organised crime and juice of the elephant pt V

[El Diablo]

Smith said WADA and ASADA had worked on the backdated suspensions

 

[Parra]

More concerned with the match fixers than the alleged drug cheats.

 

[Parra]

Perth Red and Mr Spock ain't happy with 3 weeks so if they post enough on an internet forum somehow it may change.

Yet no concern shown for match fixing.

 

[thorson1987]

Come on. If ASADA had absolutely anything substantial there's no way they'd be offering these tiny 3 match bans.

From everything that's come to light it seems the only thing the players are guilty of is naively trusting the poor advice from coaching staff.

This.

The only reason people dispute this is because they have an axe to grind with the Sharks or are death riding them.

 

[The Elephant In The room]

And they have been issued bans. I find the idea of hanging the players out to dry and wanting huge bans though for being naive ridiculous.

Like Bennett I think it was pointed out, a whole squad of players just doesn't go out and choose to aquire banned substances. Now and again you'll get one or maybe two, but never pretty much a whole squad. The decision to give the players the substances has been the responsibility of the coaching staff, and, rightly so the head coach has copped a significant ban.

And you will get a lot of people agreeing with 100%, however unless you enforce doping rules this way there is too big an opportunity for a coaching scapegoat to be used by sporting organisations to get around doping bans (even putting the Sharks situation aside)

As for Bennetts comments, I think he comes across as a very naive man, particularly given his experience. You might not get a team agreeing to pump themselves full of steroids which they know to be banned, but every team is looking for an edge (be it training methods or supplements), and 100% there would be teams looking to push the boundaries of what may or may not be legal and in those circumstances they may not be as vigorous in their enquiries as to what is legal or illegal to take.

 

[El Diablo]

http://www.nrl.com/nrl-statement-on-asada-outcome/tabid/10874/newsid/81241/default.aspx

NRL statement on ASADA outcome

1:03pm Sat 23rd August, 2014

The NRL today confirmed that 12 past and current Cronulla Sharks players have been suspended for breaches of the game’s anti-doping rules.

Each player has been suspended for a period of 12 months backdated to November 23, 2013.

CEO Dave Smith said the suspensions would bring an end to a long and difficult investigation for the players, their families and the NRL.

“There is no room for illegal substances in rugby league and the NRL will take whatever action is necessary to protect the integrity of the game,” he said.

“In this case, the evidence supports the fact that players were misled about the nature of the substances administered to them by people at the Club who they should have been able to trust.

“The suspensions recognise the fact that the players were misled, that the investigation has been ongoing for the past 18 months and that players made timely admissions after being provided with evidence earlier this week.

“But, the players, coaches, staff and administrators are on notice that we have a zero tolerance to breaches of the anti-doping policy.

“Every player needs to be aware that they have to take responsibility for every substance they use and if they want to take a risk with prohibited substances there will be serious consequences.”

Mr Smith said the NRL had already put in place a range of measures - led by the Integrity Unit - to detect and deter doping breaches in the future.

Other new measures include requiring:

Club medical, football and coaching staff to be registered and accredited. This means anyone who is regularly involved with players and can influence their welfare is accountable and bound by the NRL’s Rules. The new accreditation process would ensure the NRL never allows Stephen Dank to have further involvement in the game.
Doctors to report direct to the Club’s Chief Executive Officer and not the head coach. Club doctors must also report regularly and independently to the Club’s board of directors.
All supplements provided to players must be approved by a Supplements Committee Chaired by the Club Doctor.

Mr Smith said the NRL now has one of the most comprehensive drug testing programs in Australian sport

In addition, the NRL is working more closely with ASADA on intelligence gathering processes and will increase its investment in the investigatory functions of the Integrity Unit.

“We are confident that with these new measures we will never again see a repeat of what occurred at the Cronulla Club in 2011,” Mr Smith said.

 

[El Diablo]

Brad Walter ‏@BradWalterSMHhttps://twitter.com/BradWalterSMH/status/503010236295176193
Smith says ASADA & WADA have been working together to get to this outcome of backdated suspensions.https://twitter.com/BradWalterSMH/status/503010236295176193https://twitter.com/#

 

[Noname36]

And you will get a lot of people agreeing with 100%, however unless you enforce doping rules this way there is too big an opportunity for a coaching scapegoat to be used by sporting organisations to get around doping bans (even putting the Sharks situation aside)

As for Bennetts comments, I think he comes across as a very naive man, particularly given his experience. You might not get a team agreeing to pump themselves full of steroids which they know to be banned, but every team is looking for an edge (be it training methods or supplements), and 100% there would be teams looking to push the boundaries of what may or may not be legal and in those circumstances they may not be as vigorous in their enquiries as to what is legal or illegal to take.

Let me put it this way:

You're part of a team and your coach, the bloke that puts his faith in you every week, or your head trainer, give you and all your team mates substances to take saying that they're to help recovery. Meanwhile they already have you taking a million other substances like players take these days so it's not out of the ordinary to be given something new.

Would you really question these blokes that you trust and refuse to take them? You might say you would. You might say you'd look into them, but realistically most players just do as those in charge say and don't question it.

Of course every club is looking for ways to get an edge and push boundaries, but Bennett's point was that the head coach had a duty of care to his players to make sure what they were getting weren't illegal and by giving them the substances the club wasn't endangering their future or reputation in the game like this has done.

 

[El Diablo]

“We are confident that with these new measures we will never again see a repeat of what occurred at the Cronulla Club in 2011,” Mr Smith said.

pity the great David Gallop didn't have these in place which would have stopped this from ever happening

 

[borat]

And they have been issued bans. I find the idea of hanging the players out to dry and wanting huge bans though for being naive ridiculous.

Like Bennett I think it was pointed out, a whole squad of players just doesn't go out and choose to aquire banned substances. Now and again you'll get one or maybe two, but never pretty much a whole squad. The decision to give the players the substances has been the responsibility of the coaching staff, and, rightly so the head coach has copped a significant ban.

Systematic doping of an entire team should result in the team being expelled from the competition IMO, similar to Festina in cycling. Ignorance to dedicated program your employees are running should be no excuse

 

[Noname36]

Systematic doping of an entire team should result in the team being expelled from the competition IMO, similar to Festina in cycling. Ignorance to dedicated program your employees are running should be no excuse

I certainly agree that the club and anyone that played any part in the decision to give them the substances (be it staff or player) should be punished severely. However I don't agree with that kind of punishment for players that were merely ignorant.

When clubs cheat the salary cap the club is often issued fines or sometimes docked competition points but the players themselves don't ever receive personal punishments like bans or getting fined the money they received over the cap.

In this instance the players themselves have received a ban for their stupidity, and given what they've already been through with this crap I reckon that's more than enough.

 

[Mr Spock!]

I certainly agree that the club and anyone that played any part in the decision to give them the substances (be it staff or player) should be punished severely. However I don't agree with that kind of punishment for players that were merely ignorant.

When clubs cheat the salary cap the club is often issued fines or sometimes docked competition points but the players themselves don't ever receive personal punishments like bans or getting fined the money they received over the cap.

In this instance the players themselves have received a ban for their stupidity, and given what they've already been through with this crap I reckon that's more than enough.

In other sports that's too bad and every athlete caught cheating would just be trotting out the old "I didn't know what I was taking"line.

If you're caught with illiegal substances in your body, you're cheating, knowingly or not.

 

[Canard]

Systematic doping of an entire team should result in the team being expelled from the competition IMO, similar to Festina in cycling. Ignorance to dedicated program your employees are running should be no excuse

That would be a ridiculous punishment for fans, and past and present players and administrators.

The individuals responsible should be punished harshly and even the club, but expelling them is over the top.

 

[Pig Champion]

In other sports that's too bad and every athlete caught cheating would just be trotting out the old "I didn't know what I was taking"line.

If you're caught with illiegal substances in your body, you're cheating, knowingly or not.

So who was caught with illegal substances in their body?

 

[Parra]

In other sports that's too bad and every athlete caught cheating would just be trotting out the old "I didn't know what I was taking"line.

If you're caught with illiegal substances in your body, you're cheating, knowingly or not.

And if any of that happened the results of the ASADA investigation would be different.

Turns out that hearsay, conjecture and political expediency just don't cut it as evidence. Apparently this is news to some.

 

[Perth Red]

Perth Red and Mr Spock ain't happy with 3 weeks so if they post enough on an internet forum somehow it may change.

Discussions taking place on a discussion board, who'd have thunk it?:crazy:

 

[Pig Champion]

Discussions taking place on a discussion board, who'd have thunk it?:crazy:

It's the sharks, stupid.

 

[Perth Red]

Club medical, football and coaching staff to be registered and accredited. This means anyone who is regularly involved with players and can influence their welfare is accountable and bound by the NRL’s Rules. The new accreditation process would ensure the NRL never allows Stephen Dank to have further involvement in the game.
Doctors to report direct to the Club’s Chief Executive Officer and not the head coach. Club doctors must also report regularly and independently to the Club’s board of directors.
All supplements provided to players must be approved by a Supplements Committee Chaired by the Club Doctor.

The only good thing to come out of this whole sorry saga.

I think players, administrators and club can consider themselves very lucky they are in a country with such a sht house drugs administration organisation and in a code that has done a good job in manipulating a min impact outcome. If they'd been weight lifters, sprinters or swimmers the outcome would have been very different.

 

[TheFrog]

I wonder how Sandor Earl feels about these 3 week suspensions after being effectively kicked out of the sport.

 

[Parra]

The only good thing to come out of this whole sorry saga.

I think players, administrators and club can consider themselves very lucky they are in a country with such a sht house drugs administration organisation and in a code that has done a good job in manipulating a min impact outcome. If they'd been weight lifters, sprinters or swimmers the outcome would have been very different.

So your another that thinks ASADA is corruptible.

Based on what evidence?