Shoe1
Journey Man
Sorry for new thread but the others are well and truly hijacked..
The Tele is now printing contrary views:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/drug-scandal-guesses-allegations-and-predictions-hurt-our-five-big-sports/story-e6freuy9-1226579754788
DAVE Smith, get back on that stage. Fix the damage done to your game and say you were conned. Say we were all conned when huff-puffing politicians two weeks ago suggested Australian sport was riddled with drugs, criminals and allegations of match fixing.
As NRL chief, say it alongside the other four sports bosses bluffed into posing as guilty men at the government press conference.
Get them all back on that stage - Smith, the AFL's Andrew Demetriou, rugby union's Bill Pulver, soccer's David Gallop and cricket's James Sutherland.
Announce that you - the Big Sport Five - now believe huge damage was done on the basis of little more than guesses, allegations and predictions. Say you have a duty to fix the damage you helped cause by legitimising the press stunt with your presence.
Let's recall how we were first sold the Australian Crime Commission's report into organised crime and sport - one suspiciously short of evidence and names. Justice Minister Jason Clare, flanked by the Big Sport Five, thundered: "It shocked me."
Sports Minister Kate Lundy warned: "Today is about the integrity of sport in Australia ... If you want to fix a match, we will catch you."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the allegations "sickening".
To Richard Ings, former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority head, this was "the blackest day in Australian sport".
Two weeks later, what do we now know of a smear that dirtied the name of Australian sport around the world? What do we know of the claims that have shattered Essendon's pre-season preparation, besmirched six NRL clubs, insulted our athletes, damaged sponsors' investments and shaken confidence in sports betting?
We know this: there is so little that no state has an active police investigation into any allegation.
"There is little to investigate," Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said last week.
In NSW, police have suspended an investigation into a single claim of illicit drug use and say no player is likely to face charges.
Indeed, just two men have so far been publicly implicated. One is sports scientist Steve Dank, who said the ACC actually told him he'd done nothing wrong.
Dank is launching a $10 million defamation suit against media outlets he said falsely claimed he'd administered illegal performance-enhancing drugs at Essendon.
Former Hawthorn star Trent Croad, meanwhile, says he's suing The Age for falsely linking him to "a peptide supply deal" and "outlaw bikie gang".
So what of that claim from Clare two weeks ago? That "multiple athletes from a number of clubs in major sporting codes are suspected of using or having previously used peptides, potentially constituting anti-doping rule violations".
In fact ASADA - whose tip-off started the ACC investigation - now concedes not one of those athletes failed a drug test.
"There is not a positive test anywhere in any of this," said chief executive Aurora Andruska.
And what of Andruska's claim that 150 players and officials would be grilled? Turns out that was little more than a guess.
"A lot of pressure has been put on me in recent times to try to come up with a number, particularly from the media," said Andruska.
"So I decided to come up with some number that was realistic with the information I had at the time."
The allegations of match fixing are even more of a joke.
They reportedly boil down to a single claim against one NRL club, yet not one big betting agency has been asked to turn over betting records for investigation.
For a while the media retailed suspicions about an A-League game with $49 million in bets from Asia.
The story ran for days, until the Football Federation Australia announced the plunge was actually just one-eighth that figure. The source of the media claim meant Hong Kong dollars, not Australian. Even ACC head John Lawler, who first suggested the press conference which launched the smear, now concedes "the extensive media publicity is unfortunate ... if people feel as though they've been unduly tarnished".
Lawler also seems to suggest the ACC is just fishing and its real concern is not drugs in sport but organised crime, and how it might infiltrate sport. "It was my judgment that action needed to be taken to alert the public, to alert those criminals who were involved in the supply of these substances."
Why alert criminals if you have hard evidence against them? And why smear sport today on the basis of what criminals might do tomorrow? True, the ACC's phone taps might now be running hot. People may yet be charged, as the ACC predicts.
But wouldn't that be the time for press conferences? When there's evidence? For now, there is nothing to justify the damage done to Australian sport. So, Dave, on your feet. Up on stage. Say so.
Also
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/how-labor-hijacked-sports-bosses-at-organised-crime-and-drugs-in-sport-report-press-conference/story-e6freuy9-1226580675107
Andrew Bolt and Miranda Divine are the paper equivalent of shock jocks, but some valid points
The Tele is now printing contrary views:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/drug-scandal-guesses-allegations-and-predictions-hurt-our-five-big-sports/story-e6freuy9-1226579754788
DAVE Smith, get back on that stage. Fix the damage done to your game and say you were conned. Say we were all conned when huff-puffing politicians two weeks ago suggested Australian sport was riddled with drugs, criminals and allegations of match fixing.
As NRL chief, say it alongside the other four sports bosses bluffed into posing as guilty men at the government press conference.
Get them all back on that stage - Smith, the AFL's Andrew Demetriou, rugby union's Bill Pulver, soccer's David Gallop and cricket's James Sutherland.
Announce that you - the Big Sport Five - now believe huge damage was done on the basis of little more than guesses, allegations and predictions. Say you have a duty to fix the damage you helped cause by legitimising the press stunt with your presence.
Let's recall how we were first sold the Australian Crime Commission's report into organised crime and sport - one suspiciously short of evidence and names. Justice Minister Jason Clare, flanked by the Big Sport Five, thundered: "It shocked me."
Sports Minister Kate Lundy warned: "Today is about the integrity of sport in Australia ... If you want to fix a match, we will catch you."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the allegations "sickening".
To Richard Ings, former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority head, this was "the blackest day in Australian sport".
Two weeks later, what do we now know of a smear that dirtied the name of Australian sport around the world? What do we know of the claims that have shattered Essendon's pre-season preparation, besmirched six NRL clubs, insulted our athletes, damaged sponsors' investments and shaken confidence in sports betting?
We know this: there is so little that no state has an active police investigation into any allegation.
"There is little to investigate," Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said last week.
In NSW, police have suspended an investigation into a single claim of illicit drug use and say no player is likely to face charges.
Indeed, just two men have so far been publicly implicated. One is sports scientist Steve Dank, who said the ACC actually told him he'd done nothing wrong.
Dank is launching a $10 million defamation suit against media outlets he said falsely claimed he'd administered illegal performance-enhancing drugs at Essendon.
Former Hawthorn star Trent Croad, meanwhile, says he's suing The Age for falsely linking him to "a peptide supply deal" and "outlaw bikie gang".
So what of that claim from Clare two weeks ago? That "multiple athletes from a number of clubs in major sporting codes are suspected of using or having previously used peptides, potentially constituting anti-doping rule violations".
In fact ASADA - whose tip-off started the ACC investigation - now concedes not one of those athletes failed a drug test.
"There is not a positive test anywhere in any of this," said chief executive Aurora Andruska.
And what of Andruska's claim that 150 players and officials would be grilled? Turns out that was little more than a guess.
"A lot of pressure has been put on me in recent times to try to come up with a number, particularly from the media," said Andruska.
"So I decided to come up with some number that was realistic with the information I had at the time."
The allegations of match fixing are even more of a joke.
They reportedly boil down to a single claim against one NRL club, yet not one big betting agency has been asked to turn over betting records for investigation.
For a while the media retailed suspicions about an A-League game with $49 million in bets from Asia.
The story ran for days, until the Football Federation Australia announced the plunge was actually just one-eighth that figure. The source of the media claim meant Hong Kong dollars, not Australian. Even ACC head John Lawler, who first suggested the press conference which launched the smear, now concedes "the extensive media publicity is unfortunate ... if people feel as though they've been unduly tarnished".
Lawler also seems to suggest the ACC is just fishing and its real concern is not drugs in sport but organised crime, and how it might infiltrate sport. "It was my judgment that action needed to be taken to alert the public, to alert those criminals who were involved in the supply of these substances."
Why alert criminals if you have hard evidence against them? And why smear sport today on the basis of what criminals might do tomorrow? True, the ACC's phone taps might now be running hot. People may yet be charged, as the ACC predicts.
But wouldn't that be the time for press conferences? When there's evidence? For now, there is nothing to justify the damage done to Australian sport. So, Dave, on your feet. Up on stage. Say so.
Also
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/how-labor-hijacked-sports-bosses-at-organised-crime-and-drugs-in-sport-report-press-conference/story-e6freuy9-1226580675107
Andrew Bolt and Miranda Divine are the paper equivalent of shock jocks, but some valid points