Hot Topic Off The Books Illicit Drug Test Claims in Bombshell AFL ‘Cover-Up’ - Injuries Faked To Evade Game Day Detection

Remove this Banner Ad

Sorry rushed for time today….

Can someone succinctly explain what the drugs news is about…what secret tests?

Thank you in advance
in a nutshell, players known to have used some drugs have "secret" afl test prior to the WADA test. If the AFL test comes back positive, then the player claims a last minute injury so is not picked and therefore no WADA test.
 
Too many clubs saying, we have no knowledge of this happening. Garbage!

So player A tells doc he had a bender on the weekend and doc tells him to get tested. Test is positive for coke so player A takes a week off for ‘general soreness, bruised leg’, and the club/coach don’t ask questions??? Come on…

As an employer, I would want to know that the person I’m paying is turning up to work to WORK, if they have a problem tell me and we will fix it or I will manage you out of the business.

In a clubs case, trade you, so you don’t make us look like a basket case (see CG and who has left/traded)…

Too much gambling, government, sponsor, members money in the club for this to be a thing. Integrity is everything when it comes to sporting clubs…
 

Log in to remove this ad.

That is all fair and reasonable. The bit that I cannot stomach is the AFL SECRETLY doing the testing and providing inaccurate reasons for a player not playing. It now means that any player not playing for any personal reason or for hamstring tightness or some other not physically obvious reason is now under suspicion.

Happy for the AFL to have this illicit drug testing regime but 1. don't make it secret, 2. record a positive finding as a 'strike' as in the illicit drug 3 strike policy, 3. record a players absence as 'substance abuse recovery' or something similar (and make it at least a 2 week absence from playing). Affected players may not like it but a little bit of 'sunlight' is a very good disinfectant. You would hope that the vast majority of players and supporters would accept this and be supportive of the affected player and be there to help ensure they don't continue to offend and potentially impact on their long-term health.

If the suspect players don't like that and want to continue their lifestyle choice then let them risk wearing the 4 year suspension when they test positive on game day.
It’s all voluntary though. The AFLPA would never agree to what you propose
 
You just know it’s the end of days for the Carlton FC if this is Carlton. The league will remove our license, boil down our trophies down to dust and hand * and Collingwood the 2001-2003 flags just because Michael Voss coached us.

If we have been doing it too the President and anyone else involved in it needs to be removed from the club.
 
Even the NFL frequently bans players due to the "Health and Wellness Policy" (iirc that's what it's called) i.e. drugs, just without specifics, for several weeks.

That is worlds better than what is alleged the AFL is doing.
They're the ones you hear about. I can assure you that there are plenty you don't. They also don't work with USADA. If you want to see what coke, steroids and concussions will do to a bloke, you could watch what happens when Warren Sapp got hungry and went to the staff canteen :D

During my time there, we'd often have a Monday morning scrum about the incidents of the week and what the strategy would be if the story got out into the mainstream press. The NFL limits direct media access to players and club facilities in a very tightly controlled manner as they know what happens when you combine young athletes, stardom, and cash. These kids work for 32 billionaires that are very protective of their investment.
 
What about the ones we traded/delisted? What's our responsibility there?

You can lead a horse to water…

As I said in an earlier post, you are employed to do a job, if there is a problem tell us and we will help. If you can’t be helped we will manage you out of the business…

We can only tell you so many times what’s right and wrong, you chose this industry so conform or you’re out…

How many chances does one need??
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Feels like a massive beat-up, unless there's more going on behind the scene that hasn't yet been reported.

Players being able to self-report has been a thing for ages.
Players only run the risk of being "caught" if they're subject to a test on gameday.
Club doctor discreetly tests players who self-report, and if they test positive they sit out. This protects the player from a potential positive game-day test and ban, and to an extent protects the integrity of the competition by pre-emptively ensuring a player with potential PEDs in their system doesn't take the field.
No club wants to list a player as "Out: Cocaine", nor should any player be outed like that...otherwise they'll stop self-reporting. So they use a fake excuse for the player's unavailability - personal reasons, minor injury, general soreness, managed, whatever.

Nobody is breaking any rules (except the players taking illegal drugs, I guess), it's just the AFL protecting its image and the integrity of the game (in a way), and protecting the reputation and privacy of the players involved.

I think the only ones who have any right to feel aggrieved would be the coaches who may have players missing games for falsified reasons. They'd probably feel like they have a right to know if a player is routinely unavailable because of a drug habit so that they could a) support the player directly, b) enlist the help of senior players or club staff to support the player further, and in extreme cases c) direct the List Management team to cut a player whose habit is disrupting the team's efforts.

The Media and Fans will gnash their teeth about the secrecy, but that's only because the media are solely motivated by content generation, and the fans feel like they should know everything. The Media can * right off with their vested interest in drama, and the Fans can * right off with their incessant collective bleating.
 
Feels like a massive beat-up, unless there's more going on behind the scene that hasn't yet been reported.

Players being able to self-report has been a thing for ages.
Players only run the risk of being "caught" if they're subject to a test on gameday.
Club doctor discreetly tests players who self-report, and if they test positive they sit out. This protects the player from a potential positive game-day test and ban, and to an extent protects the integrity of the competition by pre-emptively ensuring a player with potential PEDs in their system doesn't take the field.
No club wants to list a player as "Out: Cocaine", nor should any player be outed like that...otherwise they'll stop self-reporting. So they use a fake excuse for the player's unavailability - personal reasons, minor injury, general soreness, managed, whatever.

Nobody is breaking any rules (except the players taking illegal drugs, I guess), it's just the AFL protecting its image and the integrity of the game (in a way), and protecting the reputation and privacy of the players involved.

I think the only ones who have any right to feel aggrieved would be the coaches who may have players missing games for falsified reasons. They'd probably feel like they have a right to know if a player is routinely unavailable because of a drug habit so that they could a) support the player directly, b) enlist the help of senior players or club staff to support the player further, and in extreme cases c) direct the List Management team to cut a player whose habit is disrupting the team's efforts.

The Media and Fans will gnash their teeth about the secrecy, but that's only because the media are solely motivated by content generation, and the fans feel like they should know everything. The Media can * right off with their vested interest in drama, and the Fans can * right off with their incessant collective bleating.
This is the best recap I’ve seen.

Wada/sia won’t care.

The afl know

The clubs have plausible deniability (more like wilful ignorance)

The players get to avoid embarrassment.
 
Feels like a massive beat-up, unless there's more going on behind the scene that hasn't yet been reported.

Players being able to self-report has been a thing for ages.
Players only run the risk of being "caught" if they're subject to a test on gameday.
Club doctor discreetly tests players who self-report, and if they test positive they sit out. This protects the player from a potential positive game-day test and ban, and to an extent protects the integrity of the competition by pre-emptively ensuring a player with potential PEDs in their system doesn't take the field.
No club wants to list a player as "Out: Cocaine", nor should any player be outed like that...otherwise they'll stop self-reporting. So they use a fake excuse for the player's unavailability - personal reasons, minor injury, general soreness, managed, whatever.

Nobody is breaking any rules (except the players taking illegal drugs, I guess), it's just the AFL protecting its image and the integrity of the game (in a way), and protecting the reputation and privacy of the players involved.

I think the only ones who have any right to feel aggrieved would be the coaches who may have players missing games for falsified reasons. They'd probably feel like they have a right to know if a player is routinely unavailable because of a drug habit so that they could a) support the player directly, b) enlist the help of senior players or club staff to support the player further, and in extreme cases c) direct the List Management team to cut a player whose habit is disrupting the team's efforts.

The Media and Fans will gnash their teeth about the secrecy, but that's only because the media are solely motivated by content generation, and the fans feel like they should know everything. The Media can * right off with their vested interest in drama, and the Fans can * right off with their incessant collective bleating.

Isn’t self reporting an automatic strike???
 
FFS its time to end this charade, Zero Tolerance is the only way forward. Being a Professional Athlete is Optional, Getting Jacked up on the secret sauce is also optional, the 2 cannot go together. Immediate cancelling of your contract if found guilty, just like you would if you were a wife/gf beater or committed a serious indictable offence like wilful homicide.

Make them all sign a memoradum of understading when they are drafted that use of illicit drugs whilst in the AFL system will result in immediate voiding of all contracts. At the beginning of every week whilst they are not on leave that they have to have a video recorded declaration that they understand their obligations to stay off the juice and they understand consequences of not doing so.

Enough of this Shiiite, if they want to use still hit up then get out of the AFL system , theres plenty who are willing to replace them
 
This is the best recap I’ve seen.

Wada/sia won’t care.

The afl know

The clubs have plausible deniability (more like wilful ignorance)

The players get to avoid embarrassment.

And yet one of your employees is missing 1-4 weeks with a ‘hammy’ because he had his nose on a line of coke??

You as a supporter should be pissed that one of your players is missing for this very reason.

‘Helping players’, give me a spell…

Do it in the premier league and you’re outed and guess what, they never do it again…
 
FFS its time to end this charade, Zero Tolerance is the only way forward. Being a Professional Athlete is Optional, Getting Jacked up on the secret sauce is also optional, the 2 cannot go together. Immediate cancelling of your contract if found guilty, just like you would if you were a wife/gf beater or committed a serious indictable offence like wilful homicide.

Make them all sign a memoradum of understading when they are drafted that use of illicit drugs whilst in the AFL system will result in immediate voiding of all contracts. At the beginning of every week whilst they are not on leave that they have to have a video recorded declaration that they understand their obligations to stay off the juice and they understand consequences of not doing so.

Enough of this Shiiite, if they want to use still hit up then get out of the AFL system , theres plenty who are willing to replace them
Not sure too many players are getting ‘jacked up’ on coke
 
Isn’t self reporting an automatic strike???

Not sure - seems that you register a strike if you test positive, but it's unclear when that test would need to occur, and who would administer it.

I suspect that the "strike on self-report" was based on players self-reporting to the AFL. Seems this unofficial loophole has been set up to avoid that - the player reports to their club doctor who is not obligated to disclose the information to the AFL. The player/doctor/club then ensure the player is unavailable for selection, ensuring there is no need for a gameday test.

You'd assume that it's still a deterrent for players - if they're self-reporting to the doc every second week and taking themselves out of selection consideration that frequently then their career will be short-lived anyway. Probably works a little like a strike - doc tells the player they need to either get off the gear or be a hell of a lot smarter about when they choose to get on it, otherwise their position in the team and on the list would be at risk. There are probably a stack of players who've utilised the loophole once or twice over a period of years, and I doubt there would be many, if any, who are using it frequently without drawing the ire of their club and coach.
 
And yet one of your employees is missing 1-4 weeks with a ‘hammy’ because he had his nose on a line of coke??

You as a supporter should be pissed that one of your players is missing for this very reason.

‘Helping players’, give me a spell…

Do it in the premier league and you’re outed and guess what, they never do it again…

Organisations sporting and otherwise have tried it that way for years and years. It doesn’t work. Players still do it.

It’s not 1-4 weeks, cocaine leaves your system in a few days, so anybody missing more than 1 game doing this has repeated their transgression back to back weeks.

I was a manager of a busy pub for several years. Mostly young crowd, multiple afl players were regulars. Drug use is everywhere, regardless of profession. If we kicked out everyone doing Coke on a Saturday night we’d lose 70% of our business, and that’s not an exaggeration.

The clandestine nature of players being recommended to lie about the nature of their absence is the ONLY issue I have with this policy
 
Organisations sporting and otherwise have tried it that way for years and years. It doesn’t work. Players still do it.

It’s not 1-4 weeks, cocaine leaves your system in a few days, so anybody missing more than 1 game doing this has repeated their transgression back to back weeks.

I was a manager of a busy pub for several years. Mostly young crowd, multiple afl players were regulars. Drug use is everywhere, regardless of profession. If we kicked out everyone doing Coke on a Saturday night we’d lose 70% of our business, and that’s not an exaggeration.

The clandestine nature of players being recommended to lie about the nature of their absence is the ONLY issue I have with this policy

So tell me, how do I explain this to my 8 year old when asked the question, especially when they are already getting educated about what’s right and wrong??

If you do something wrong, you need to be accountable.

Just out them and let them deal with the fallout just like Elijah Holland had to when caught in possession!
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top