Australian Rules... one for us, and one for others: Opinion Piece by Patrick Smith

[jenny61_99]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...s/news-story/6ac82482c711614a4908ce2012d847c9

A very good read, and right on the money. A snippet:

AFL and NRL clubs stupidly allow witch doctors to run dangerous and illegal peptide and supplement programs yet when confronted with the facts fight any sanctions. That’s Australia applying Australian rules.

The excuses to clear the footballers were plentiful if not logical. The players were duped, Stephen Dank was a “rogue” operator and the players signed confidentiality agreements. Australian rules also applied to the officials and coaches. It was obvious immediately that the people in power at the clubs involved had to stand down or be sacked. But Australian rules are not open to governance considerations. Especially if the folks involved are good blokes.

Yet we scream for justice for our Olympic athlete Jared Tallent who finished second in the 50km walk at the 2012 London Games to Sergey Kirdyapkin. In January 2015 the Russian was found guilty of using EPO from 2009 to 2012 and beyond. The Russian athletic authorities stripped him of medals and titles through that time but left him with the gold medal from London. This cherry picking was overturned by CAS this year and Tallent is now an Olympic gold medallist. And fair enough. That’s this country abiding by international drug rules.

 

[Muggs]

my favourite part is the last paragraph.

"Tallent is rightly now a gold medallist for the same reason Watson can no longer be a rightful Brownlow medallist. Ditch your Australian rules, Gillon, and stand up as a citizen of integrity in international sport."

 

[Linda Lovelace]

One complaint, Mr Smith. What is this 'witch doctor' s**t right before putting 'rogue' in quotations? You are towing the PR line while simultaneously chastising others for doing the same thing.

There are no 'witch doctors' injecting PEDs into athletes. Just people who are paid to do a very specific job.

 

[blackcat]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...s/news-story/6ac82482c711614a4908ce2012d847c9

A very good read, and right on the money. A snippet:

AFL and NRL clubs stupidly allow witch doctors to run dangerous and illegal peptide and supplement programs yet when confronted with the facts fight any sanctions. That’s Australia applying Australian rules.

The excuses to clear the footballers were plentiful if not logical. The players were duped, Stephen Dank was a “rogue” operator and the players signed confidentiality agreements. Australian rules also applied to the officials and coaches. It was obvious immediately that the people in power at the clubs involved had to stand down or be sacked. But Australian rules are not open to governance considerations. Especially if the folks involved are good blokes.

Yet we scream for justice for our Olympic athlete Jared Tallent who finished second in the 50km walk at the 2012 London Games to Sergey Kirdyapkin. In January 2015 the Russian was found guilty of using EPO from 2009 to 2012 and beyond. The Russian athletic authorities stripped him of medals and titles through that time but left him with the gold medal from London. This cherry picking was overturned by CAS this year and Tallent is now an Olympic gold medallist. And fair enough. That’s this country abiding by international drug rules.

Smith doesnt have a clue about doping. Or he is a gatekeeper. I dont think he is a gatekeeper, dont think this is a limited hangout PR shtick .

I just reckon he is as ignorant as all the succour moms out there. i dont know what rupert is paying him, but it is every cent of it, too much.

my favourite part is the last paragraph.

"Tallent is rightly now a gold medallist for the same reason Watson can no longer be a rightful Brownlow medallist. Ditch your Australian rules, Gillon, and stand up as a citizen of integrity in international sport."

tallent was on EPO or transfusions like the rest of them. Australia is just as bad as the rest. You just cant compete when the blood oxygen vectors give you 10% edge. And races like 100 metres swimming and sprinting are won under 0.01 of a single percent differentiation between first and second.

Vinnicombe told me the difference between first and second is random, a circadian rhythm, that i summed up as, which side of bed you got out of this morning.

and when the difference between first and second is completely random it throws up other questions altogether to and about sport

One complaint, Mr Smith. What is this 'witch doctor' s**t right before putting 'rogue' in quotations? You are towing the PR line while simultaneously chastising others for doing the same thing.

There are no 'witch doctors' injecting PEDs into athletes. Just people who are paid to do a very specific job.

exactly, we here are the enablers. marx opium of the masses but instead of a fine gauge insulin hypodermic and best of golden triangle's brown or foil and chasing dragons, this is just the saturday footy record.

 

[jenny61_99]

Smith doesnt have a clue about doping. Or he is a gatekeeper. I dont think he is a gatekeeper, dont think this is a limited hangout PR shtick .

I just reckon he is as ignorant as all the succour moms out there. i dont know what rupert is paying him, but it is every cent of it, too much.

tallent was on EPO or transfusions like the rest of them. Australia is just as bad as the rest. You just cant compete when the blood oxygen vectors give you 10% edge. And races like 100 metres swimming and sprinting are won under 0.01 of a single percent differentiation between first and second.

Vinnicombe told me the difference between first and second is random, a circadian rhythm, that i summed up as, which side of bed you got out of this morning.

and when the difference between first and second is completely random it throws up other questions altogether to and about sport

exactly, we here are the enablers. marx opium of the masses but instead of a fine gauge insulin hypodermic and best of golden triangle's brown or foild and chasing dragons, this is just the saturday footy record.

I don't care. If people cheat because they think everyone else is, it makes them a cheat. Does it make them a bad person? No. But it certainly puts a question mark over their ability to play within the rules. You say the rules are wrong, I disagree. Why? Because you see experimental drugs being used to gain that edge, you see people like Dank searching for loopholes and potentially putting athletes at risk. Maybe it IS the mother in me, but I'd rather my son not forced to make a decision between reaching the elite level or not based on "whatever he takes". I'd rather have a healthy boy playing in the magoos, than a compromised one playing in the As.

 

[MrWusPigs]

i think its the mother in you

 

[Slartibartfast]

For me the main worry about drugs in sport is not that someone gained an unfair advantage but that athletes health and the state of the game are put at risk.
If this was to become the norm like baseball and gridiron it would be a tragedy.

 

[FFC_RoyBoys]

I don't care. If people cheat because they think everyone else is, it makes them a cheat. Does it make them a bad person? No. But it certainly puts a question mark over their ability to play within the rules. You say the rules are wrong, I disagree. Why? Because you see experimental drugs being used to gain that edge, you see people like Dank searching for loopholes and potentially putting athletes at risk. Maybe it IS the mother in me, but I'd rather my son not forced to make a decision between reaching the elite level or not based on "whatever he takes". I'd rather have a healthy boy playing in the magoos, than a compromised one playing in the As.

In one way I am with you in the view that I would rather that players not take the drugs in order to stay in the job. But, that is reflection of my personal views or rules if you like. While there are rules at a superficial level - don't use PED - multi nationals should pay taxes at the same level as other in a society and, if you get caught there is a price to pay. In any event, the reality is that everyone views the rules through their own belief system.

I would venture to say that almost to a person elite sports people are at the extreme end of type a personalities where winning or, more importantly not loosing (at whatever it is they are doing - tiddlewinks - football - card etc) is the number one prime emotional driver of their actions. Even within every team there is a range as well - Luke Hodge or Jordan Lewis at Hawthorn or Glen Archer from North, (I should probably add James Hird as well - even Sheedy marvelled at his desire to win and in doing so had no qualms about putting himself in harms way) or Boomer, from the current era etc etc are all so deeply competitive that they will, as in the case of Hodge currently, continue playing even when they a injured to the point where they should be off the field and in an ambulance. This uber competitiveness is what separates them not only from us but also from their peers. Among other traits Jens Voigt said when asked what it took to be a professional cyclist was that one had to have an unhealthily and absurd opinion of your own ability. This inevitably means that if one is unable to compete it is because the other guys are on the gear - which is actually true. (I have mentioned it before, but it is very worthwhile reading Tyler Hamilton's book - The Secret race - all of the above is written out in graphic detail)

The real rule of professional sport, driven by the owners and the individuals is to do whatever it takes to win. Just as the real rule for multi national companies is to structure their companies to pay no tax if they can possibly do so.

 

[jenny61_99]

i think its the mother in you

So you'd be happy for your kids, your mates to be shooting up all kinds of experimental drugs if it meant they could make the big time?

 

[jenny61_99]

In one way I am with you in the view that I would rather that players not take the drugs in order to stay in the job. But, that is reflection of my personal views or rules if you like. While there are rules at a superficial level - don't use PED - multi nationals should pay taxes at the same level as other in a society and, if you get caught there is a price to pay. In any event, the reality is that everyone views the rules through their own belief system.

I would venture to say that almost to a person elite sports people are at the extreme end of type a personalities where winning or, more importantly not loosing (at whatever it is they are doing - tiddlewinks - football - card etc) is the number one prime emotional driver of their actions. Even within every team there is a range as well - Luke Hodge or Jordan Lewis at Hawthorn or Glen Archer from North, (I should probably add James Hird as well - even Sheedy marvelled at his desire to win and in doing so had no qualms about putting himself in harms way) or Boomer, from the current era etc etc are all so deeply competitive that they will, as in the case of Hodge currently, continue playing even when they a injured to the point where they should be off the field and in an ambulance. This uber competitiveness is what separates them not only from us but also from their peers. Among other traits Jens Voigt said when asked what it took to be a professional cyclist was that one had to have an unhealthily and absurd opinion of your own ability. This inevitably means that if one is unable to compete it is because the other guys are on the gear - which is actually true. (I have mentioned it before, but it is very worthwhile reading Tyler Hamilton's book - The Secret race - all of the above is written out in graphic detail)

The real rule of professional sport, driven by the owners and the individuals is to do whatever it takes to win. Just as the real rule for multi national companies is to structure their companies to pay no tax if they can possibly do so.

Just because others do it, doesn't mean it's right to do.

 

[Bennett.]

Patrick Smith - A good read - Jenny.....

Unholy trinity

 

[deltablues]

I don't care. If people cheat because they think everyone else is, it makes them a cheat. Does it make them a bad person? No. But it certainly puts a question mark over their ability to play within the rules. You say the rules are wrong, I disagree. Why? Because you see experimental drugs being used to gain that edge, you see people like Dank searching for loopholes and potentially putting athletes at risk. Maybe it IS the mother in me, but I'd rather my son not forced to make a decision between reaching the elite level or not based on "whatever he takes". I'd rather have a healthy boy playing in the magoos, than a compromised one playing in the As.

Answer to your bolded Q - Absolutely yes. "Bad" can be defined as something that is below standard or expectations, as of ethics or decency. A cheat falls within that definition. But "bad person" or otherwise, I myself have absolutely no time for cheats, as it indicates a lack of morals/character and a contempt for those who play by the rules.

 

[FFC_RoyBoys]

Answer to your bolded Q - Absolutely yes. "Bad" can be defined as something that is below standard or expectations, as of ethics or decency. A cheat falls within that definition. But "bad person" or otherwise, I myself have absolutely no time for cheats, as it indicates a lack of morals/character and a contempt for those who play by the rules.

So, are Lachlan Keefe and Josh Thomas bad people who lack morals and character?

I have never met either of them, but from the little I have heard they both seem like pretty normal young men to me.

 

[deltablues]

So, are Lachlan Keefe and Josh Thomas bad people who lack morals and character?

I have never met either of them, but from the little I have heard they both seem like pretty normal young men to me.

Personalities to me are immaterial. I reiterate my post.

 

[Shane Hird]

#### you Smith. Turncoat ####.
You can shove your piece of crap paper and eat it down your fat gob.

That's all I have to say about that.

 

[blackcat]

I don't care. If people cheat because they think everyone else is, it makes them a cheat. Does it make them a bad person? No. But it certainly puts a question mark over their ability to play within the rules. You say the rules are wrong, I disagree. Why? Because you see experimental drugs being used to gain that edge, you see people like Dank searching for loopholes and potentially putting athletes at risk. Maybe it IS the mother in me, but I'd rather my son not forced to make a decision between reaching the elite level or not based on "whatever he takes". I'd rather have a healthy boy playing in the magoos, than a compromised one playing in the As.

I am using the term S-M as an idiom, a cypher, it has become bigger than just mothers 61
a S-M is anyone who believes words from Vlad and Gillon and does not see the emperors clothes

 

[blackcat]

So, are Lachlan Keefe and Josh Thomas bad people who lack morals and character?

I have never met either of them, but from the little I have heard they both seem like pretty normal young men to me.

I would have more appreciation if they were really doing coke at the St Kilda festival and the Barkley hotel, versus just taking clen at the lexus centre.

i still like my conspiracy, instead of taking down the big guys like swan cloke and pendles, they just got the small fish at lexus centre. i dont like the conspiracy that pert dobbed them in thinking they were on mere coke and recreational drugs, tho that would have merely entailed a strike on their three strike rulebook. and the got the small fish to pee instead of cloke and swan.

anyhoo, swan it too smart cant catch me

 

[blackcat]

Answer to your bolded Q - Absolutely yes. "Bad" can be defined as something that is below standard or expectations, as of ethics or decency. A cheat falls within that definition. But "bad person" or otherwise, I myself have absolutely no time for cheats, as it indicates a lack of morals/character and a contempt for those who play by the rules.

it is Insider v Outsider rule tho db

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2776569.pdf

 

[jenny61_99]

I am using the term S-M as an idiom, a cypher, it has become bigger than just mothers 61
a S-M is anyone who believes words from Vlad and Gillon and does not see the emperors clothes

Oh I see the clothes. I just don't like the cut or design. It's not what I want to see in the sport I love.

 

[blackcat]

Oh I see the clothes. I just don't like the cut or design. It's not what I want to see in the sport I love.

support the local team or the amateurs 61

simple
problem solved

you dont need to see the football thru a television lens or a murdoch backpage tabloid. if the game and a competition is so important, there will be local teams that will love your support.


*caveat: not assuming you DONT have your local team your family played for, I am assuming you did. so that would have been my false-dichotomy. I was not asserting that tho'.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Yet we scream for justice for our Olympic athlete Jared Tallent who finished second in the 50km walk at the 2012 London Games to Sergey Kirdyapkin. In January 2015 the Russian was found guilty of using EPO from 2009 to 2012 and beyond.

Why do foamers like Smith always make this stupid, false argument?

I’d walk through the CBD tomorrow and ask 1000 people who Jared Tallent is. Be happy to bet 950 of them have never heard of him. And a good number of the 50 - in all honesty, and not in a personal manner - couldn’t give a s**t about which medal he wears.

Where is all this apparent “screaming for justice”?

Irrelevant sports, irrelevant athletes who have nothing to do with the AFL.

Smith just wants to watch the world burn. He’s a congenitally angry dwarf who thrives on controversy and misery.

 

[blackcat]

Why do foamers like Smith always make this stupid, false argument?

I’d walk through the CBD tomorrow and ask 1000 people who Jared Tallent is. Be happy to bet 950 of them have never heard of him. And a good number of the 50 - in all honesty, and not in a personal manner - couldn’t give a s**t about which medal he wears.

Where is all this apparent “screaming for justice”?

Irrelevant sports, irrelevant athletes who have nothing to do with the AFL.

Smith just wants to watch the world burn. He’s a congenitally angry dwarf who thrives on controversy and misery.

i go for a walk everyday, and no one gives me a gold medal. self-important twats. Smith is to sports journalism what Phillip Adams is to social affairs. #numpty and #numpties plural

 

[LoungeLizard]

Why do foamers like Smith always make this stupid, false argument?

I’d walk through the CBD tomorrow and ask 1000 people who Jared Tallent is. Be happy to bet 950 of them have never heard of him. And a good number of the 50 - in all honesty, and not in a personal manner - couldn’t give a s**t about which medal he wears.

Where is all this apparent “screaming for justice”?

Irrelevant sports, irrelevant athletes who have nothing to do with the AFL.

Smith just wants to watch the world burn. He’s a congenitally angry dwarf who thrives on controversy and misery.

It sounds to me it don't matter what's right or wrong to you, as long as one of your own gets to keep his medal.

 

[Underdog]

Why do foamers like Smith always make this stupid, false argument?

I’d walk through the CBD tomorrow and ask 1000 people who Jared Tallent is. Be happy to bet 950 of them have never heard of him. And a good number of the 50 - in all honesty, and not in a personal manner - couldn’t give a s**t about which medal he wears.

Where is all this apparent “screaming for justice”?

Just because the wider community was largely unaware of the issue, doesn't mean there weren't sections screaming loudly.

I certainly heard plenty of protesting and Tallent is largely irrelevant to me.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

It sounds to me it don't matter what's right or wrong to you, as long as one of your own gets to keep his medal.

I've stated many times Jobe should lose the Brownlow now. Grow up, or if you want to give your views on me personally, send a PM (not that I'll respond).

Why don't you answer the question if you want to have a discussion?

Who exactly is Smith accusing of hypocrisy?

Otherwise, stop clogging threads with your bullshit.