I cant believe this didnt get a run in here.
Soon after the ''blackest day in Australian sport'' press conference on February 7, federal Labor politicians, including ministers, began briefing journalists, telling them how inadequate had been rugby league's response to the ElephantJuice crisis.
''Hopeless'', ''light years behind the AFL'' and ''shithouse administration'' were some of the words used, with the politicians further diminishing the NRL by praising their hero, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou, and his swift move to link the AFL and Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in a joint investigation of Essendon.
It didn't matter the ARLC's new boss, Dave Smith, had been in the job only a week. In fact, he attended an Australian Crime Commission briefing on January 31, a day before his official duties began.
The February 7 press conference was the first time any member of the Cronulla board had heard of the ElephantJuice crisis or sports scientist Stephen Dank. One board member immediately called Sharks football manager Darren Mooney and asked, ''Who is Stephen Dank?''
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He was told Dank had only been at the club ''five minutes'', when, in fact, it had been five months.
The Sharks board moved swiftly, despite the NRL counselling them to go slow. Their prime concern was that this season not begin with a football department facing serious governance issues.
They engaged barrister Trish Kavanagh, a former member of the board of ASADA's predecessor, ASDA, together with their own lawyer Darren Kane. To be doubly certain, they engaged Alan Sullivan, QC, who provided advice which accorded with the Kavanagh/Kane recommendations. Auditors Grant Thornton were engaged to oversee the process, particularly as it related to the degree of culpability of coach Shane Flanagan.
Despite the World Anti-Doping Agency code making athletes responsible for anything that enters their system, the board sought answers. Their critics argue their prime concern was to exculpate themselves from guilt. But management had reported nothing to the board. That is, the ''system'', failed the athlete.
The system - the football department of coaches, trainers and medical staff - was therefore disciplined. The two employees, Mooney and Mark Noakes were terminated and the doctor/physiotherapist, being contractors/consultants, were informed their services were no longer required. Flanagan was initially stood down but when a subsequent forensic investigation into the email trail linking the staffers demonstrated no knowledge of Dank's activities, he was reinstated.
How Essendon would wish they had taken the same action. Seven months after the Cronulla board acted, the AFL has charged their coach, doctor, assistant coach and football manager with bringing the game into disrepute. They stand accused of supervising a program where they cannot demonstrate players were not injected with harmful/performance-enhancing substances.
It is this same lack of governance that prompted the Cronulla board to act. And they had less warning than Essendon, whose chairman, David Evans, was given sufficient information to self-report his club to ASADA and the AFL before the ''blackest day'' press conference when Cronulla directors first learnt of a drug culture at their club.
The Cronulla board's reward was to be voted out at this year's elections, replaced by a board that ran on a ticket of reinstatement of the four sacked officials. The new Cronulla board cited a QC's opinion to justify the reinstatement, yet would not show it to Bruno Cullen, the Sharks chief executive, nor invite him to meetings where the matter was discussed. Cullen, whose salary was funded by the NRL, subsequently resigned, probably with the support of headquarters who would not want to be funding an executive divorced from his board.
The ''blackest day'' press conference was designed to frighten footballers into coming forward. The ministerial ''we will get you'' threat misread the mindset of professional players whose success depends on not panicking and whose culture is not to ''give up'' their mates.
Yet, a month later, when Sharks players were reluctant to accept six-month bans, the politicians were accusing the NRL of incompetence, despite the club board being months ahead of Essendon in taking action.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...-the-sharks-20130820-2s9eh.html#ixzz2cekCbJ38
