Eels ponder full-time medical chief to take on drug and concussion threats
Margie Mcdonald
The Australian
October 25, 2013 12:00AM
THE combined threats of the peptides scandal and growing concerns over the impact of concussion has led Parramatta to contemplate appointing the code's first full-time chief medical officer.
In what would be a first in the NRL and the AFL, the CMO would be a doctor who would be responsible for all medical services delivered to all grades at the club.
He or she would oversee all player treatment and supplement use and would be charged with ensuring players' health was not put at risk.
"They would have their separate team doctors but it would all funnel up to a CMO," the Eels' new chief executive Scott Seward said yesterday.
"He or she would be responsible for all the medical services of our club in all grades."
While the NRL awaits the full ASADA report into supplements usage at Cronulla (2011) and Manly (between 2006 and 2010), the AFL and Essendon received an interim report in August.
As a result, Bombers coach James Hird, senior assistant Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid were charged by the AFL with bringing the game into disrepute.
The charges against Reid were dropped last month, but the club was excluded from the AFL finals for sanctioning the use of supplements and injections to players, of which Reid had no knowledge.
Four football department staff at Cronulla, including team doctor Dave Givney, were stood down over the supply of some supplements to players. In July they were issued an apology - under the threat of legal action - but the ASADA report may determine if they are reinstated.
"When we look at everything that's happened recently at Cronulla, at Essendon and with Sandor (Earl), it's needed," Seward said of appointing a CMO.
"If Dr Reid at Essendon had been the decision-maker, then that (peptide injections) would never have happened."
Earl, who was stood down by the Canberra Raiders in August, has been issued with an infraction notice by the NRL for using and trafficking performance enhancing substances.
He has admitted to taking peptides in the 2011 pre-season at his former club Penrith, after being told the substance was approved by ASADA and would help speed up his recovery from a shoulder reconstruction.
Earl is the only player in the NRL or AFL to be charged so far.
Seward said equally alarming was what happened in the NFL in the US, where last month four retired players began legal action against the league and helmet makers for concussion-related side-effects to their health.
"You look overseas at the NFL and the concussion issue going on there. That will come to the NRL. It will happen," Seward said.
"I don't know what all the answers are but we're very conscious that sports science, sports research, medical advances, needs to have an absolute, co-ordinated approach."
Reid, Givney and most other club doctors are consultants - they work on game day but have their own private practices.
The Parramatta CMO will be a full-time staff member at the club.
Seward said Parramatta was merely getting on the front foot and expected the Eels' CMO initiative to dove-tail with those the NRL might introduce.
