No Oppo Supporters General AFL discussion and other club news

[phlogiston]

This argument is kind of similar to the pill testing argument at festivals.

If the government sanctions pill testing, are they promoting illicit drug use or are they providing a service to hopefully stop kids overdosing?

Sure you can make an argument they are facilitating drug use, but the purpose of pill testing is to stop people dying. Same argument can be made for safe injecting centres - they facilitate drug use but that is not their primary purpose.

People are going to take drugs, it is inevitable. The AFL are trying to deal with that reality as best they can. Meanwhile the NBA, NFL, MLB, EPL etc. are all running their own programs independent of WADA - ie. allowing all sorts of substances.

Regarding your last point, blood oxygenises are not allowed in competition or out of competition so it is moot point. WADA can ban players at any time for using them.

And the same argument can be made for abortion, and pretty much for anything else where there is (a) demand, and (b) a lack of regulation.

The AFL needs to remember that it is part of a larger ecosystem. Where it has absolute authority stops at the boundary line (metaphorically speaking). The decriminalization of abortion, pill testing at festivals, etc have been introduced by governments to make society safer as a whole. Why is the AFL introducing this partiular approach? I don't think it's for the betterment or safety of society...

FWIW, I used to work in an alcohol and drug unit back in the 80s and 90s (not in a clinical capacity, part time job when at uni), and saw some of the issues first hand that unregulated use can bring. Alcohol, being legal and regulated, gave us many more patients, but the drug patients were in far worse condition, usually because they had no idea what they were really taking.

P

 

[HedgeFund]

Sorry I meant so called senior players, while blind eyes were applied
You don’t think board members are int ‘hazing’?


Bit I think you really knew what I meant. And I’m not into naming, but think of the club and player who comes to mind. Long retired

No - I read what you wrote “clubs” and took it on face value. If you meant so called senior players, why not say so?

As for any retired players involved in hazing, I can only recall Judd being handcuffed to recently drafted Levi Casboult on a boat and heavily drunk in a Xmas break up situation.

It was reported in the media but there was no suggestion drugs were involved.

Shane Mumford apparently sniffed a big white line too a few years ago, but that didn’t involve recruits getting hazed.

So if there’s someone else you’re referring to, I’m none the wiser.

Finally - if the player you’re talking about is “long retired” how is that relevant to what the clubs are doing in 2024?

 

[peetoo]

No - I read what you wrote “clubs” and took it on face value. If you meant so called senior players, why not say so?

As for any retired players involved in hazing, I can only recall Judd being handcuffed to recently drafted Levi Casboult on a boat and heavily drunk in a Xmas break up situation.

It was reported in the media but there was no suggestion drugs were involved.

Shane Mumford apparently sniffed a big white line too a few years ago, but that didn’t involve recruits getting hazed.

So if there’s someone else you’re referring to, I’m none the wiser.

Finally - if the player you’re talking about is “long retired” how is that relevant to what the clubs are doing in 2024?

Because hazed draftees may not have ben users before. And still around. The duty of a safe workplace…as it included acoomodation has often been lax.
Does it happen now? Well you don’t hear of such things until years later

Anyway sorr for not being exact in the first post. I was just pointing out the afl and clubs have a higher duty of care because of the nature of the draft. Or they should have.

Not Ben cousins I don’t think btw. More in the vegeatable patch area

 

[CHUBBSS]

Is there something here or have I misconstrued things…

• The AFL has taken a very serious and hard lined approach to head injuries over the last 10 years with it ever increasing to protect the risk of head injury
• At the same time their have been a number of court cases now brought to the afl related to head injuries
• In that very same timeline maybe further the AFL has been complicit in allowing managing players outside of games to allow them to circumvent drug testing and not have performance bans issued. Knowingly clubs doctors were potentially advised to support this method of managing players and inhibiting the advise on rehab or other treatment measure so they could get out and play
• By the above admission their is a culture of drug taking, also linked to wider society culture but in this case specifically AFL players
• The club doctor solution has been a long term measure to manage this culture? All whilst kids/teens/young adults are being drafted and brought into said culture - now this culture is not all bad but this is one aspect
• It is known substance abuse creates inflammation, including alcohol but in this case not banned, and ongoing innocuous collision impact in afl can be exacerbated due to hydration, inflammation causing more concern for learn term hidden head injuries
• There have been some cases of known CTE in the afl which can be linked to suicide in studies
• This is ongoing, probably even this weekend

Is this a giant strawman argument that the AFL is criminally negligent in their player (worker) welfare management or is there something here?

 

[tommyk72]

Yes Dale was lambasted (probably even by media types who like a snort themselves now and again)

Another aspect of this is impressionable draftees are mandated to go wherever the draft sends them. The AFL aids clubs to impose a drug culture on these players. In one extreme case as a ‘hazing’ or rite of passage. Hopefully this is no more, but it has happened.

This is what is going to be so interesting. My assumption (happy to be proven incorrect) is that most of the groups talking about this on TV/in papers will also not be averse to getting on the gear. Get ready for a sh!tstorm of hypocrisy - from the AFL, from the players association, from the outraged fans, but most particularly from the media.

 

[Walshawk]

This does not concern me at all.

Far fewer AFL players would be doing drugs than than almost any other cohort of 18 - 35 year olds. I doubt that any players do coke during the week, with a plan that they will self report and miss a game. Players want to play above all else.

The system is there to stop players who have slipped up from playing a game whilst positive. For me this is the main thing - you simply can’t have players who have drugs in their system playing games for premiership points.

 

[peetoo]

They probably over egg that they don’t understand kids today


Escobar grandson is carrying on the trade feiw. Nothing new

 

[Mercy Seat]

This does not concern me at all.

Far fewer AFL players would be doing drugs than than almost any other cohort of 18 - 35 year olds. I doubt that any players do coke during the week, with a plan that they will self report and miss a game. Players want to play above all else.

The system is there to stop players who have slipped up from playing a game whilst positive. For me this is the main thing - you simply can’t have players who have drugs in their system playing games for premiership points.

Not sure if it would be far fewer. I would say on par or even higher based on what I’ve seen. The money these guys earn, the spare time, and the cultural acceptance makes it a pretty easy thing to fall into, even on a minor recreational level.

 

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

Lions look s**t house but Collingwood has been given an alright ride by the umps

 

[TylerDurden]

Lions playing Pies into form, just in time for us.

 

[SSSSSS]

Pies are there for the taking.

Seriously they have been rubbish. The Lions have just been worse.

 

[H00t]

Lions playing Pies into form, just in time for us.

Wouldn’t even say the pies have been good. Just the lions have been woeful

 

[SSSSSS]

Wouldn’t even say the pies have been good. Just the lions have been woeful

Their pressure has been elite at least.

Skills have been shambolic from both sides.

 

[SSSSSS]

Hipwood is just a taller more athletic Kosi.

Some of the worst hands I've seen in a bigman.

 

[H00t]

Their pressure has been elite at least.

Skills have been shambolic from both sides.

Level of play reminds me of the eagles-north game last year.

Pies pressure was good while it lasted. Now it’s completely fallen away but Lions have no idea how to score

 

[Viddiot]

I love what Dermie just said on the radio, not an accurate quote at all, but along these lines....'Nick had the chance to get a hand on that, but kept the hand down, probably in self preservation; when taking the hit would have saved a goal.'(sic) Put the body on the line for the team.

 

[QuietB]

Hipwood is just a taller more athletic Kosi.

Some of the worst hands I've seen in a bigman.

Certified potato

 

[macdaddio]

If the Lions can’t win a flag with this much talent on this list then they’re seriously a waste of talent !!!

 

[The hands of stone]

Lions play into there forwardline is terrible , might cost them tonight

 

[RoughysMullet]

BT nearly on the level of Eddie with his Collingwood commentary bias

 

[QuietB]

Jeez the pies are getting the rub

 

[RoughysMullet]

Lions play into there forwardline is terrible , might cost them tonight

Feel like it’s over- at what point is Fages job in jeopardy

 

[badgrill]

Feel like it’s over- at what point is Fages job in jeopardy

Huh?

 

[TylerDurden]

Bris look absolutely bog average.

 

[HedgeFund]

Feel like it’s over- at what point is Fages job in jeopardy

Late 2026