The reaction of leading sports administrators, and if the pages of The Roar are anything to go by, most supporters, to allegations of drug abuse in Australian sport was appropriate and encouraging.
The message was received with due seriousness, disappointment but also pragmatic optimism –- take the hit but also use the opportunity to weed out the cheats and clean up properly.
Details were scant but the tone and symbolism of the announcement left no doubt: this was the darkest day in Australian sport.
Two weeks on, a picture is emerging that is far less certain, one which is fostering a swelling tide of anger among administrators, and which seems to reflect poorly on some of the people at the centre of the announcement.
Two things are certain; first, the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) is conducting an investigation which has uncovered drug use among Australian sportsmen. And second, there are some Australian sportsmen (and women) who are using prohibited drugs of some description.
What’s uncertain is the number of people involved, who they are, who they play for, and the extent of the abuse. The reaction of NSW Sports minister Graham Annesley suggests that there are indeed serious concerns, but it will be some time until we know whether these are real and current as opposed to potential.
So far seven clubs have been offered up as being under investigation: Essendon in the AFL, plus six NRL clubs. Also one individual, Curtis Johnston, a reserve grade North Sydney rugby league player, effectively dobbed himself in courtesy of boasting via SMS of illegal steroid use, which he now says was a prank message.
Enough is already known about Essendon to accept that a serious potential problem exists, that officials and players in the club have acted unwisely, although there is some optimism that no illegal substances are involved.
But things get a lot murkier with the NRL. Not only are the clubs in the dark as to what and who, they all deny knowledge of any potential for systematic doping.
This would not have been the case for Essendon, who knew that most if not all of their playing group was involved. So if we assume that the NRL club chiefs are telling the truth – and there is no reason to suspect otherwise – it is more likely than not that if there are any transgressions at their clubs they will be isolated in nature.
A serious concern to be sure, but if so, not of the scale suggested by the “darkest day” announcement.
The gravity of the initial announcement was reinforced by heavy hitters from all four major football codes standing like accused in the dock.
But subsequent clarification that it is only AFL and NRL in the naughty corner must now have Bill Pulver and David Gallop wondering what they gave up their day for.
Now more new evidence is emerging to dilute the original assertion.
Last Friday ASADA Chief Executive Aurora Andruska released an official statement outlining how they expect to interview a total of 150 players, support staff and administrators from the two codes.
She later admitted to the Nine Network that the number of 150 was a guess. “I had a lot of pressure on me to say lots of sports stars were implicated in the drugs scandal and I thought 150 sounded like a good number.”
This is an astonishing admission. The “darkest day” announcement implied that the bucket was about to be tipped on multitudes of sportsmen and that compelling evidence was at hand which would be revealed to confirm this.
In the meantime the six NRL sides named are now having difficulty securing and retaining sponsors.
Cronulla presently has no major sponsor, no ground sponsor and no sleeve sponsor. It is not an exaggeration to say that the lasting impact of this situation could damage the club beyond repair. And for what?
The NRL Chief Executives met this week in Sydney. The official statement indicated an acceptance to wait for the investigation to run its course and a willingness to work with ASADA to maintain the integrity of the game.
But they would be privately furious at being prematurely offered as scapegoats, not because their clubs are riddled with cheats, but on account of a political agenda which, in the view of some of the affected clubs, has elevated the ACC investigation beyond its worth.
To understand the reason for this unsatisfactory situation is to understand the political process in Australia.
For the government of the day, whether they be Labor or Liberal, to maintain the perception that they are competent and in control, it is crucial for them to control the political agenda.
They do this via releasing information to the media timed to ensure that positive stories lead the evening news and the negative are buried on page 14.
The current government has struggled to do this lately. what better way, when desperately in need of a good news story, to wrest back control of the front pages and use this release to appear strong and in control?
We don’t know exactly how long the government had the ACC report and, to be fair, we don’t know what is in it while they do.
They obviously saw sufficient strength in it to at least have its existence released, so Ministers Jason Clare and Kate Lundy were trussed up and told to go hard.
But was this announcement made in a table-thumping manner because the evidence against clubs or players is damning, or because it suited the government’s political objective?
Strong and in control. Protecting the good citizens. No villain is safe.
To believe that the ACC investigation has been hijacked for political expediency is not to deny that drug cheats exist and will be found out. But make no mistake, despite Clare and Lundy being genuine in their personal desire to clean up sport, the involvement of these ministers and their strident behaviour threw up danger signals for me from day one.
Politics can be a ruthless and uncaring beast, and when it involves sport, no dispensation can be assumed.
Just in case any readers think I’m channelling right wing conspiracy theorists, Wayne Smith in The Australian, on Friday 14th Feb, obtained this quote from retired Labor Senator John Black, himself the head of a drugs in sport inquiry in the 1980s. “It kept the [Eddie] 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.”
Fans who give heart, soul, and hard-earned cash to their chosen sport or team should rightfully feel cheated by any of their players who have placed their dreams at risk by drug cheating.
But fans could feel doubly cheated if their initial shock and grief, the cheapening of reputations, and the smear and distraction from the sport itself, was in fact in the name of politics.
Ministers Clare and Lundy and the government they represent will face their day of judgement in September.
In the meantime, for the rest of us, let us hope they keep their distance, let ASADA do their best to keep our competitions clean, and let the games continue.
Pot Stirrer
Guest
Anybody can say its very alarming if they're not giving any details.
Chris Marinou
Roar Rookie
Does anyone else find it a coincidence that the release of the ACC report came out two days before the federal government announced the revenue raised from the mining tax which has been a huge failure thus far. It makes you wonder whether the federal government used the release of the ACC report as a diversionary tactic to take the heat off another failed policy. As a sports fan I would be very dissipointed if me assertion is true however I wouldn't rule out anything if form is anything to go by.
Ronald M
Guest
I would say that its more like the ACC's darkest day. Unless they come up with substantial provable instances of wrong doing in this case then they should be sued for defamation of charector.
Allanthus
Guest
Your point is taken Mango, there is almost certainly reason to have some real concern. The argument here isn't to diminish that concern but to express the (perhaps naive) desire to keep the process free from political grandstanding
Mango Jack
Guest
Yes, and for those who would kid themselves that this is just a beat up by a desperate fed govt, remember that Annesley is a Liberal minister.
Mango Jack
Guest
Sheek, I'm not so naive as to believe that politicians (of all persuasion), would not take advantage of an issue like this. But I'm concerned that the real, and serious, allegations and issues at stake here are being sidelined by relatively trivial debate about political opportunism, and the ridiculous claims by some club managers of "all players being tainted by the report". We have been put on notice by the NCC that all is not well in professional sport here, and now let's just wait for the investigative process to run it's course.
Mango Jack
Guest
I'm not suggesting the taking PEDs is of itself not serious, just that criminal elements blackmailing players into match fixing is more concerning.
Paul G
Guest
Spot on, especially your last statement on the post.
Paul G
Guest
But the Sydney Swans won the premiership because they are into voodoo. They put a curse on all the other teams. See, there is as much fact (currently) in what I said, as what you said.
TC
Guest
We've just seen the swimming fraternity wringing its hands over shocking behaviour like prank calls and staying up to 10pm telling each other scary stories. It seems like everyone is now ready to make a big out of absolutely anything. At the end of this, we'll find some reserve grade players sharing a bong, and Lundy will stand up and shriek: I told you so!!!
Andyroo
Guest
If your one of the people trusted to see the full report I think it's a bad look to just fob it off. I am sure some players are using illicit drugs and hanging around with undesirables. You can't say that is a good thing but is it really shocking to anyone who follows sport closely. We have all seen the West Coast story unfold, read about who Collingwood players hang out with and know about that the Underbelly guy is a huge roosters fan and read a million stories involving kings cross. That's not news. I expect that performance enchansing drug use at lower levels of the game is a lot worse than most people imagine but I know people who own a gym and don't consider that huge news either. It's still nothing you can condone as a public figure though is it. So far everything that has come out has turned out to be overblown spin and reeking of amateurism. My sport is Soccer so naturally I paid most attention to that. Big news with images of soccer fans splashed over the front page of The Age with a story written by their two gun investigative reporters. "The 40m game". Turns out it was Hong Kong Dollars and Sports Radar think its completely above board. With the K League and J League closing the week before it made that A League game the first professional game of the (Asian) weekend. So it's a non story and involved fairly incompetent reporting by the police who got the currency wrong. This is what they thought was good/strong enough to release to the public. Well it doesn't leave me much faith in the stuff that they aren't confident of releasing. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].
Allanthus
Guest
Sheek, you've captured the intent of the article perfectly. The reaction of almost all the sports administrators involved suggest that between them, the ACC and ASADA, they could have handled this in a way which wasn't alarmist, but still attacked the areas of concern. They didn't need the government involved, and they certainly didn't need a government involved which just happens to be desperate to get any story onto the front page that isn't about their leadership or budget or corruption crises. Sport needs politics because not all sport is commercially sustainable, and so funding is required for those sports plus to assist with participation in sport and recreation at all levels. But as soon as politicians get involved above and beyond this, just to suit their own political agendas, then it almost always ends up leaving a very sour taste in the mouths of all true sportspeople.
Talisman
Guest
Spot on sheek. Absolutely nothing concrete has come of it yet (I'm prepared to accept some sportspeople use illicit drugs) but the denigration of the entire sports community in Australia was done for what? My answer is above so please yourselves what you make of it.
Kurt Sorensen
Roar Guru
Tops article Allunthas, I'm confused about the ACC stuff as much as anyone, though as Matt Simpson and The_Wookie have alluded to, there are parts of it that have not yet been released publicly. I was at function the other day and NSW sports minister Graham Annesley was asked by MC Adam Spencer about these parts of the report and why they have not been made public. While he of course gave no details he stated that the information is very 'alarming'. Until there is some evidence and investigation the unfortunate innuendo and blind finger pointing will continue. Guess we will wait and see, but i certainly hope there is more smoke than actual fire.
TC
Guest
Sums it up nicely. Whatever story there may have been, whatever dangers we were being alerted to, it has all be lost in people like Lundy spinning it for al it's worth.
TC
Guest
Lawler himself has clarified that they are concerned about the dangers of that occurring (criminal gangs infiltrating clubs), but that is still a long way from this being "widespread". And once again, the response from the two Ministers is completely at odds with the potential dangers Lawler has raised. We are right to suspect political interference and political grandstanding.
sheek
Roar Guru
Hi Allanthus, I was thinking of penning an article on this myself. Answer is easy, "handy spin." The ACC report, had it been delivered in the usual, quiet, unpretentious manner, would have got its message across much more loudly & with better clarity. But once a desperate Federal Labor Govt looking for a good news story, any good news story, got involved with its "photo opportunity" moment, the report lost all sensibility. Not to mention its message. Only the truly naive would believe Australian sportsmen aren't taking performance enhancing drugs. There's little doubt gambling is rife, but how much of it is illegal, we simply don't know. It's also probable crime is attempting to infiltrate sport, but to what extent & how successfully, again we don't truly know. What was damning is that Australia's "darkest day in sport" announcement on 7 February was followed up by little substance. All players & all clubs & all sports have been implicated by association, but little hard evidence is forth-coming. Jason Clare & Kate Lundy thought themselves geniuses fronting the publication of the ACC report, which they reserved for themselves as first & second speakers. You could see them positively beaming with their "pro-activeness." But as soon as people started asking awkward questions, the "feel good" moment was quickly lost. Since those first few days, Clare & Lundy have conveniently made themselves unavailable for any probing, embarrassing encounters with sports folks. Really, politicians are among the most contemptible people there are.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Mango Jack, No. The systematic drugging of an entire team without the knowledge or consent of the team doctor is of extreme concern. Add to that the rash of soft tissue injuries, and we have something that falls under not just WADA regulations, but also OHS.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Way to early to call it. If you've heard the guys on Offsiders, and Whately on 360, as well as Caroline Wilson on Footy Classified, its the classified part of the report that none of us know about that people should be worried about. Wilson I can ignore, but Ive a lot of time for Whately.
Mango Jack
Guest
We'll see, talisman. See my post above. If this is true, there is no exaggeration going on.