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Organised crime and drugs in sport investigation part III

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Ernest the Sheep

Juniors
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362
elbusto said:
Heard an interesting interview this morning on ABC where the 'sports expert', (cannot remember his name but he is a NSW rah rah type) stated two things:

1. That the AFL's ASADA venture has been blighted by the massive egos involved particularly at Essenbong; and

2. WADA have apparently expressed uneasiness about the interference in process occurring in ASADA investigations in Australia. I assume he means all of the media statements by affected parties - see 1 above.

The second comment interested me as that scrawny little man Gerard Whately was on morning National ABC TV news yesterday basically exonerating the players to the nodding heads of the Victorian news panel (who looked relieved).

The news today is that the best chance the players have of getting off any charges is that the comprehensive regime at Essenbong was 'poorly recorded' (I will find that quote).

Lets just hope that Cronulla were just as bad at keeping records as Essenbong - apparently that is the best chance some of the players will have.

The Herald Sun has about 8 pages devoted to this issue today with the more logical reporters noting that this has killed the season, and will make the finals a farce if Essenbong are included.

I think we had best hope the Sharks run a good 9th.
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the 'sports expert' is self proclaimed, no doubt. What has really blighted this whole unpleasant business is the way it was politicised from day one. You can blame corrupt sociopathic ALP politicians for that. It's not easy to launch an investigation when the 'desired' outcome has been determined before hand. As for wada's apparent concerns, tough titty. The constant leaking of information from asada is hardly a good look, it has to be said. It also needs to be pointed out that fahey is a professional parasite who has not had a proper job in over a quarter of a century.
 
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Ernest the Sheep

Juniors
Messages
362
Danish said:
Why would it matter if it is an individual sport or not?

A track runner has just as many coaches, nutritionists, managers, etc all employed to control their training as a team sport player. In fact one could argue that an individual sport competitor would actually be MORE inclined to put their trust in the advice of their support staff given the much more personal relationship they would have with them.

Bottom line is if you are legally an adult, then you are legally responsible for your own intake. There can be no exceptions.

Banning a competitor for being injected with PEDs that they weren't aware of might seem unfair to the individual, but thats not what the ban is about. The ban is about maintaining the integrity of the sport itself, and having athletes running around who have been assisted by PEDs - regardless of whether or not they knew they were taking them - destroys that integrity.
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An athlete in an individual sport knows he's on his own. He has no team mates, there is not the same comradery as in a team sport. I'd think the relationship between individual sport athletes and their coaches, nutritionist etc would be more a one-one basis than in team sports.

Why the great need to ban an individual competitor, especially in a team sport? How about just punishing the club? Stripping points and ruining their season would seem a fairly significant deterrent, don't you think?
 
carcharias

carcharias

Immortal
Messages
43,120
Hello said:
Through all of history, there is no evidence that democracy has any really benefits above dictatorships, socially or economically.
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um

been plenty of dictators had their heads cut off...while presidents and prime ministers have retired or just been voted out instead.
I'd call that a social difference/benefit.
 
Parra

Parra

Referee
Messages
24,900
carcharias said:
um

been plenty of dictators had their heads cut off...while presidents and prime ministers have retired or just been voted out instead.
I'd call that a social difference/benefit.
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You want to cut the heads off prime ministers?
 
magpie4ever

magpie4ever

First Grade
Messages
9,992
Ernest the Sheep said:
hahaha!! yeah right. Sure you have,OR maybe you're just a sad little fantasist who gets off on big noting himself in here!??
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I reckon, I would be a long way down the list given some of the posters on here. I'm just trying to put forward a logicial, unbias view of the investigation which I hope captures any cheats in sport.
 
Newcastlerabbit

Newcastlerabbit

Coach
Messages
14,937
EXCLUSIVE BY JOSH MASSOUD AND JAMES HOOPER THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 17, 2013 12:00AM

A SYRINGE seized during the police bust of former Newcastle Knights prop Danny Wicks ignited suspicions of performance enhancing drug use in the NRL.

While Cronulla have been the most scrutinised NRL club since ASADA’s drugs-in-sport investigation was unveiled
in February, The Daily Telegraph can reveal the unprecedented probe has its roots in Newcastle.

A special investigation has confirmed that NSW police discovered a syringe while executing a search warrant of Wicks’ former Charlestown residence during the 2009 Christmas period.

Police were led to believe the syringe contained a variety of synthetic Human Growth Hormone (hGH), which is banned for use under the WADA code.

Further inquiries by the police disclosed that Wicks obtained the hGH through Newcastle’s physiotherapist at the time, Martin Boyd.

A servant of the club for the previous 18 years and its full-time physio since 2001, Boyd suddenly quit his long-term post in February 2010 due to “personal reasons”.

The Daily Telegraph can also confirm Knights players had discussed the use of peptides as far back as the 2010 season, with ASADA investigators aware of a meeting at a Newcastle pub.

It’s believed around half a dozen Knights players attended the meeting, most of whom are no longer contracted to the club.

It is unknown whether the players acted on the information.

The police search was conducted as part of Strike Force Welham, which was established to monitor a supply ring of illegal amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy in the Grafton area.

Wicks was arrested in Newcastle on December 16, 2009.

He later pleaded guilty to three drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to an 18-month non-parole prison term in
October, 2011.

Wicks was released in March this year and declined to comment through his agent last night.

Boyd also refused to directly respond to The Daily Telegraph’s inquiries.

However, Boyd did participate in a police interview at his home in early 2010 with the investigation’s lead detective, Craig Semple.

It’s believed he told police he supplied Wicks with the hGH during that interview.

Danny Wicks on the attack for the Knights. Picture: Mark Evans
Boyd then met with Knights officials, including former CEO Steve Burraston and football manager Warren Smiles, to inform them in February 2010.

Burraston on Friday night confirmed the meeting with Boyd, but declined to detail the reason behind his resignation.

"Yes I had discussions with Martin at the time and he resigned from his post for personal reasons," Burraston said.

Shortly after resigning Boyd told a reporter that he’d been interviewed by police over the Wicks case, but did not disclose why.

"Two very professional detectives asked to speak to me about a matter unrelated to Danny Wicks’ current charges,” Boyd told The Newcastle Herald on February 26, 2010.

Danny Wicks
Former NRL star Danny Wicks at the beach in Yamba on his first day of freedom after spending 18 months in jail over drug conviction. Picture: Nathan Edwards
"I answered the questions at my home and at the end of those questions they said they didn’t need to take it any further."

ASADA did. The Daily Telegraph can confirm ASADA met with Boyd to discuss his dealings with Wicks in late 2011.

Boyd claimed that Wicks approached him about hGH, which he was able to obtain through a network of contacts within a Newcastle gym.

Wicks paid Boyd for the product, but the physiotherapist told ASADA he had nothing more to do with the prop after that.

Boyd also maintained it was the only time he’d supplied hGH to a team or staff member of the Newcastle Knights.

Around the same time ASADA spoke with Boyd, the antidoping watchdog had been receiving information from sources close to the Knights that several players were discussing use of peptides.

Sources close to the investigation have identified a meeting at a Newcastle pub, believed to be held during the 2010-11 offseason, as one of the first times players discussed the use of peptides as a group.

The meeting was held without the knowledge of former NRL coach Rick Stone or any other club official and there is
no suggestion of systemic doping at the club.

Instead the issues relate to players possibly sourcing their own supplements, with the bulk of activity believed to have
taken place prior to Wayne Bennett’s arrival at the end of 2011.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...ing-drugs-in-nrl/story-fni3gf5j-1226698713883
 
El Diablo

El Diablo

Post Whore
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94,107
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...risk-of-collapse/story-fnca0u4y-1226698786742

Doping probe at risk of collapse

by: CHIP LE GRAND
From: The Australian
August 17, 2013 12:00AM

THE Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's six-month investigation into the alleged systematic use of peptides at AFL club Essendon and Cronulla in the NRL is at risk of collapse if lawyers acting for James Hird succeed in challenging the legality of ASADA's decision to involve the major football codes in its search for evidence of doping.

The Weekend Australian can reveal the NRL reluctantly agreed, under pressure from ASADA, for one of its officials to be present during player interviews at Cronulla. The presence of the NRL's newly appointed integrity boss, Nick Weeks, during last week's interviews of Sharks players is modelled on the role played by AFL investigator Abraham Haddad during interviews of Essendon players and officials.

Weeks, a respected lawyer and administrator, and Haddad, a former UN investigator, bring impressive credentials to the ASADA probe.

Haddad's presence during the Essendon interviews allowed investigators under AFL rules to seize the mobile phones of Essendon officials, including Hird.

However, ASADA's decision to conduct joint investigations with the AFL and NRL into the use of peptides in their respective codes has exposed ASADA to the possibility that it is operating in breach of its own Act and the National Anti-Doping Scheme.

Hird's legal team, led by prominent human rights barrister Julian Burnside QC, this week foreshadowed the legal challenge, which will be launched once the bitter dispute between the AFL and ASADA inevitably finds its way into the Victorian Supreme Court.

Catherine Ordway, a former ASADA legal head and director responsible for intelligence-gathering, testing and investigations, said the joint investigation was a departure from normal practice. "This has been unusual where the AFL has been front and centre in this investigation," she told The Weekend Australian. "They are usually kept much more at arm's length."

Martin Hardie, an administrative law expert with Deakin University now advising Cronulla and Essendon on the complexities of anti-doping codes, said ASADA being in league with the leagues ran contrary to its statutory obligations and contradicted one of the fundamental reasons the anti-doping body was created seven years ago.

"They wanted to set up a system where a sport might refer a problem to ASADA but ASADA would run the investigation and testing process," Hardie said. "Once they had done that and decided there was a case to answer, they would send it to this Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel. After they made their decision of a possible violation, then it gets given to the sport to do the disciplinary process.

"The whole purpose of ASADA was to keep sport out of that process. On the basis of that, it seems wildly inconsistent with the ASADA Act that they can then do a joint investigation."

ASADA was established by the Howard government, with the support of Labor, after a doping conviction against cyclist Mark French was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. At the time, the Australian Sports Drug Agency had limited investigative powers and the case against French was stymied by a lack of co-operation from cycling officials.

Howard government minister Kevin Andrews, in his second-reading speech in support of the ASADA Bill in December 2005, underlined the need for an anti-doping investigator independent from sports bodies.

"The establishment of ASADA will mean that sports, athletes and the public can have complete confidence that doping allegations will be investigated and pursued in an independent, robust and transparent way," Andrews told the federal parliament. He went on: "In framing the proposed ASADA legislation, the issue of safeguarding athletes' rights was a prime consideration.

"Accordingly, the ASADA Bill attaches strict conditions to the receipt and disclosure of sensitive information from Customs, the Australian Federal Police and other law enforcement bodies. For example, disclosure must not contravene the terms of Customs' initial disclosure to ASADA, and sports in receipt of such information must give an undertaking that any use of the information on its part must be for anti-doping purposes and will not occur in a way prejudicial to the subject of the information."

Hird's primary case against ASADA -- and by extension the potentially career-threatening AFL charge against him of conduct unbecoming or prejudicial to the interests of the AFL -- hinges on whether ASADA broke its own act by including the AFL as an investigative partner and whether its 400-page interim report, which forms the basis of the charges against him, contravenes the confidentiality provisions of the National Anti-Doping Scheme.

On Tuesday this week, the day the charges against Hird were announced, his lawyers wrote to ASADA questioning the validity of the interim report and seeking an explanation of how ASADA was permitted to disclose to the AFL confidential information about Essendon players and staff gathered as part of an anti-doping investigation. The letter went on to pointedly question why ASADA's disclosure of the report did not breach a section of the ASADA Act that sets out its confidentiality provisions.

A breach of these provisions, either by ASADA officials or the AFL officials who received the information, attracts a penalty of up to two years' jail.

The entire case against Essendon, Hird, his senior assistant coach Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid is currently being stored electronically in an AFL "data room" accessible from inside AFL House or by remote password. This includes the ASADA interim report and 14,000 attached documents, Ziggy Switkowski's damning report on Essendon's management of the supplement regime, full transcripts of 130 interviews conducted by ASADA, and the relevant AFL rules, regulations and codes.

Missing from the data room is documentation -- if it exists -- that sets out the terms and nature of the joint ASADA/AFL investigation and how it confirms with the statutory obligations of the anti-doping authority.

If Hird succeeds in his legal challenge against ASADA, all material other than the Switkowski report would be inadmissible as evidence.

In recent days the AFL has indicated it could substantiate the charges against Essendon and its officials based on Haddad's own summation of the witness interviews and the Switkowksi club-commissioned report, rather than relying on the ASADA interim report. This sits at odds with AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou's public comments confirming he and all AFL commissioners have already read the ASADA report. The AFL also made clear that Andrew Dillon, the league's general counsel, would base his decision on whether to lay charges on his assessment of the ASADA report.

With both sides of politics absorbed in the election campaign, ASADA's handling of its investigation into Essendon and Cronulla has attracted little comment from Canberra. Whatever the result of the election, the incoming sports minister will want assurances that ASADA has not compromised its independence or damaged its standing by linking arms with the AFL, and now the NRL, on its pursuit of peptides.

Where ASADA is meant to conduct its affairs with strict confidentiality, its investigation of Essendon has leaked like a faulty burette. As Hardie said: "Information is not being kept confidential. Whoever is leaking this, whether it is the AFL or the cops or ASADA, is subject to two years' jail."

The AFL this week confirmed that on the evidence gathered by ASADA, no Essendon player has an anti-doping case to answer. Now for the case against ASADA.
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T

The Elephant In The room

Bench
Messages
4,980
IIRC ASADA can't themselves issue penalties regarding doping breaches, they only issue recommendations to the sport themselves and the sport in question issues the sanctions. But Hirdy and his lawyers don't want the AFL to get a copy of the interim report? What do you want them to do with it James? Give it to you for some nighttime reading and walk away? FMD

As for the leaks, it's about time they stopped and those leaking the info punished to the full extent of the law. But the leaking of info is irrevlevant when the body potentially influenced by the leaks (the AFL), was going to get a copy if it anyway.
 
thorson1987

thorson1987

Coach
Messages
16,907
The AFL should never have been given an interim report.

They should not have any info on the investigation until it is complete.
 
E

ek999

First Grade
Messages
6,977
Interesting that Essendon's defence isn't about denying the charges. If they didn't do anything wrong they wouldn't need to question the investigation
 
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