Organised crime and ElephantJuice in sport investigation part IV

[El Diablo]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...ncussion-threats/story-fnca0von-1226746307291

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.

 

[Perth Red]

Games got too much money. Was a time when a glass of stout and a steak was all the supplements you got and a cold sponge on the neck dealt with any concussion, smelling salts if it was bad one.

 

[gronkathon]

True but if you watch guys like Ray Price talk it is all worth it to stop this generation turning into that

 

[High Flyers]

Games got too much money. Was a time when a glass of stout and a steak was all the supplements you got and a cold sponge on the neck dealt with any concussion, smelling salts if it was bad one.

Without using that money to upgrade the medical resources supplied to our players you leave yourself at risk of being sued just like the recent case in the NFL.

Stick your head in the sand if you like, its happening right infront of you. Times are a changing, proud my club no matter how rubbish on/off the field is leading the way!!

 

[El Diablo]

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/asada-hits-deadend-with-gazelle-20131109-2x8eg.html?rand=1383998142949

ASADA hits dead-end with Gazelle

Date
November 10, 2013

Danny Weidler
Sport columnist

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority is revving up its hunt for some of the big names in the supplements scandal but in one of its keenest chases, officials have hit the wall. ASADA has been calling Darren ''The Gazelle'' Hibbert non-stop in the past week. There have been an average of five calls a day to try to get information from the man who was Stephen Dank's assistant when he was at the Sharks in 2011. ASADA officials have previously fronted at Hibbert's house unannounced, leaving him rattled and angry. He didn't assist them then and, given the way he was treated, it is hard to see them getting any help now. ASADA investigators have also been calling his employer to try to track him down. They requested his phone number from his boss; it seems unusual to say the least that ASADA would not have already had his phone number before last week given the big announcement about its investigation was in February. It was clearly aware of his address. ASADA has now approached Hibbert's legal team - he shares the same lawyers as Dank - and you can be certain it will be told exactly what Hibbert told it some months ago - that they will speak to ASADA in court.

 

[elbusto]

All quiet on the western front. This investigation appears to resemble the 'road to nowhere'.

 

[El Diablo]

All quiet on the western front. This investigation appears to resemble the 'road to nowhere'.

apart from this in the AFL http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/st...o-speak-to-asada/story-fnelctok-1226751578438

Stephen Dank's offsider to speak to ASADA

Carly Crawford
From: Herald Sun
November 01, 2013 11:00PM

A PHARMACIST who worked closely with Essendon's former sports scientist Stephen Dank is to co-operate with anti-doping investigators.

The evidence of Nima Alavi, the compound pharmacist who prepared substances for Dank during his time at Essendon, is seen as crucial.

"I am certainly planning to assist ASADA," he said in a statement to the Herald Sun.

"I am completely on board with them."

Mr Alavi, who runs South Yarra's Como Compounding Pharmacy, declined to comment any further.

ASADA is examining both AFL and NRL clubs over concerns players may have been given banned substances in the nation's biggest ever sports doping scandal.

The Herald Sun understands ASADA intends to apply its new coercive powers to Dank and up to three others.

These powers can compel people to supply documents that are relevant to any ASADA investigation.

Formal doping charges against the Bombers remain a possibility.

Mr Alavi has intimate knowledge of which substances Dank was supplied with in 2011 and 2012, when he ran the Essendon Football Club's supplements program.

There are still questions about whether the prohibited substance Thymosin beta 4, also known as TB4, was used.

ASADA is building a circumstantial case that includes evidence from a media interview Dank gave in April, and correspondence from "Dr Ageless" biochemist Shane Charter, who sourced some substances for Dank and who worked with Mr Alavi.

There has been continuing speculation about whether ASADA would formally issue infraction notices to the Bombers.

Deputy AFL chief Gil McLachlan said in August it would take "definitive new evidence'' for the Bombers to incur formal doping penalties.

Mr McLachlan was speaking after the AFL sanctioned Essendon for bringing the game into disrepute.

The league fined the club $2 million and sidelined coach James Hird until 2015.

The Bombers will be denied picks in the upcoming draft as part of their punishment over the supplements saga.

Dank has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

carly.crawford@news.com.au

 

[Parra]

True but if you watch guys like Ray Price talk it is all worth it to stop this generation turning into that

The only good thing to happen during the Eels fiasco of the past few years has been more air time for Price & Kenny. The board should've let them coach the team for the last month of the comp.

 

[POPEYE]

All quiet on the western front. This investigation appears to resemble the 'road to nowhere'.

League investigations are nothing without revelations and revelations rely on discord, so as you say, all is quiet on the western front . . . all we need though is a stray bullet

 

[El Diablo]

http://www.news.com.au/national/asa...er-investigation/story-e6frfkp9-1226768200221

ASADA on double time with 52 athletes under investigation

8 hours ago November 26, 2013 12:00AM

A TOTAL 52 athletes are being investigated for potential illegal drug use, according to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's annual report.

Although the sports involved are not revealed, insiders say there is little doubt some would be NRL and AFL players and cyclists.

The number of athletes under investigation is almost double the previous year's tally.

ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska said the fall-out from the Australian Crime Commission report into ElephantJuice in sport, made public in February, would not be ending any time soon.

"The investigation and its associated enforcement activities will continue into the 2013-14 financial year," Andruska wrote in the annual report, which was released yesterday.

"The investigation is both complex and wide-ranging. To date we have reviewed more than 50,000 documents and interviewed over 150 athletes and support people," she said.

"This is a major undertaking in such a short period of time when you consider comparable anti-doping investigations conducted here and overseas."

The ASADA report says there were a total of 7376 drug tests in 2012-13 - both government-funded and user-pays - conducted across 42 sports.

From those, 306 were flagged by the intelligence team for further discussion. That then narrowed down to 191 and then finally to 52 cases elevated "for full investigation" as possible doping violations.

That figure is almost double the 28 investigations from 2011-12 (from 7196 tests) and well over the 21 from 2010-11.

Andruska's comments confirm the fears of at least four NRL clubs - Cronulla, Canberra, Manly and Penrith, where staff and players have been interviewed by ASADA - that the investigation into the supply and use of illegal supplements would drag on into the 2014 football season.

ARL Commission chairman John Grant said in October he feared the investigation would not be finalised until next year.

Initially there was hope ASADA could hand down its full NRL report after the World Cup final - which will be played between Australia and New Zealand early on Sunday morning - and before Christmas.

There is speculation a full AFL report will be finalised before Christmas. An interim report into the use of supplements and peptides at Essendon was released in August. No players were sanctioned but head coach James Hird was stood down for 12 months, assistant Mark Thompson was suspended for four months, and football manager Danny Corcoran was fined $30,000 by the AFL.

The only player in either code to be handed an infraction notice is former Canberra Raiders winger Sandor Earl, who was charged by the NRL with using and trafficking an illegal peptide.

 

[carcharias]

wow.
during all this time what other things have come and gone?

An entire season of footy is one thing.

That dude who held those girls prisoner for 10 years was arrested , convicted , his house destroyed and he also managed to kill himself.

Blake fergo has played State of origin , got pissed on breezers on a roof, been sacked, been arrested a few times , become a professional boxer and changed religion .

Taylor Swift has ploughed through about 17 boyfriends.

Farnsie has retired and made a comeback.

charlotte dawson has unsuccessfully tried to neck herself a few times.

A bloke I work with got his chick knocked up and they have actually had the kid now.

 

[The Elephant In The room]

"That figure is almost double the 28 investigations from 2011-12 (from 7196 tests) and well over the 21 from 2010-11."

So how many of those 28 & 21 sports people were charged in prior years as a result of said investigations? The # of investigations is irrelevant at the end of the day. Convictions are all that matters.

"There is speculation a full AFL report will be finalised before Christmas. An interim report into the use of supplements and peptides at Essendon was released in August. No players were sanctioned but head coach James Hird was stood down for 12 months, assistant Mark Thompson was suspended for four months, and football manager Danny Corcoran was fined $30,000 by the AFL."

Why does the cynic in mean think that the report will be released Christmas eve given no news papers to report on it the following day.

 

[NrlCoach]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...nt-talks-exposed/story-fni5f6kv-1226774538768

EXCLUSIVE: SECRET documents and a bombshell email have lifted the lid on behind-the-scenes inducements offered to Essendon and James Hird as the AFL worked frantically to pressure him to accept ElephantJuice scandal penalties.

The Herald Sun can reveal that days before the August 26-27 AFL Commission hearing was due to consider penalties, deals were being proposed by Australia's top government-appointed sports official, John Wylie. A document emailed by Wylie to Essendon chairman Paul Little on the night of August 23 outlined potential settlement terms as the crisis threatened to spill into the Supreme Court. Wylie, the Australian Sports Commission chairman, suggests: "Hird as senior coach takes responsibility for the inadequate governance and oversight within the club's football department that gave rise to this situation.

"It is however acknowledged …. to the best of the AFL's knowledge and belief, Hird did not promote or encourage an unethical environment within the club; Hird has not brought the game into disrepute. "In the totality of the circumstances, the AFL will impose, and Hird will accept, a 12-month suspension from all coaching duties." In a separate document presented to Hird on August 23, amid negotiations between Wylie and Little, the Essendon coach is offered "an outstanding career development opportunity" in return for dropping his legal action against the AFL. Offers of "no player sanctions'' and "no double jeopardy'' despite an ASADA investigation are discussed.

Wylie said last night: "I was requested by both Paul Little and (AFL Commission chairman) Mike Fitzpatrick, in the first instance by Paul, to assist in communications between the AFL and Essendon at a time when *direct communication between them was difficult."
League spokesman James Tonkin said last night: "Numerous discussions took place at different levels in a bid to resolve the matter as quickly and appropriately as possible." An offer to allow Hird to receive a full salary while serving a 12-month ban was also *discussed. The document presented to the Essendon coach reads: "Charge of bringing game into disrepute dropped. 12 months suspension starting now.''

It states Hird could also keep his place in the AFL Hall of Fame and be "acknowledged by the AFL as a legend of the game". In exchange for the offers, the document says Hird therefore "withdraws all legal action immediately'' . A string of revelations to be published in the Herald Sun and The Australian over the coming days raises major perception issues surrounding the integrity and the outcome of both the ElephantJuice probe and the AFL Commission hearing. AFL chief Andrew Demetriou said on August 7: ``To suggest the AFL Commission and the people on the commission would somehow predetermine an outcome is offensive and just plain wrong.''

Essendon chairman Paul Little says outgoing coach James Hird accepted the penalties for the good of the club. It is not known if all AFL commissioners were aware of Wylie's involvement or of proposed inducements at the time they were asked to sign off on the final resolution against *Essendon and its four officials on August 27.

Little last night confirmed the talks with Wylie. He said: ``John Wylie is a longstanding personal friend and we discussed possible strategies for settling the dispute.'' Hird is understood to have rebuffed the inducements put on the table on August 23, only to accept a 12-month suspension four days later under fierce pressure and fearing that he would be banished from the game and his club. There were also discussions about sending Hird to Oxford University in England, where both Wylie and Fitzpatrick are Rhodes scholars.

Hird later independently applied to attend the exclusive Fontainebleau business school in France, passing an entrance exam in Singapore. He has just returned from his $120,000 MBA studies. Sources have questioned why Wylie as chairman of the Sports Commission - which works with the Australian Sports and Anti-Doping Authority to fight drug cheating and which promotes integrity in sport - was drafted into pre-hearing bartering with the approval of AFL Commission chairman Fitzpatrick. Proposed penalties for Mark Thompson, Bruce Reid and Danny Corcoran are also stated in correspondence, with Thompson cleared to coach again in 2014.

A club fine of $1.5 million and the deduction of 12 premiership points "so as to miss the finals" are also documented. The club was ultimately fined $2 million and relegated to ninth on the AFL ladder. Hird and Fitzpatrick did not return questions from the *Herald Sun.

 

[taipan]

Ohhhh!!! FFfffffffffffffffffrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkk.
Mission to control,we have a problem.:shock:

 

[tumbidragon]

Scumbaggery all round from Wylie & friends...

 

[age.s]

Wait, you meant to tell me, the AFL of all organizations, tried to sweep a major controversy under the carpet?

What a surprising and totally unexpected development...

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

Corruptionball.
The game they play in Victoria.

So Dave Smith has let ASADA do what they have to with no interference & let the investigation run its course.
But the man in charge of the AFL has tried everything in his power to interfere/sweep/call in favours etc to make this go away.
I will Vomit if I hear the word "INTEGRITY" associated with that sport ever again.

 

[Perth Red]

Seriously dodgy, he's spent all day denying everything!

 

[El Diablo]

what would you expect from a mate of Ian Macdonald's

 

[El Diablo]

excellent article

http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/...supplements-scandal-probe-20131207-2yybo.html

Hard to see past AFL spin over supplements scandal probe

Date
December 8, 2013

Tim Lane
Columnist

With Mitchell Johnson's pace dominating the Ashes series and Warnie's best work now done in the commentary box, spin is in short supply. But have no fear: modern footy administration is more than capable of filling the vacuum. AFL boss Andrew Demetriou rolled up the sleeves during the week and showed that, as well as having a handy leggie, he has a wrong 'un, too.

Back in mid-September, Jacquelin Magnay, an experienced and respected reporter of international sporting affairs, wrote with certainty in the News Corp press that: ''ASADA officials are preparing the legal paperwork to issue infraction notices to at least seven AFL players and officials …''

For Essendon and the AFL this foreshadowed a deeply concerning development to the ongoing supplements scandal. Not surprisingly, Demetriou was soon asked about it.

Speaking on Fairfax Radio, he responded: ''It is the first I'd heard of it, so what we did do was check with ASADA [the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority] and representatives of the federal government and they both assured us that they were unaware of anything of that nature.''

Fast-forward to the past week when discussion about infraction notices has occurred within a different context. Extraordinary claims of an AFL guarantee that sanctions would not be imposed on Essendon players were met with a differently spun Demetriou delivery.

''There is absolutely no guarantee,'' he said. ''We have been very clear and transparent in this, that this is an ongoing matter for ASADA. They have said very clearly that they left the case open, that they plan at some point in time to talk with Stephen Dank and whoever else they plan to talk to, and on that basis the matter is still open.''

For the AFL, this was a particularly uncomfortable component of the week's coverage. The accusation that the football administration could, or would, seek to exert any form of influence over the matter of infraction notices and sanctions is devastating.

Clearly, a slew of suspensions issued against Essendon players would represent a catastrophe for the game. The reputational and financial damage would be enormous. But this is a country that has long demanded of others the highest standards on the treatment of doping in sport.

That we adopt those standards ourselves, no matter the consequences, should be non-negotiable. Anything less would place the administration responsible in the category of cycling, weightlifting, athletics - even Olympic - administrations, which Australians have caustically and contemptuously criticised for their failures in the area.

This is a part of what is proving to be a disastrous issue for the AFL. And it has no one to blame but itself. The more that emerges from the Essendon supplements story, the stronger the impression of the football administration's culturally entrenched inclination to seek to get what it wants.

Protocol-be-damned if that's what it takes.

In this case, it appears to have felt the need to produce an outcome it regarded as satisfactory within a certain time limit; namely before this season's finals. And evidence continues to mount that, from the outset, it has regarded as a priority the protection of Essendon's players from sanctions.

These twin issues have embroiled the chairman of the Australian Sports Commission, the respected John Wylie, in the controversial story. And they continue to raise questions about the judgment and performance of ASADA throughout the affair.

The nature of Wylie's involvement, first reported by Roy Masters in Fairfax Media, cannot but be questioned. The public is entitled to ask why the chairman of Australia's peak sports administrative body would seek to negotiate an outcome in a doping case under investigation by ASADA.

Many have also asked why ASADA - a body which it goes without saying must remain disinterested within its investigations - would allow a sports administration to be at something closer than arm's length to an important case.

For, while strictly speaking, the AFL should be a disinterested party, the reality is that it has an enormous organisational, reputational, and financial stake in the outcome.

Demetriou has described the parallel ASADA/AFL inquiries as a template for all sports into the future. I would venture to say that most with an interest in sports tainted by doping would be horrified at this possibility. If nothing else, the experience of the past nine months underlines the need for total transparency and independence in such investigations.

For without them, how can justice be seen to be done?

Perhaps Demetriou and his chairman Mike Fitzpatrick don't grasp the absolute requirement for global public confidence in the integrity of anti-doping investigations. If they do, perhaps they don't get that just because they say the AFL is capable of acting in a disinterested way, doesn't mean the public believes it.

I would assert there is a growing crisis of public confidence, and just because the AFL says it is ill-founded doesn't mean it will go away. Certainly, as with Australian cricket in the post-Warne era, spin alone won't do.

good to see the NRL acting with integrity unlike this mob of crooks