AFL - Untrustworthy Organisation !

[pussycat]

AFL lost trust of ASADA, NRL managed drugs scandal better

This story was published: 7 hours ago June 24, 2015 3:30PM



Stephen Dank was at the centre of Australia’s greatest doping scandal.

THE AFL’s reputation as the best managed sport in Australia took an absolute hammering during the ASADA storm, while the NRL proved it is no longer a basket case.

This is the conclusion reached by former ASADA chief Aurora Andruska revealed in an explosive new book.

News.com.au has attained an exclusive extract of author Chip Le Grand’s The Straight Dope — an inside account of the Essendon and Cronulla doping scandals — released today.

The extract below reveals the extent to which the AFL’s joint investigation with ASADA into Essendon’s 2012 supplements program derailed the entire process


NRL chief David Smith, former ASADA CEO Aurora Andruska and former Sports Minister Kate Lundy held regular meetings. Source: News Limited


THROUGHOUT the doping scandal at Essendon and Cronulla, there was a widespread misconception about the AFL and the NRL and their preparedness to tackle drugs in sport.

Where the AFL was seen as a natural ally of ASADA, the NRL was considered a problem child.

Having dealt with both codes throughout the most testing of circumstances, former ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska believes the reality is very different.

“When I first came to ASADA people said you can trust the AFL, you can’t trust the NRL,’ former ASADA chief executive Aurora Andruska says.

Although the AFL was the last professional sports body to adopt WADA’s protocols, when the drug scandal breaks it is the AFL rather than the NRL that is perceived to wear the white hat in anti-doping matters.

On 7 February 2013, the use of prohibited peptides is assumed to be more widespread at NRL clubs than AFL clubs.

The AFL has an in-house integrity unit in place, the NRL doesn’t.

ASADA has established a close working relationship with the AFL in a way it hasn’t with the NRL.

The AFL is more sophisticated than the NRL in the work it is doing developing blood profiles of players and gathering other anti-doping intel.

By the time Aurora Andruska leaves ASADA, her view of the respective codes has changed entirely.


Although the AFL is quick to join ASADA’s investigation into Essendon, Andruska soon doubts the league’s motives.

Where the NRL, for the most part, leaves ASADA to do its work, the anti-doping body feels intense pressure from the AFL to complete its investigation into Essendon before the 2013 finals series.

In contrast to the AFL tactic of seeking to influence ASADA through government back channels, NRL chief executive Dave Smith and his deputy Jim Doyle hold weekly telephone hook-ups with Andruska and her senior staff every Friday.

The NRL is kept informed of any developments in the investigation but do not meddle in ASADA’s work.

After ASADA’s decision to provide an interim report to the AFL triggers a damaging falling out between the investigative partners and, very nearly, a Federal Court dispute, ASADA refuses a request from the NRL to provide a similar report.

The NRL, not for the first time, is frustrated at perceived bias. However, it takes ASADA’s advice and compiles its own report, which forms the basis of disciplinary action against Cronulla, its coach Shane Flanagan and its former high-performance manager Trent Elkin for failing to protect the health and welfare of footballers under their care.

“They did the right thing,’ Andruska says.

“They produced their own report which they put to their board and their board made their decision. As we look back at the history of it, it has gone very smoothly for them.”

The NRL, without the involvement of ASADA, imposes sanctions against Cronulla and its coach strikingly similar to those accepted by Essendon and, begrudgingly, Bombers coach James Hird.

Cronulla is fined $1 million with $400,000 of that suspended.

It is less than half the fine imposed on Essendon but, in relative terms, a higher cost for the cash-poor club to meet. Flanagan, like Hird, is suspended for a year.

He is now back coaching the Sharks.

Trent Elkin is deregistered, with the career-ending penalty later reduced to twenty-one months’ suspension on appeal.

The NRL’s actions against Cronulla and its staff are dealt with entirely by the league’s judicial system. There are no Supreme Court writs. There is no Federal Court case and appeal.

No one challenges the legality of ASADA’s investigation into Cronulla.


Throughout the doping scandal, the AFL is privately contemptuous of the NRL and its Welsh-born chief executive Dave Smith, a virtual unknown in Australian sporting circles before he is introduced to the nation on the blackest day in Australian sport.

In a moment of characteristic hubris, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou describes the ASADA and AFL joint investigation of Essendon as a template for future anti-doping efforts.

No one would suggest such a thing now.

The strength of the NRL position throughout the doping scandal is its separation from ASADA. Its disciplinary procedures are not conflated with ASADA’s anti-doping interests; its commercial interests are not blurred with anti-doping outcomes.

The AFL instinctively, invariably, seeks to control. There are two lessons the AFL can learn from the NRL’s handling of the doping scandal: how to accept the limits of your own influence, and when to let other organisations, particularly statutory government agencies like ASADA, do their job.

This is an edited extract from The Straight Dope by Chip Le Grand (MUP, RRP $29.99, eBook $19.99), out this week. mup.com.au

[ParraEelsNRL]

Perceptions eh?

[AFLcrap1]

Lol .
Everyone in sport knows how shady the Aflol is .
Even at BF they talk openly about it .

Funny how when the shit hit the fan ,the man who had swept most of it under the bulging rug did a runner & is now keeping a very low profile .

I just hope this keeps dragging on & more shit seeps out from under the rug .

[Xman]

The AFL tried to manage the issue but ASADA would have a var of it. This was obviously a mistake. However, dont kid yourself thinking a 3 game ban for Cronulla players is a good outcome for clean sport. It is anything but

[leeroy*NRL*]

EVERYONE KNOWS ASADA IS B.S

should shoot the lot of them

(but NRL did handle this a lot better from my point of view.)

[AFLsforPussies]

They are shifty as. From banning other codes from using their fields in Western Sydney to buying NRL player Izzy purely to promote their game when he can't even kick well.

To even using racist rants towards Western Sydney Wanderers having so much more support than the GWS Giants.
Kevin Sheedy "we don't have a recruiting officer called the immigration department that the Western Sydney Wanderers have"

[leeroy*NRL*]

3 strikes policy that is all I will say...

biggest joke ever.

[leagueiscrap]

EVERYONE KNOWS ASADA IS B.S

should shoot the lot of them

(but NRL did handle this a lot better from my point of view.)

The gummy sharks and nrlol originally lock asada out and refused to let them come in for the drug testing.
The AFL and Essendon let them in and have access to everything. Just because Essendon challenged asada's ban and it was over over turned

The nrlol apparently handled the case better!
FMD tarrds

[leagueiscrap]

They are shifty as. From banning other codes from using their fields in Western Sydney to buying NRL player Izzy purely to promote their game when he can't even kick well.

To even using racist rants towards Western Sydney Wanderers having so much more support than the GWS Giants.
Kevin Sheedy "we don't have a recruiting officer called the immigration department that the Western Sydney Wanderers have"

Lol keep thinking that! just stay in the basement and on those meds!
Idiot

[AFLcrap1]

Fuck off with your basement basement crap & stick to the thread Topic .

& you just fucking lied again .
The Sharks NEVER LOCKED ASADA OUT .
A few players initially refused to cooperate ,but then were pulled into line by the NRL .
After that total cooperation ,no meddling ,
No court cases ,no trying to get mates in Govt involved .
No threats ,no trying to get evidence suppressed .
Lol @ a Essingdrug fan thinking it was handled better by the AFLOL .

Simple question is why is this dragging on for the druggies ...lol


They really handled it well .
:_<> :_<> :_<>

[leagueiscrap]

Fuck off with your basement basement crap & stick to the thread Topic .

& you just fucking lied again .
The Sharks NEVER LOCKED ASADA OUT .
A few players initially refused to cooperate ,but then were pulled into line by the NRL .
After that total cooperation ,no meddling ,
No court cases ,no trying to get mates in Govt involved .
No threats ,no trying to get evidence suppressed .
Lol @ a Essingdrug fan thinking it was handled better by the AFLOL .

Simple question is why is this dragging on for the druggies ...lol


They really handled it well .
:_<> :_<> :_<>

The truth hits home about about the basement and meds does it spazza!

Why is it dragging om.....
Well you wood have to ask asada that. Essendon used their right of appeal and did so. Now wada are dragging it out

The nrlol just eventually laid down like a dog act like they are and accepted a pissweak ban even before even asking to see the evidence

[leeroy*NRL*]

EVERYONE KNOWS ASADA IS B.S

should shoot the lot of them

(but NRL did handle this a lot better from my point of view.)

The gummy sharks and nrlol originally lock asada out and refused to let them come in for the drug testing.
The AFL and Essendon let them in and have access to everything. Just because Essendon challenged asada's ban and it was over over turned

The nrlol apparently handled the case better!
FMD tarrds

Not just Talking about the Bombers.
also the CEO ANDREW DEMITRIOU and the AFL Board.

A difference in the way the NRL Board handled it...

[AFLcrap1]

Fuck off with your basement basement crap & stick to the thread Topic .

& you just fucking lied again .
The Sharks NEVER LOCKED ASADA OUT .
A few players initially refused to cooperate ,but then were pulled into line by the NRL .
After that total cooperation ,no meddling ,
No court cases ,no trying to get mates in Govt involved .
No threats ,no trying to get evidence suppressed .
Lol @ a Essingdrug fan thinking it was handled better by the AFLOL .

Simple question is why is this dragging on for the druggies ...lol


They really handled it well .
:_<> :_<> :_<>

The truth hits home about about the basement and meds does it spazza!

Why is it dragging om.....
Well you wood have to ask asada that. Essendon used their right of appeal and did so. Now wada are dragging it out

The nrlol just eventually laid down like a dog act like they are and accepted a pissweak ban even before even asking to see the evidence

Lol see if you can post without using the words basement or nurse .


& lol at an Essingdrug fan trying to explain why this is still going on .

:_<> :_<> :_<>

[AFLcrap1]

EVERYONE KNOWS ASADA IS B.S

should shoot the lot of them

(but NRL did handle this a lot better from my point of view.)

The gummy sharks and nrlol originally lock asada out and refused to let them come in for the drug testing.
The AFL and Essendon let them in and have access to everything. Just because Essendon challenged asada's ban and it was over over turned

The nrlol apparently handled the case better!
FMD tarrds

How'd that turn out dingbat?

[AFLcrap1]

Fuck off with your basement basement crap & stick to the thread Topic .

& you just fucking lied again .
The Sharks NEVER LOCKED ASADA OUT .
A few players initially refused to cooperate ,but then were pulled into line by the NRL .
After that total cooperation ,no meddling ,
No court cases ,no trying to get mates in Govt involved .
No threats ,no trying to get evidence suppressed .
Lol @ a Essingdrug fan thinking it was handled better by the AFLOL .

Simple question is why is this dragging on for the druggies ...lol


They really handled it well .
:_<> :_<> :_<>

The truth hits home about about the basement and meds does it spazza!

Why is it dragging om.....
Well you wood have to ask asada that. Essendon used their right of appeal and did so. Now wada are dragging it out

The nrlol just eventually laid down like a dog act like they are and accepted a pissweak ban even before even asking to see the evidence

Piss weak ban .

Lol
It stacks up well against the drug fucked club you follow & what they just got .