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A six-month investigation into Collingwood duo Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas over the use of the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol has ended in a two-year ban, being delisted, and fined $50,000 each by the club.
The two convicted players fronted the press on Monday morning to say “at no stage did we knowingly take clenbuterol”.
After testing positive after a night out while on a training camp in New Zealand in February, the duo said the clenbuterol may have been in illicit drugs they had taken.
After reading from a statement the duo left the press conference, and chief executive Gary Pert and football boss Neil Balme answered question.
Somehow the biggest club in the league kept this performance-enhancing drug story out of the limelight for majority of the six months, compared to the Essendon saga.
Credit must to to the Pies for the way they have managed to keep the investigation under lock and key, and separate the club from the players.
At the press conference, against the backdrop of the Collingwood banner, the Pies once again were able to get through without any real bruises to their brand – turning the issue into a nation-wide illicit drug issue and straying away from the words ‘performance enhancing drugs’.
Pert turned the situation into a feel-good story, saying, “Our commitment to re-draft them says much about the regard that we have for them.”
Collingwood deserves credit for turning the investigation into the duo from being a performance-enhancing drug issue into society’s illicit drug problem, keeping this story out of the spotlight. Other clubs should take note.
But would the club have handled it the same and kept their noses out of the investigation if it was Scott Pendlebury and Travis Cloke in the spotlight?
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