The fallout from “the blackest day in Australian sport” continues, and in more ways than the continued actions between parties in the Essendon saga.
No matter what the eventual outcome of that specific battle, the effects of the declarations of those politicians who made such serious accusations have still not been addressed.
Some people have lost their jobs, some have been suspended after guilty pleas, a couple of clubs have been hammered beyond anything ever witnessed before, and sports generally have been subject to largely unsubstantiated claims which have been difficult to deal with.
It’s come down to an appeal to overturn a not guilty decision in AFL, and the now-unnecessary looking guilty pleas by Sharks players, head coach and other staff members.
Does that constitute the blackest day is Australian sport’s history?
Read more from Brian Smith at SmithySpeaks
Where are those who made the declaration and accusations now? Everyone blackened by those hasty and unproven claims are entitled to an apology. Some sort of explanation wouldn’t go astray either.
There have, however, been good things to come from this embarrassing situation. The best of those is the diligence and detail required of clubs and sports authorities in relation to supplements.
Concussion delusion
The NRL’s upgraded requirements of clubs obligations to players, and the reporting of concussion incidences and how they were dealt with is a very good thing.
What’s not nearly so good is the reaction of some in the media, who are throwing up comparisons of NRL to NFL when it comes to concussion.
Those who use NFL stats to make their point about what should be done display little knowledge in the difference between the sports.
NFL players wear helmets and until very recent times used them as weapons in both training and playing. Remember, helmets don’t protect the brain from concussion – it’s likely they worsen it. The damage to the brain in concussion is caused by the bruising of the brain when it collides with the inside of the skull.
There’s a really big difference in the two sports with regards to what players do with their heads at the point of collision. In NFL, the head of the tackler goes in front of the player in possession, and also for attacking players when blocking for the ball carrier. This puts the player’s head and neck in a highly dangerous collision point.
In rugby league players are taught to put their heads behind the ball carrier, lowering serious collision concerns for the head or neck.
Until recently, when the NFL barred such horrible contact, when confronted by an opponent front-on both parties would often lead with the helmet. The helmet-to-helmet contact of such huge and generally very fast men produces almost unrecognisable comparison to anything likely to occur on a rugby league field.
And they do this day after day, in off and pre-season practices, and during the week at in-season practice. Game day is just the final repetition.
It certainly is frightening and noteworthy, but not comparable to rugby league.
Still, I would like to see more onus placed on coaches to put proper safety regulations in place at training. I have even suggested a protocol of keeping a medical history for every player from his or her first days in junior footy.
There are players in the NRL who appear prone to head knocks and neck injuries due to a lack of body awareness and the required skills to avoid serious injury of this type.
This is a proactive action to protect everyone brave enough to play footy. Let’s make them safer first, rather than aim to look after them after they suffer a collision and possible concussion.
DiscoDave
Roar Rookie
Well said!
Cadfael
Roar Guru
That 34 players were injected with something that no one appears to know what it was. nor do we know how many time they were injected or when or where. Yes, to me that does constitute a black day.
Gad
Guest
didn`t Cronulla players accept a deal and admit they were treated with banned peptides as part of the club’s 2011 supplement program.
Pot Stirrer
Guest
The AFL decision is beyond ridiculous, Who in thier right mind allows someone to inject them with a substance in a syringe and not know what is in it ? let alone over 20 times!! Would anyone on here allow that to happen to themselves ?
Glenn Innes
Guest
The second part of the author's article makes some very sweeping statements without a scrap of emperical evidence to back them up. The truth is there have simply not been enough studies done to compare the risks of head injury between the three different Rugby games (American Football is just another version of Rugby)l. Auckland University of Technology did a study comparing the rate of catastrophic injury (ie injury resulting in paralysis or death) per 100.000 participants between 1970 and 2005 across both Rugby Union and American Football. Guess what?Rugby Union is much more dangerous with 4.6 catastrophic injuries per 100.000 against 1.0 per 100, 000 in American Football.More studies are coming particularly in Britain were a serious attempt is underway to get a true picture of concussion risks in Rugby Union Comparing concussion rates is difficult because League and Union have never kept statistics so you have to work off stuff like hospital admissions, but The NFL have been keeping them for years and they are pretty reliable because they refer to physician diagnosed concussion. last season it was 0.43 concussions per game.I would like to bet the NRL concussion rate is higher than that.
Andy
Guest
I think the clearances have a been grossly overstated. The clubs, Cronulla and Essendon, are guilty of doping practices. They were pumping their players full of substances they had no idea about. These matters were not clear and there's still the ongoing friendship between Cronulla players and "the mechanic" that needs clearing up.
nerval
Guest
I made that point above but, alas, Brian Smith has chosen not to respond.
AL
Guest
Jay C by the power of 100.
Jay C
Roar Guru
You guys and your tolerance of drug cheating is ridiculous. I don't care about Essendon, but the Sharks admitted to it. They did it. And they were very lucky to get away with it as cheaply as they did.
pjm
Roar Rookie
That's what happens when you get talentless hacks from unions.
AL
Guest
To all those who comment "nothing was proven" etc it tool a long time to get Lance Armstrong however they got him. What we have in aussie rules and especially in the Essendon situation is Lance Armstrong on a masssive scale. The truth will come out and all those Lance Armstrong type of apologies for the Essendon and Sharks will have no more excuses.
Philipp
Roar Rookie
you mean like paul wood? He has only one real ball and plays a real sport
Don
Roar Rookie
Dank says there were spreadsheets full of info relating to each player's dosages, stats, improvements etc. Essenden say there was no record kept at all. Although it makes sense we just can't accept his side of events as fact. Now, if you were venturing down the road of an expensive supplements regime and did not monitor any data relating to it's effectiveness then it is beyong negligent, it is just incomprehensible. How would to justify the additional spend to the club bean counters without showing any data of player benefits. So we are to accept that despite spreadsheets existing for every player's GPS data, weights data, skin folds, diets etc, there was no data kept to measure the impact of supplements alongside the rest of the information? No. I think there were records. There just weren't any by the time they self reported. Well played Essendon.
RT
Guest
I'm not soft on drugs. I'm hard on politicians getting headlines without evidence in an attempt to divert attention from their own failures. When authorities "go public" with little or no evidence then we need to watch out. Where is the evidence or even the accusation against soccer, rugby or cricket? What were they doing on the stage? ICB!
sandy B
Guest
Let's get real here. The only ones due an apology are rugby and soccer who were dragged up on stage as if they were part of it. As for league and Afl asking for an apology? Puhleeze. If you clearly have players from two clubs who ADMITto doing weekly echidna impressions off site with an unauthorised "doctor" supervising and you don't think there was a problem? Pull the other one. This was a judicial result, but we all know that where there is smoke there has got to be some fire.
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
Dumb and Dumber - this event and outcome reminds me of the following joke. A blonde police lady pulls over a blonde lady for speeding. "Can I see your license please" "I'm not sure what that is" says the driver. "Well it's small and rectangular, and it has your picture on it". The blonde driver delves into her handbag and rummages through it. She finds a rectangular make up mirror - looks at it, and then hands it to the officer. "This must be it!" The officer has a look at it, and hands it back to her with the apologetic remark. "I wouldn't have pulled you over if I knew that you were a police officer".
c
Guest
ar spot on except your comment about the players. i think there is more to come asada ceo would not state he is sure banned drugs were taken and let it end there without further action
AR
Guest
"Essendon by destroying records, wiping HDD etc are guilty by law by the very fact that these records were destroyed." Nope. You just made that up. The records werent destroyed, there were no records to begin with. *That* was the appalling lack of governance part.
AR
Guest
ASADA may have come out of this looking foolish and incompetent...but that's only because they couldn't prosecute a case that was there to prosecute. It also doesn't mean that those involved in the injection program's deserve some sort of apology.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
Thanks for your contribution. But if you had done your research (Crazy thing I know, much better to run your mouth off and embarrass yourself) you would realise that the "Blackest Day in Australian Sport" was a phrase coined by former ASADA boss Richard Ings and involved all codes including AFL, Rugby League, Rugby Union and Football.