Clubs vent fury as ASADA backs off

[Eagles2nv]

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/clubs-vent-fury-as-asada-backs-off-20130320-2gfzc.html#ixzz2O4OsPaUA

Manly have hit out at the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority after being cleared of systemic doping, claiming the ''ridiculous'' decision to name the club as part of its investigation has done untold damage to the Sea Eagles brand.

ASADA informed the NRL that, with the possible exception of Cronulla, there was no evidence to suggest any clubs acted inappropriately in relation to their supplement programs, allaying fears Manly could be stripped of their 2008 and 2011 premierships.

The investigation has shifted to 31 players of interest who may have gone outside the boundaries of their clubs. That news effectively cleared the Sea Eagles, Newcastle, Canberra, Penrith and North Queensland, who were all named in the Australian Crime Commission's report into doping and alleged links to organised crime.

Aside from Cronulla, the spotlight has shone most brightly on Manly, who employed controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank between 2006 and 2010. Fairfax Media does not suggest any wrongdoing by Dank. Manly board spokesman Phil Sidney said his club and others were named without justification.

''What disappoints me is that several clubs were named before this process started,'' Sidney said. ''We've got sponsors and fans and we've had to go into defensive mode. For the club to be named before they have any justification for doing that is quite ridiculous. If you look at ASADA's website, they state they are extremely cautious about naming players before they have evidence of this nature. Yet they seem to be quite free about naming clubs and that can be very damaging.''

Sidney, a co-owner of the club, said the timing of the press conference outlining the crackdown on drugs in sport couldn't have been any worse. ''The fact that it happened before the start of the season meant it had an impact on sponsors, ticket holders, corporate suites, everything,'' Sidney said.

''There has been some damage done and there was no need for any of that to have occurred. We conducted our own internal research but we were confident that the people we had in place had done a fantastic job. The whole structure of the club is based on deterring players from any of that sort of thing.''

Max Delmege, the majority Sea Eagles owner during Dank's tenure, said rugby league fans were the collateral damage when clubs were named. ''Supporters were coming up to me saying, 'Max, are we going to be stripped of our premiership?''' Delmege said. ''It shouldn't have happened like this. Before anybody speaks, people should have their facts.''

North Queensland chief executive Peter Jourdain refused to rule out the prospect of taking legal action. ''We had some preliminary discussions but we'll look at all of what we should look at when the investigation concludes,'' Jourdain said. Like other club bosses, he was content to have been vindicated.

''As we said all along, we were confident that we didn't have any issues as a club,'' Jourdain said. ''There were some tenuous connections to a person of interest, and we provided information that we were asked to provide.''

Canberra chief Don Furner maintained the club's brand had been trashed as a result being mentioned in the ACC report.

''The Canberra Raiders believes it has been vindicated by an announcement today that ASADA's investigation is focusing on individuals rather than clubs,'' Furner said. ''The fact that clubs were named earlier this year placed everyone in a difficult position and we remain disappointed that the Raiders brand was tarnished by the government announcements.

''We always had full confidence in our coaching staff, medical staff, strength and conditioning staff and administrative staff, both past and present.''

Penrith's executive general manager of rugby league, Phil Gould, added: ''We were confident … Panthers never had any cause for concern regarding this matter. Today's acknowledgment simply vindicates those long-held beliefs. We will continue to assist ASADA and the ARLC with their investigations if required to do so.

''We will support any individual player from Panthers, past or present, who may be called upon by ASADA as part of this proposed interview process.
''We have been told several times by ASADA officials that Panthers is a very low priority for them in this investigation.''

 

[manlyfan76]

The original press release was the darkest day in sport and since then it's been 50 shades of grey.

 

[Jado]

what a debacle.....head of the Australian Crime Commission, John Lawler, said yesterday that they did the press conference "because players lives were in jeopardy" then why the frak didn't they make it clear that was what they are announcing for and ensure there were NO clubs or people were named......

cue lawsuit in 3,2,1....

 

[HappilyManly]

ASADA did not name the 6 Clubs.

The Clubs were named by the DT after Dank was named as a person of interest. The DT just sourced what Club's he had been consulting for and arrived at the 6 named Clubs.
David Smith is on records as saying the above - "We did not say there were 6 Clubs, you Journos came up with that list" :

The ACC reasoning that the release was to prevent death is ludicrous.
If that were the case, and now after 6 weeks the Players, in mortal danger are still none the wiser, will the ACC be liable for not preventing self-harm?:dodgy:

Where are the Wikileaks hackers who could do us fanatics a favour and publish the ACC Full Report:huh:

Codeword for the 31 Players - SPARTACUS

 

[niccipops]

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/clubs-vent-fury-as-asada-backs-off-20130320-2gfzc.html#ixzz2O4OsPaUA

Max Delmege, the majority Sea Eagles owner during Dank's tenure, said rugby league fans were the collateral damage when clubs were named. ''Supporters were coming up to me saying, 'Max, are we going to be stripped of our premiership?'''

Have to totally agree with Max here. It's been a hard time for Manly fans to combat the rumours and contemplate losing those premierships after such great wins. Of the six clubs named we have the most to lose and it seemed like most non-Manly people hoped we were screwed. I guess they're still coming to terms with the fact that Manly were that awesome in '08 and '11.
Time to win 2013 now.

 

[Narly]

The other thing that gives me the sh..ts is every time the media do something about drugs in sport. There's our logo.. It's just bloody wrong.

 

[COMMANDER]

Just another sideshow attraction which is a trickle down from the worst government in the history of Australia.

 

[tookey]

The damage to a club's brand will be insignificant compared to if any current players are found guilty and their club loses its competition points for 2013 . Will the clubs sue the players?

I think that the darkest days for league are yet to come which is evidenced by the fact that the NRL is drawing up plans to ask players to move teams so that they can full fill their TV obligations.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

ASADA did not name the 6 Clubs.

The Clubs were named by the DT after Dank was named as a person of interest. The DT just sourced what Club's he had been consulting for and arrived at the 6 named Clubs.
David Smith is on records as saying the above - "We did not say there were 6 Clubs, you Journos came up with that list" :

OMG so Phil Sidney and the rest have got it wrong? Who'd have thought...

The ACC reasoning that the release was to prevent death is ludicrous.
If that were the case, and now after 6 weeks the Players, in mortal danger are still none the wiser, will the ACC be liable for not preventing self-harm?:dodgy:

What? Do you think there are still athletes in Australia who have continued to use PEDs for the last 6 weeks? Don't you think it far more likely that every athlete using PEDs – whether that be 6 or 60 or 600 – stopped within 24 hours of the announcement?

The other point, even explained by Paul Kent on TV tonight, is even more obvious. The phone taps were already in place, and a rather large volume of evidence is likely to have been collected in the wake of and as a direct result of the announcement.

Don't any of you folks watch the cop shows on TV?

 

[MWSE]

All along the media and personalities such as Mark Geyer were screaming for teams and people to be named immediately.... And now they lash out because teams were named? So confused.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

ASADA did not name the 6 Clubs.

The Clubs were named by the DT after Dank was named as a person of interest. The DT just sourced what Club's he had been consulting for and arrived at the 6 named Clubs.
David Smith is on records as saying the above - "We did not say there were 6 Clubs, you Journos came up with that list" :

OMG so Phil Sidney and the rest have got it wrong? Who'd have thought...

The ACC reasoning that the release was to prevent death is ludicrous.
If that were the case, and now after 6 weeks the Players, in mortal danger are still none the wiser, will the ACC be liable for not preventing self-harm?:dodgy:

What? Do you think there are still athletes in Australia who have continued to use PEDs for the last 6 weeks? Don't you think it far more likely that every athlete using PEDs – whether that be 6 or 60 or 600 – stopped within 24 hours of the announcement?

The other point, even explained by Paul Kent on TV tonight, is even more obvious. The phone taps were already in place, and a rather large volume of evidence is likely to have been collected in the wake of and as a direct result of the announcement.

Don't any of you folks watch the cop shows on TV?

Quite true SER, this whole process does have a touch of Police Academy about it

 

[jbb/james]

ASADA did not name the 6 Clubs.

The Clubs were named by the DT after Dank was named as a person of interest. The DT just sourced what Club's he had been consulting for and arrived at the 6 named Clubs.
David Smith is on records as saying the above - "We did not say there were 6 Clubs, you Journos came up with that list" :

The ACC reasoning that the release was to prevent death is ludicrous.
If that were the case, and now after 6 weeks the Players, in mortal danger are still none the wiser, will the ACC be liable for not preventing self-harm?:dodgy:

Where are the Wikileaks hackers who could do us fanatics a favour and publish the ACC Full Report:huh:

Codeword for the 31 Players - SPARTACUS

Correct me if im wrong, but the drugs in question, the peptides are performance enhancing and are not potential killers. They are also available for general use but not for sports persons, but could kill

 

[tookey]

ASADA did not name the 6 Clubs.

The Clubs were named by the DT after Dank was named as a person of interest. The DT just sourced what Club's he had been consulting for and arrived at the 6 named Clubs.
David Smith is on records as saying the above - "We did not say there were 6 Clubs, you Journos came up with that list" :

The ACC reasoning that the release was to prevent death is ludicrous.
If that were the case, and now after 6 weeks the Players, in mortal danger are still none the wiser, will the ACC be liable for not preventing self-harm?:dodgy:

Where are the Wikileaks hackers who could do us fanatics a favour and publish the ACC Full Report:huh:

Codeword for the 31 Players - SPARTACUS

Correct me if im wrong, but the drugs in question, the peptides are performance enhancing and are not potential killers. They are also available for general use but not for sports persons, but could kill

Players have supposedly used warfarin which could easily lead to a player dying from internal bleeding.

 

[Hamster Huey]

ASADA did not name the 6 Clubs.

The Clubs were named by the DT after Dank was named as a person of interest. The DT just sourced what Club's he had been consulting for and arrived at the 6 named Clubs.David Smith is on records as saying the above - "We did not say there were 6 Clubs, you Journos came up with that list" :

The ACC reasoning that the release was to prevent death is ludicrous.
If that were the case, and now after 6 weeks the Players, in mortal danger are still none the wiser, will the ACC be liable for not preventing self-harm?:dodgy:

Where are the Wikileaks hackers who could do us fanatics a favour and publish the ACC Full Report:huh:

Codeword for the 31 Players - SPARTACUS

Wrong.

The ARLC sought advice on what information could be released to the clubs and ASADA informed them that Smith could give the clubs involved advice that they were in the report.

All media outlets then approached every club to confirm whether Smith had spoken with them. It took less than a day for them to establish that it was six clubs involved, and reported as such.

 

[HappilyManly]

Same difference, Media and NOTASADA.
The Topic of this thread is the Clubs misdirected anger at being outed.

The claim by the ACC that some Players injested vetenary drugs, yet none were taken to check the feared adverse effects, is what I find curious.
Yes they probably now stopped, but unless they cleared by a medcal exam,they are still at risk.

The prescription blood thinnes have well known symptoms. So any mishap has a better chance of diagnosis than the vet/exotic drugs.

 

[Rex]

So what you are saying Hamster, is that it wasn't ASADA, and not the NRL, but the media, and some self-serving clubs, who were the messengers.

i.e. If the clubs stuck together then no club would have been named.
And if the media didn't have it's feeding frenzy, then no club would have been named.

It is ironic - and par for the course - that the media have pointed the finger at ASADA, and the NRL, to divert attention away from their own central role in tarnishing the names of the clubs. And people fall for this once again? Seriously? How gullible?

Had to laugh at a certain journalist today demanding that ASADA issue apologies to the clubs for the damage done to the brand of the clubs involved. I guess we'll expect ASADA's apology straight after this journalist apologises to Brett Stewart for what he had said, and what his organisation had said, that was untrue and damaging.

... still waiting.

 

[Stevo]

Hmmmm. Why would any member of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles club give any information to any member of any news outlet?

 

[MadMarcus]

ASADA is responsible for the names of the 6 clubs becoming public knowledge because it advised the NRL it could notify the 6 clubs who were named in the report. Once this happened it was inevitable that the names of the clubs would make it into the public domain.

The media is entitled to ask each club whether or not they were notified that they have been named and the clubs who were not named are entitled to say "no" (why would they say anything else??). From there it was a simple process of elimination.

I can't believe I am saying this, but the media is not to blame for this particular thing. They had a right to make enquiries and the names of the 6 clubs they reported were correct.

However they are of course entirely responsible for the rest of the inaccurate reporting that has occurred around the issue.

 

[Brissie Kid]

ACC admitted in a recent Roy Masters article they tossed enough info into the public domain to help their investigations. They knew full well the RL media would go feral over it & would do their work for them at putting pressure on clubs, officials and players. The AFL media have done very little in comparison.

 

[Rambo1987]

If nothing comes from this - heads should roll because the courts will be busy (I hope)

Wouldn't surprise me the NRL will keep the clubs quiet.