'Sarah' can blow me.
Once a Bomber family
Essendon ASADA verdict: Mum’s intuition saves son from deal
CHIP LE GRAND THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 02, 2015 12:00AM
When the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority was desperate for a scalp and the AFL was searching for a way out of its protracted drugs scandal, it took a mother’s instinct to prevent her son from making a terrible mistake.
Stewart Crameri, a former Essendon forward traded to the Western Bulldogs after the Bombers’ ill-fated 2012 season, may well have pleaded guilty and fractured the resolve of former teammates accused of doping had his mother not intervened.
Crameri does not believe he took a banned substance as part of Stephen Dank’s 2012 regime yet the AFL’s speculative offer in January this year of an eight-week ban for a guilty plea was sorely tempting.
Rather than face the uncertain outcome of an AFL tribunal hearing, the talented forward could guarantee his availability for his new club for most of the season.
To understand what was on offer, he need only consider NRL players already back in training after serving token bans.
Crameri’s lawyer, Patrick Gordon, the son of Bulldogs president Peter Gordon, was worried about the strength of the case against his client. Crameri’s father Bernie just wanted the saga to end for his son.
Mandy Crameri, a 59-year-old former schoolteacher from the Victorian country town of Maryborough, was having none of it. “We talked about it as a family,” she told The Australian. “I kept coming back and saying no, you can’t take a deal, you have got to keep pushing through. If you take a deal you will pull everyone down with you. You have got to keep hoping that the truth will eventually come out.”
When ASADA first offered a six-month deal to all 34 players in June last year, it paid special attention to Crameri in the belief he would be more likely to cop a plea than footballers still playing at Essendon. ASADA expected Crameri to jump at the offer of a six-week ban and for others to quickly follow. It didn’t believe it would ever have to prove its case at a hearing.
What ASADA didn’t realise is Mrs Crameri held no fear for what its investigation had found. In February 2012, when Essendon players were asked to sign consent forms to be administered with four substances including the Thymosin peptide at the centre of the doping case, Crameri took the form home to his mum. Together, mother and son researched the various substances and checked their status on the WADA website. Mrs Crameri says their belief then and now is the Thymosin administered by Mr Dank was a natural supplement also known as Thymomodulin. “I am a great believer in eating properly and doing the right thing by your body,” she said. “I couldn’t see there was any problem with it.”
Mrs Crameri believes ASADA chief executive Ben McDevitt’s rhetoric since the collapse of the doping case continues to distort what happened at Essendon. Mr McDevitt has accused Essendon of treating its players like pincushions by administering “hundreds if not thousands of injections”.
Mrs Crameri said injections were only a problem if they contained banned drugs.
Once a Bomber family
Essendon ASADA verdict: Mum’s intuition saves son from deal
CHIP LE GRAND THE AUSTRALIAN APRIL 02, 2015 12:00AM
When the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority was desperate for a scalp and the AFL was searching for a way out of its protracted drugs scandal, it took a mother’s instinct to prevent her son from making a terrible mistake.
Stewart Crameri, a former Essendon forward traded to the Western Bulldogs after the Bombers’ ill-fated 2012 season, may well have pleaded guilty and fractured the resolve of former teammates accused of doping had his mother not intervened.
Crameri does not believe he took a banned substance as part of Stephen Dank’s 2012 regime yet the AFL’s speculative offer in January this year of an eight-week ban for a guilty plea was sorely tempting.
Rather than face the uncertain outcome of an AFL tribunal hearing, the talented forward could guarantee his availability for his new club for most of the season.
To understand what was on offer, he need only consider NRL players already back in training after serving token bans.
Crameri’s lawyer, Patrick Gordon, the son of Bulldogs president Peter Gordon, was worried about the strength of the case against his client. Crameri’s father Bernie just wanted the saga to end for his son.
Mandy Crameri, a 59-year-old former schoolteacher from the Victorian country town of Maryborough, was having none of it. “We talked about it as a family,” she told The Australian. “I kept coming back and saying no, you can’t take a deal, you have got to keep pushing through. If you take a deal you will pull everyone down with you. You have got to keep hoping that the truth will eventually come out.”
When ASADA first offered a six-month deal to all 34 players in June last year, it paid special attention to Crameri in the belief he would be more likely to cop a plea than footballers still playing at Essendon. ASADA expected Crameri to jump at the offer of a six-week ban and for others to quickly follow. It didn’t believe it would ever have to prove its case at a hearing.
What ASADA didn’t realise is Mrs Crameri held no fear for what its investigation had found. In February 2012, when Essendon players were asked to sign consent forms to be administered with four substances including the Thymosin peptide at the centre of the doping case, Crameri took the form home to his mum. Together, mother and son researched the various substances and checked their status on the WADA website. Mrs Crameri says their belief then and now is the Thymosin administered by Mr Dank was a natural supplement also known as Thymomodulin. “I am a great believer in eating properly and doing the right thing by your body,” she said. “I couldn’t see there was any problem with it.”
Mrs Crameri believes ASADA chief executive Ben McDevitt’s rhetoric since the collapse of the doping case continues to distort what happened at Essendon. Mr McDevitt has accused Essendon of treating its players like pincushions by administering “hundreds if not thousands of injections”.
Mrs Crameri said injections were only a problem if they contained banned drugs.
