Autobiographies - The Titles

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mercs2u said:
Chew on this with your collective thoughts.


Risk Management 101 – The Essendon Supplements Soap Opera

By billy_burroo | Published: September 3, 2013
We’ve just come to the end of the Essendon supplements saga (or at least everyone _hopes_ it’s the end), and we can now start to reflect on what, without doubt, has been one of the most damaging sagas in the code’s history.
The negotiated outcome, with Essendon taking responsibility for and being punished for, failures in Human Resources and Governance, but not admitting to using any banned substances, has been designed to make the issue disappear, and to keep it mostly contained to the 2013 season. Allowing everyone to declare 2014 a fresh start. (Although there seems to be a bit of “Mission Accomplished” about that concept, what with the ASADA report still to be finalised, and any criminal charges coming out of the ACC report also yet to be determined, ignoring the expected boos, jeers and general heckling which will follow Essendon for years, if not decades)
That’s all well and good. But if you don’t capture your ‘Lessons Learned’ you’re bound to make the same mistakes again, and it’s not clear that the AFL are willing to explore their role in this to the extent that is required to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was somewhat refreshing to note this week that the AFL took some responsibility (http://www.afl.com.a...-have-done-more); however, if the AFL believe that it’s only failing was not following up on the peptide warning allegedly issued to James Hird, it really isn’t being very reflective.
The warning to James Hird was seen as a key point where Essendon could have and should have stopped its programme of supplement use before it got out of control. According to the charges:
“During that meeting Hird was informed by the AFL’s Manager Integrity Services that peptides were a serious risk to the integrity of the AFL”
What hasn’t been said here is that why the AFL, which recognised peptides as a “serious risk” had no strategies in place to protect the code against the risk which they had identified, beyond the meeting in question. I think the AFL may have failed Risk Management 101.
But first we need to look at the culture that took us to the point where James Hird may, or may not, have been enquiring about peptides (some of which aren’t banned as far as I know anyway), and how the AFL is central to creating the environment where clubs are enquiring about exotic substances to gain a competitive edge.
A quick bit of background, which probably isn’t necessary, but which is relevant. The AFL is one of the most artificially ‘equalised’ sports codes in the world. The concept of equalisation is designed so as to assure competitive matches, and to provide every team a theoretically equal chance of success. To do this the AFL uses a number of tools including the salary cap, limited lists (with required turnover every year), and a draft system designed to give underperforming clubs preferential access to talented players. In extreme cases the AFL has the ability to further tweak things by adjusting salary caps, and by providing priority draft picks. This has led to an environment where clubs are spending significant resources trying to gain advantages in the areas that are not currently controlled by the AFL. Examples of such areas include recruitment, coaching and sports science. Clubs are encouraged to pour money and resources into these areas because they are the only areas where an AFL club can gain an advantage that might help them to win a premiership. (for Victorian clubs that all share home grounds this becomes even more important because they play without a significant ‘home’ advantage, that clubs located interstate enjoy. Note that since 2000 only 1 or 2 sides without a home ground advantage have won a premiership – depending on whether Launceston constitutes a home ground).
So the AFL has created an environment where sports science spending is one of the keys to being successful. In this environment, sports science advances are celebrated widely, and sports scientists are seen as some of the key people in the success of the organisations. Sports science then has become an ‘arms race’ with rich clubs ploughing money into programmes to gain an ‘edge’, and successful clubs being copied by less successful clubs. An example of this is Collingwood’s famous Arizona trips and altitude simulation on return to Australia. These were seen as keys to the club’s superior fitness, and eventually to their 2010 premiership victory. At the time they were seen as innovative and now a large number of other clubs incorporate altitude training into their preparation for the season.
This is one area of sports science, but other areas have also been widely publicised and celebrated. Injection science and exotic supplements are areas where the arms race has forged ahead, and the AFL has not only not recognised the risks, and done nothing to manage them, it has actively encouraged the practices, by allowing them to go unchecked when reported in the media, and by allowing supplement suppliers to become key sponsors to numerous AFL clubs without any hint of warning.
Celebrating Sports Science
So first. The AFL has allowed the idea that cutting edge sports science is critical to success in the AFL to grow over the last decade. Names of the key fitness players at high profile teams roll off the tongue like at no other time in AFL history, and examples of sports science victories regularly fill column inches for the major media outlets. We’re all familiar with the Brent Guerra Orthokine injections story from Grand Final week last year (http://www.theage.co...0924-26hhg.html ) where the concept of setting the pace in injection science was seen as a good news story. But that’s only one example. The next most famous example is Max Rooke, who travelled to Germany for actovegin (you may recognise that as one of the ‘exotic substances’ from the Essendon charge sheet) injections to get over a hamstring injury prior to the 2007 finals series. This is but one of many examples of actovegin use. I like this article (http://www.heraldsun...x-1111116531096 ) as it gives details of Mark Coughlan’s 102 injections in 2 weeks without a hint of condemnation. These articles demonstrate that for a number of years ‘injection science’ and ‘exotic substances’ have been celebrated in the AFL, as they mend broken bodies and get the warriors back on the field. The AFL must have been aware that this was happening, and chose not to act. In hindsight, perhaps they could have spent some more time considering the risks involved. This article (http://www.theage.co...?skin=text-only ) from earlier this year, indicates that the AFL may have been at least naïve, when it came to the risks.

Sponsorships
The next area where the AFL has encouraged an environment of supplement use as a way to gain an ‘edge’ is in the area of sponsorships. My understanding is that the AFL must approve sponsorships. I may be wrong, but the AFL is definitely able to make its feelings known with respect to club sponsorships, and has the ability to influence club sponsorships, and definitely has responsibility for AFL sponsorships.
At this point it’s appropriate to go back to Essendon’s charge sheet. On reading that sheet you will be left with the impression that “peptides” are something that the AFL is not happy with. For example the wording above is reiterated:
“Hird had been informed by the AFL’s Manager Integrity Services that peptides were a serious risk to the integrity of the AFL, in the same category as steroids and HGH”
Or perhaps :
“Reid expressed concern to Hird about the manner in which the Club’s supplements program was being implemented and made specific reference to peptides”
It is clear that the AFL want the reader to understand that peptides are bad.
Why then would the AFL have approved Hawthorn, at that stage the reigning premiers, to receive sponsorship from Ascend Sport in 2009?
Here’s some words from Ascend’s press release dated 11 March 2009 (http://www.ascendspo...stom.aspx?id=63):
This research program underpins the discovery of some unique peptides, some of which are now available exclusively in their ASCEND Elite protein products.
::
“Equally, we are excited at being able to work with professionals such as Andrew Russell who will help us and our customers to learn more about the application of these unique products to some of the countries most elite athletes,” concluded Hobman.
Now I’m not suggesting Hawthorn were using banned peptides. Some peptides are legal. And the word ‘peptides’ doesn’t appear in the WADA code until late 2010, but the S2 section was in place in 2008, and included the “and other substances with similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s)” catch all statement. Would the AFL have been aware that the statements made in Ascend’s press release would walk straight into the core components of a massive controversy five years later? No. But should they have been thinking about it?
It probably would have been extreme to ban Hawthorn from receiving sponsorship from Ascend, but it is worth noting, that by allowing Hawthorn to be sponsored by, and to provide learning opportunities to, a ‘cutting edge’ sports nutrition company, the AFL was sending a message that cutting edge sports nutrition was encouraged by the AFL.
Note. Ascend was not the only sports nutrition company sponsoring AFL clubs in this period. One of the early ‘stories’ that came out as the media combed the AFL for supplements scandals was this one ( http://www.smh.com.a...0207-2e1hu.html ) involving the Fremantle sponsor (2008-2009) Nutrition Systems.
Again, the AFL must have noted the sponsorship deal, without any consideration of the risks to the AFL that ‘sports nutrition’ may contain.
But it’s worse than that. These sponsorships with cutting edge sports nutrition companies appear to have been relatively short term, and ended at approximately the time ‘peptides’ appeared in the WADA code. It is possible that the risks of sports nutrition was starting to become clearer to the AFL in this timeframe. But still supplements sponsorships continue. A quick visit to the Musashi website indicates that they sponsor no less than five AFL teams. (http://www.musashi.c...etes-And-Teams/). A quick scan of their products doesn’t show any products that are necessarily WADA prohibited, but a supplements culture is a supplements culture. And the real story with Musashi is their sponsorship of TAC Cup U18s teams Gippsland Power and Eastern Ranges. The AFL runs the under 18 competition, and sees a supplements company sponsoring an under 18s team as a reasonable option. Let’s think about that for a second.
The AFL appears to believe that a sports supplement company sponsoring Under 18s clubs is appropriate.
It may just be me, but looking up the side affects of creatine or beta-alinine use (both legal) has me thinking that I really don’t want to be exposing 16 year olds to an environment where use of supplements is encouraged. (I have no idea if supplements use is condoned or encouraged on U18s teams, but having the sponsorship creates an environment where junior footballers, with huge incentives to reach certain goals to increase their ‘draftability’, may consider the use of supplements)
These U18 footballers then go on to be AFL players. They have grown up in an environment of visible sports supplements with exotic names. It’s probably unlikely they’ll question the next exotic sounding supplement that a club sports scientist tells them is legal and will help.

Conclusion
To me it is clear, that despite the AFL’s apparent moral outrage about Essendon’s supplement scandal, at no point in the recent past has the AFL cared enough about the ‘arms race’ that was taking place in sports science departments at AFL clubs to do anything about it. Instead, they have celebrated sports science successes, and taken the money that sports supplement companies have been offering, while ignoring the potential risks to the code. Only when the ACC came knocking did the AFL decide supplements were actually bad. And that was too late. Perhaps the AFL needs to look a bit harder at their governance, because it’s not only Essendon that could have done better in that department.


http://collectiveapa...com/blog/?p=307
Click to expand...


U seriously reckon someone will read that?
 
denial, delusion and lies - the EFC bigfooty board

ch.1 maintaining the approved line by denying any alternative thought - the essendon mods

ch.2 displaying openness to outsiders who provide approved thinking - the essendon mods

ch.3 seeking approval of the cult by telling them what they want to hear - kfctiger

ch.4 seeking opinions then scurrying away once it becomes too hard after only one reply - h.lannister

ch.5 trying to appear one of the lads and sharing a joke when one hurtful comment will crush me - h.lannister

ch.6 we have no ******* idea why no one believes us - assorted efc fans

ch.7 glossary - the meaning of negligence you ignorant turds - the rest of the world
 

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DonsRule said:
Giving away my true identity on BigFooty - Rory

:p
Click to expand...


Not giving a rat's tossbags that a bunch of losers like you know.

By R.Cahill
 
Spazz Cat said:
Planet of the rapes: the Stkilda story.
Click to expand...
tumblr_lj7793AUGb1qga2kyo1_500.gif
 
WHAT IS GOING ON? - Moral victories, rape charges, flamin short people and other tales
By St Kilda

WE HAVE WHAT IT TAKES (to grow a beard)
by Melbourne

CLOSE ENOUGH - the art of choking
By Norf
 
PR in the Internet age - hawker83/Hanke
Suck s**t campaigners they think I'm a hero! By James Hird
How to be hated for being right - C Wilson
First rule of business: establish a scapegoat - by Vlad
Corporate knifing in the new age of 'governance' - James Hird
What the * did I do wrong? - The Weapon
Deed poll basics for career shifters- Steve Dank
 
Danks For The Memories...(and later kidney failure)

Learning to love Hawthorn- My Recovery

I Shat in the Kool Aid.
 
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