and rugby its more international but its not really a big money sport.
Brewski
Guest
Don't know whether anyone can prove it, but there are plenty of signs that point to RL's seige mentality IMO. The constant trashing of AF in Sydney papers, ramped up last year because of GWS. The constant articles from old Roy, trashing the AFL over the years. The constant need for RL in Sydney to be looking like it is always under seige and on deaths door, which of course always rallys the troops. etc etc etc
Brewski
Guest
Yep, and she has written some 'bad press' stories about the AFL as well , stiff bikkies. You are just not following mate, my whole point .... just try and follow without flipping out, which, by my saying that will probably make you flip out !!. RL and its fans don't want to smell like roses, the demo that follows it doesn't, and the players that play in general don't, big deal, play to your strengths, the current drug fiasco won't hurt RL one bit, if anything it will probably be more popular, even if the whole comp took drugs together in Wayne Bennetts backyard. People like you who run around extinguishing little fires here and there out of the goodness of your heart and love for the game, don't get the big picture, head office does. They act shocked and appalled, threaten this and that, but secretly revel in the bad boys behaviour ....ratings go up.
clipper
Guest
I think you have proved the 'us and them' siege mentality Brewski - I just can't understand why it's so hard to accept that the demographics are not the same between Melbourne and Sydney - Sydney has always had a strong Rugby presence in the North and East, now has a strong AFL presence in those areas and the inner city and a strong Soccer presence in the South West. Melbourne does not have those strong groupings in certain suburbs - it is all AFL and all the other codes followed are spread out all over the city.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
So I was correct,now isn't that amazing.One thing I have learnt on public blogs is never to lead with your chin.I have been clobbered in the past,so if I make a generalisation I now ensure whenever possible to have links. Let me add a few more references re the D.t /News and Rebecca Wilson et al.A couple of those irons,so to speak as follows Another where she admitted her ambassadorship http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/afl-bullies-are-back/story-e6freo8c-1111115745011 Then http://www.musictheatreaustralia.com.au/component/entertainers/rebecca_wilson/5117 Then some gushy stories by the same lady: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/swans-brothers-in-arms-/story-e6freyar-1226128395552 http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/a-fitting-swansong-for-roos/story-e6freyar-1225854699210 http:// www.redandwhiteonline.com/forum/showthread.php?29321-Kirky-s-Guernsey-Presentation-Speech-as-reported-by-Rebecca-Wilson Little has changed me lad,she is still ATVM an avowed Swans supporter. .Her story about her street after last years G/F win is testament to my argument. I am one of these captive sport media nutcases,and have been so for too long. So my views are from the heart and appear to be clouded,yet your sporting views are just your views and are valid.QED my views are not therefore able to be substantiated one assumes. It is extremely difficult not to write from the heart in a thread devoted to a code one follows.It is not foreign to write from the heart and be objective .If you believe I simply post to spin rl 100% of the time,you have not been watching over the years. I can just as easily jump onto an AFL thread and just give my view also,that is not from the heart.Then I will be accused of being just a troll and moderated or deleted. In my years on this rock,I have yet to read a sporting story, that does not have an element of subjectivity in it.The very author of this thread is my exhibit A.
Australian Rules
Guest
"I think you should just accept your punishment & stop pointing fingers, every professional sports has issues" What on earth does this mean? First, what exactly is "my" punishment? Second, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, soccer and rugby are. That was the whole point of my post. I think the bold position of “we don’t take drugs, it’s only them” is a dangerous one...and I'd be surprised if any rational person disagreed with that.
Australian Rules
Guest
???? Of course it's out of commercial interest! It's a newspaper, not a newsletter. You think the DT writes RL articles "out of a deep love for the code"..? It's job is to sell newspapers, not "promote the code all the time". Talk about naive. Here's the deal: The DT needs RL just as much as RL needs the DT. Without all that page-space, the game is less relevant in Sydney. At times, it's an odd, even hostile, relationship...but it's an important symbiotic relationship nonetheless.
Brewski
Guest
Fair enough, i accept that Rebecca Wilson was a Swans Ambassador, although it has to be said that a link pertaining to 2007 is stretching it a bit for today. Much has changed regarding Wilson and her columns since then. And that post was obviously written a bit slower than most of your others and was actually readable. Once again, i am not bagging you or RL, my views are my views and maybe just maybe you take things way to much to heart. All these other irons you speak of, feel free to post, and we can discuss :)
Anon
Guest
very interesting to hear on SEN yesterday driving home the lads talking to Mark Fainaru-Wada - ESPN investiagative journo and co-Author "Game of Shadows" which covered the US Balco doping story from about 10 years ago. Key points including that the US Govt enquiry was focused on the criminal side and the outing of athletes breaking WADA codes happened more due to media agitation - because the legal processes created documents - a paper trail, and that led to names being made public. Back to this article - Spiro talks up the ARU because of what? 222 drug tests. Has Spiro not looked to the AFL for clarity here? The AFL established an integrity unit 2 years before the ARU, and conducts about 4 times MORE (ASADA - 1100 last year) tests than the ARU (okay - across a broader base of players) as well as about 1600 of their own Illicit drug policy tests. The AFL integirty unit meets ASADA and police monthly. And the outcome of that is that the AFL has figured for at least 12 months now that the testing is pretty meaningly. Even Dick Pound has effectively said if you test positive for PEDs, you've failed two tests: a drug test, and an IQ test. So, let's get it straight - that no positive tests is pretty meaningless. That an integrity unit is a nice thing and moving forward they are being beefed up (AFL/ARU) or established (NRL). There's no clear reason to come out suggesting the ARU is 'clean'. It just hasn't been a key focus of this particular ACC investigation. It has NOT been investigated and okayed. The lower tiers has been mentioned - and that's where in Australian Football circles there have been a couple of WAFL and a VFL player struck out......and perhaps for them ignorance was more the issue. However - back to the interview with Fainaru-Wada - and the mention of in the US roughly between 4-10% of younger players even pre-College system a using PEDS to build their base. If it pays off - they get through the system, go pro, and haven't taken anything for years. Bloodbanking etc can be rolled out in the pro-leagues - but, are you going to bloodbank all the aspirational 14 years olds?? btw - I love reviewing old hubris - and it's possibly worth googling again the article from August 27, 2006 "NRL claiming victory in drugs war". And that claim was made even before the NRL adopted the competition wide illicit policy. What is clear is that it's taken a decade for our sporting leaders AND media to start to wake up to this. Some of us have pointed our repeatedly that Ben Cousins and Andrew Johns were not indicative of failed AFL/NRL illicit drugs policies (introduced 2005/2007 respectively) but were more indicative of the folly of hanging your testing hat on ASADA only.
Australian Rules
Guest
Fair enough. Roy Masters, staunch defender of everything league, writes an attack piece on AFL about once a month. This one was just beyond the pale. And frankly, it's a trend. When articles are written by AFL journos on AFL issues (TV deals, stadiums, expansion etc) the articles do not mention the NRL. Why would they? By contrast, when NRL articles are written on those issues, the AFL is mentioned almost obsessively.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
I was hoping you would come back,and am hardly surprised re your selectivity in reading posts.We call it deflection. A little fireside reading as your starting point.Under the sweet heading"The women behind the Sydney Swans". http://brophyfootballblog.sitemix.jp/?p=430 Now unless you are prepared to prove @ Wilson was not there.B) the blogger there had poor vision c) I make a statement with no reference point,then I suggest as someone who spends a lot of my time defending my code against trolls(no names but you can guess),you publicly retract your puerile attempt in bagging me. And I have more irons in the fire.
Renegade
Guest
I noticed my original comment was turfed by the moderators.....having read this piece again, it is still a pathetic article. Deliberate code war stuff....
Renegade
Guest
I suggest you take a trip around the world again mate....
Brewski
Guest
Besides the rest of your post, which TBH i could not read, so i am only going to pull you up on Rebecca Wilson ...... she ain't no Swans ambassador, in fact i would be suprised if she was a ambassador for anything or anyone. Please provide proof or retract with apology. Many Swans fans feel ill.
TC
Guest
That's right Nathan. So either the ACC is doing it deliberately because they don't have very much evidence, or they are incompetent.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Backing up a fellow flag waver,means little. WOW . Apparently I don't get it,after following the code for decades LOL.Involved in SL dramas,Shark's financial dramas to name a couple.And you come up with blind faith description,which is nothing more than usual trolling. If you believe incidents such as Coffs Harbour and the reporting in the DT,came under the better it goes category,you have even less of a clue about rugby league,than I first thought(which was minimal). If you believe the SL War( News instigated) falls under the better it goes slot,thenI recommend you get out and speak to people lost to the game. Show me where the fear mongering re the Swans over the last 20 years in the D.T.We get rl writers such as Kent,Rothfield giving plaudits ,in addtion to Bec Wilson. GWS came into town like a bull in a chin shop,we will do this we will do that,we will spend this and get the Blacktown mayor to make a decision which cost him his job(the white elephant as his testimony). even some AFL posters on this board ,now admit it should have been better handled. As the DT had a target audience of rl fans whcih I concur,why then does the SMH have regular writers serve it up to rl?Be they more ru inclined or more AFL inclined,their target audience.Both are losing readership. I remember when the Storm first hit Melbourne.No one cares,they will be lucky to get 3,000 in attendance,the 21,000 at their first game is a novelty factor,only Polynesian playing the game. You guys see and hear what you want to. Your fawning Melbourne media,and spin coming from AD, appears to influence a few re their commments .So much for head office.
Punter
Guest
Unbelievable, you really love to spin it don't you. The other codes have not been implicated in the 'Drug taking' here in Australia & why shouldn't they say so. The big issue in football has always & always will be match fixing, one beloved AFL poster is happy to always highlight the Italian league for their numerous match fixing scandals. This issue is rampant in Asia & I'm not stupid enough to not admit, it might even be on a large scale in Europe. Of course football is by far the biggest the sport in the world & the incidence of match fixing will be far higher then in a small mono country sport like yours. So currently there is massive investigations in Europe about match fixing, will your & your sport then point the finger & have the 'holiier than thou' attitude, 'we don't match fix? I can assure you that match fixing in football is far bigger issue that drugs in our sport as your mate Craig Foster has allured to. I think you should just accept your punishment & stop pointing fingers, every professional sports has issues
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
AR .Therefore what it does storywise,it does hardly underpin or promote the code all the time. That's why it is out of commercial interest ,and less and less out of a deep love for the code.Go back 30 plus years to get the gist.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
Dont be too selective re the points made, also made AR,an accusation that only his code(McLachlan's ) had the strict drugs policy,which he retracted later on radio ,as both cricket and the NRL had in place prior. I actually don't agree with Roy sniping now.Nor do I like admin people telling porkies and then retracting later. And hate to inform you the NRL is focussing on the NRL.Roy is just a columnist and not employed by the NRL.So no need for the spin. Else I could write an essay on caroline ílson's regular deflecting in the past.rreferring to the NRL"how mnay hits can this code take.".
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
There is a lady by the name of Rebecca Wilson (a Swans ambassador),who writes weekly for the DT.Now she has regularly put AD up on a pedestal,the Swans as being something out of a sunday school,she has since the ARLC inception bagged John grant,bagged the commission as being non representative. We have Paul Kent a supposed rl writer who hammers the NRL whenever ,and did so re the ACC announcement.Then Rothfield a rl lover,who bagged the NRL crowd at the SFS ,comparing it to the Swans crowd at the SCG. They have so much hatred of football???? meaning A League,rl,ru or AFL. if they have a hatred of AFL it sure aint showing with their coverage of the swans and coverage of the Giants. In fact I suggest the way the GWS came into Sydney with all the bluster and bombast ,the Blacktown white elephant and the boast about spending $20m pa ,may have had more than a little to do with it. We are coming like it or not.just the way to win teh folks. The Herald Sun spends the overwhelming amount of space naturally on AFL,so NRL stories are limited. Then to offset that you have the Age and Caroline Wilson who bags teh NRL,when teh opportunity arises,both in that oulet and teh Offsiders.