Cheating is the hot topic in sport at present. Apart from the drawn-out ASADA investigations into the Cronulla Sharks and the Essendon Bombers, we’ve also read about allegations of match-fixing against ex-New Zealand star all-rounder Chris Cairns.
Meanwhile, no World Cup can be held without the dreaded ‘c’ word being uttered.
Australian star Tim Cahill accused Chile of cheating in their match versus the Socceroos. There’s also the obligatory footage of Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal from the 1986 World Cup, which is shown ad nauseam every four years.
Shockingly, it seems like cheating is everywhere in sport, yet the real shock to me is that people are actually shocked.
Cheating is simply a part of life, even outside of sport.
Extramarital affairs. False tax returns. A spare ace up your sleeve. Election promises that were never going to be kept. Insider trading. Dying your greying hair.
Cheating happens, folks, especially in sport. In fact, it happens all the time in sport.
A bowler appealing for a caught-behind when he knows the batsman didn’t hit it. A striker taking a dive in the goal square. A rugby league winger claiming a try when he knows he has knocked the ball on. A blindside flanker continually slowing down the ball. A basketballer flopping for a charge call.
All are forms of cheating.
Those examples are all on the lower end of the scale, but if you step away from the playing arena, that’s when the high-level cheating can be discussed. Just ask the Melbourne Storm or the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Cheating is everywhere, and it happens all the time.
Heck, occasionally the cheating isn’t even intentional. Rugby league teams have been penalised for accidentally having 14 players on the field, and there have been a number of fielders in cricket who have claimed a catch when replays clearly show that it was ‘grassed’.
Sometimes the cheating is so whacky, it’s humorous.
At the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, the Spanish basketball team were stripped of their gold medal, after it was revealed that the intellectually disabled squad were not actually intellectually disabled.
It was alleged that the Spanish Federation of Sportspeople with the Intellectually Disabilities (FEDDI) deliberately chose to sign up athletes who were not intellectually disabled to win more medals and gain more sponsorship.
Staggering.
In 2009, rugby club Harlequins were found guilty of using blood capsules in order to make strategic substitutions for players during the Heineken Cup. You know a scandal has made the big time when it gets awarded ‘gate’ status, and the story is now know as ‘Bloodgate’.
Bloody hell.
When it comes to whacky cheating stories, they don’t get much crazier than Tonya Harding’s. The American figure skater hired a hitman to assault her biggest competitor Nancy Kerrigan, so that Harding could win the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships and qualify for the 1994 Winter Olympics team.
How that plotline hasn’t been made into a movie yet is beyond me.
Faking disability, blood capsules, and hiring a hitman to take out your competition may all seem a little bizarre, but they do indicate the levels that some individuals will go to in order to gain an advantage.
There are certainly various degrees of cheating, and not all forms are equal, but it’s been happening for centuries, and will no doubt occur for centuries more.
Trying to gain an advantage is what competitive sport is all about.
Sadly, cheating is as unfortunate as it inevitable. I’m not saying it should ever be condoned or accepted. It should be dealt with swiftly, before moving on just as swiftly, but it’s always going to exist, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise when it’s revealed.
Why? Because as long as we revere athletes, put them on a pedestal, and shower them in adulation, we’ll have people aspiring to be athletes. And with aspiration comes motivation. Mix motivation with questionable ethics, and you’ll have cheats.
Likewise, when club CEOs, coaches, doctors, etc, are rewarded by winning, those with a slightly questionable moral compass start to look at any ways to improve their team’s performances.
I’d dearly love for all sport to be clean and devoid of cheating, but sadly that’s just never going to be the reality.
Now, where is that hair dye?
handles
Guest
... proving Bosk's point above!
Gavin
Guest
Oh I don't know, sounds familiar to me, Lance Armstrong filed a lawsuit against USADA, "He argued USADA, a nonprofit organization that polices drug use in American sports, had no authority to bring a doping case against him or to strip him of his titles".
Minz
Guest
East Germans, Soviets and Americans in that cold war era have to take the cake for cheating, surely? Not only drugs, but other things - like the Soviet's professional athletes in the amateur era. IMO, the solution is for us all to realise that sports are just games - enjoy 'em, but they're not actually worth anything!
Lou Lando
Roar Guru
For a guy who is supposedly a cheat Hird does seem awfully keen to play it out in court. Not sure too many other "cheats" are quite as willing.
Andy_Roo
Roar Guru
If dyeing your hair is cheating then boob jobs are cheating too. That's the only cheating I will ever condone.
thank Goddard
Guest
garbage, Hird has been villified by the press and opposition reporters for 18 months, his family abused, he was stood down as coach. (Forget the money, he would have earnt that as coach)...with no chance to defend himself ...until now..let's see what happens now and let the cards fall where they will PS forget about rusted on supporters, the vast majority of Essendon supporters I've talked to support him 100%...not delusional, what is required is a fair hearing in a court, not an hysterical trial by media/supporters and ASADA Jutsie, go find another club ... PS just as in the past 18 months... note how the PR war against Essendon is heating as the court date gets closer with all sorts of 'revelations' ... you blokes are the deluded ones, led around by the nose by the PR experts.
Kink
Guest
I applaud this sensibility. I can understand Essendon supporters seeing beyond Hird's failures. However it has gotten to the stage now that if James was in charge again everything will turn sour eventually.
Avon River
Guest
The old truism of "Rules are made to be broken" encourages if not outright cheating then at least the bending of rules within an inch of their life. Coaches in particular seek to re-interpret or exploit loopholes in rules...near enough to cheating if not at least going against the perhaps unwritten 'spirit' of the rule. So even looking at Essendon on this front. As long as there is confusion and uncertainty then the greatest crime is that for which they've been punished which is being poorly organised and trusting a dankhead. More clubs need a no 'dankheads' policy.
Bobbo7
Guest
Good to hear. I guess you never hear from the silent majority
c
Guest
"Dying your greying hair" is cheating. well F@$% me
jutsie
Guest
i assure you as an essendon fan only the most rusted on supporters consider him a hero. Personally the biggest issue for me is that he put the well being of his players at risk not whether he cheated or not. and now he is still putting himself ahead of the players and club, what an a*****hole
Lachlan Doyle
Roar Pro
This for me ranks right up there as one of the most enjoyable articles I've read on the roar. It's sad but true. The pressure that players are under in the professional era is enormous and that is undoubtably the reason behind cheating in sports.
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
I hope you didn't plagiarise this - that would be cheating
Brett McKay
Expert
As I keep telling you, I was well in my rights to stand there until I'd been given out, and the ump couldn't give me out until there'd be an appeal!!
Martin
Guest
I worry that sometime in the future androids will be covertly substituted with athletes to gain an advantage. When this comes to be, all AFL players will need to have their skin pricked to see if they bleed.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Well said, Ryan O'Connell! 100% agree. We don't have to condone cheating, but as long as humans are involved in any activity, we should accept that there will be displays of human strength, human grace & human weaknesses. No person is immune. No industry/trade/profession is immune. Above all, no sport is immune.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Beta blockers… Or spiking the other blokes' beer with over strength vodka...
Bosk
Guest
Hird is only still considered a Hero by the more delusional of Essendon supporters. ...the rest of us realized soon after the Essendon Drug saga broke that he is an extremely ordinary bloke.
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
In golf you can certainly cheat, but darts is a good one. Not sure how you could cheat at that.
BigAl
Guest
Hird's status as 'a hero' is tumbling fast ! I don't remember the last post on the Roar lauding him. There used to be plenty just after the whole mess went public - correspondingly those calling for his head have climbed. Also the number of #StandbyHird banners at games is plumetting.