Aussie journalist Jacquelin Magnay says footy codes intimidated reporters and allowed cheating to fester

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Staff writer From:
News Limited Network February 08, 2013
12:37PM

AN Australian journalist who has uncovered multiple drug scandals in Australia over the past decade has slammed the AFL and NRL in a UK newspaper column in the wake of the ACC report.

Jacquelin Magnay, who won a Walkley award in 2004 for her articles on drug use by Australian Institute of Sport cyclists, wrote a scathing column in The Daily Telegraph (UK), accusing the administrators of both football codes of allowing “insidious cheating to fester and prosper”.

“(The ACC report) shouldn't have shocked (AFL and NRL) administrators who have repeatedly turned a blind eye to what was going on under their noses,” Magnay wrote.

“For the leaders of this generation of Australian professional football supremacy have not wanted to know. Their ignorance has allowed insidious cheating to fester and prosper.

.....“Under their watch there has been a proliferation of nefarious activities: money-laundering, spot-fixing on matches, and players so intent on earning their next big contracts that they were risking their health by taking illegal drugs still in the research phase.”

Magnay says she was prevented from naming AFL players who had taken illicit drugs by a Supreme Court injunction taken out “a decade ago”.

“Under the orders of the court, I still can't reveal those names, and never will be able to. At the time the administrators claimed to be concerned about player welfare,” Magnay wrote.

“I would argue that the reputations of the club, the code, the officials were on the line and they weren't prepared to open that world to wider scrutiny.”

'Don't tar all athletes with the same brush'

Speaking to Irish radio station Newstalk overnight, she said she knew of other Australian journalists who had been “subject to the same kind of intimidating tactics, not been allowed to report what’s going on”.

“The clubs have been very active in suppressing any kind of wrongdoing or suggestions of any problems and that’s allowed this problem to fester. And it’s now taken government intervention to bring (wrongdoing) to light."

In her Telegraph column, she also excoriated rugby league, claiming administrators knew “for more than five years the existence of mafia involvement and personalities in their game … but once again the code chose to ignore the implications of those associations.”

“At a time when world sport is undergoing a reputational crisis – hello cycling – the wobbly foundations of Australian professional sport are being starkly exposed,” she wrote.
“The leadership of the male football codes Down Under will now come under extraordinary pressure. The buck stops at the top.”

Fears doping scandal could spread

Asked on Newstalk about the reaction of the Australian sporting public to the ACC report, Magnay said they would be shocked after being misled for so long.

“The average Australian sporting fan is very hard on any sporting cheat. Their view would be quite extreme, that they should be kicked out forever - If you cheat you’re out,” she said.

“I think they’ve been a little bit misled about the true extent of what’s been going on … But if people have been keeping a close eye and reading between the lines, I think they would realise that this has been going on.”

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/more-sport/australian-journalist-jacquelin-magnay-claims-football-codes-allowed-cheating-to-fester-by-refusing-to-address-obvious-issues/story-e6frfglf-1226573478014

I'm numb thinking about what this means for sports here.

Guilty of mixing up PEDs and recreational drugs - two different issues.

Guilty of mixing up PEDs and recreational drugs - two different issues.

Guilty of mixing up PEDs and recreational drugs - two different issues.

Sorry mate, but recreational drugs come under the heading of PED according to every doping agency. It is the same issue.

the AFL's "3 strikes and we'll hush it up some more" policy.

=d>

General
that's not quite right.

WADA only tests for recreational drugs on days of competition, any other time and they are not banned under WADA:

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2012/09/09/bjsports-2012-091329.full

And this is why I get frustrated when people fail to understand that the AFL's out-of-competition testing for recreational drugs (the 3 strikes policy) is over and above minimum WADA requirements.

When journalists mix the two categories up, they do so in error, and their opinions can be dismissed out of hand.

General
that's not quite right.

WADA only tests for recreational drugs on days of competition, any other time and they are not banned under WADA:

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2012/09/09/bjsports-2012-091329.full

And this is why I get frustrated when people fail to understand that the AFL's out-of-competition testing for recreational drugs (the 3 strikes policy) is over and above minimum WADA requirements.

When journalists mix the two categories up, they do so in error, and their opinions can be dismissed out of hand.

What's the FFA's policy?

What's the FFA's policy?

Cut a deal with the cops to stop them commenting on investigations into the league without their say-so, and allow the league to do their own investigations into actual crimes such as illegal gambling, drugs, domestic violence, sexual assault and more without the law's involvement?

Oh no, that was your lot. :oops:

So, we were talking about an "above the law" culture, add that to the list.

The FFA's drug policy is amply documented.

Edited by paladisious: 14/2/2013 03:22:58 PM

...the AFL's extensive testing program (since copied by the ASC, Cricket Australia and the NRL).

A group of Collingwood players self-reporting drug use to the AFL was one of the catalysts for Wednesday's historic drugs summit.
The Magpies players - understood to be at least four - contacted the AFL medical department after one night's activities late last season.
The players escaped a strike under a contentious provision in the AFL's Illicit Drugs Policy.

Self-reporting occurs when a player admits to an AFL medical officer to having used drugs, whether deliberately or inadvertently.
It is not only Collingwood players who are reporting drug use to the AFL.
Magpies president Eddie McGuire last night was furious when contacted for comment.
"You're telling me that, but as far as I know at the Collingwood Football Club there is a clean slate because no player as far as I know has had any strikes, because we are not told," McGuire said.
"And that you've been told something two days before a drugs summit which was specifically called for by Collingwood dismays me greatly.
"It shows this drugs policy now to be a farce, where the one thing people could hold the hat on was confidentiality.
"If there is a problem at Collingwood, and even if I suspected something, I have no powers. This is the AFL's problem, why tell me?"
Magpies chief executive Gary Pert raised the need of a drugs summit when he spoke on the eve of the national draft of an alarming use of illegal drugs by players in the off-season.
He later described the players' behaviour as "volcanic".
The AFL on Monday would not confirm the the club with the raft of self-reporting players.
Self-reporting has been described as a loophole in the drugs policy - some players have taken advantage of the strike-free confession more than once.
The drugs summit tomorrow will discuss limiting self-reports to one a year per player.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said last night any loophole in the system would be eradicated.
"There's no doubt there is an agreement any loophole that can be used will be closed," Demetriou said.

The loopholes include a group of players self-reporting, just as the Magpies players did, or a player consistently self-reporting.
Praising the self-reporting mechanism, Demetriou said it encouraged players to come forward if "they have made a mistake or have an issue".
"What it has uncovered is blokes who have got mental health issues or other issues and it allows them to get treatment," Demetriou said.
"And then all those guys go into target testing.
"If they didn't self-notify they wouldn't be target tested or have their medical issues come to the fore."
Demetriou said one self-report per player per season would be one of many discussion points tomorrow.
"That's a topic that's already been discussed and it might be one of the resolutions," Demetriou said.
"There's no firm view about where we end up other than everyone knows there is a loophole that has to be closed."
Demetriou said he was expecting a spike in positive drug tests, not from testing hair in the off-season, which he said had shown no dramatic change, but from regular in-competition testing.
"We don't know why (there is a spike) ... is it a case of it being one bad year?" Demetriou said.
"Is it in line with what's happening in the community where there has been a 21 per cent increase in drug use among young people?
"Is it peer pressure? It could be all those things.
"And, also, the police will talk about this ... it's freely available."
Demetriou said the summit wouldn't be confined to drugs, and would include discussion on alcohol and whether it could be beneficial to allow players to drink more through the season so their off-season wouldn't be so alcohol charged.

Thus, we confirm that the FFA does NOT undertake any form of out-of-competition testing of illicit drugs.

They are not alone - most sports do NOT do it.

I don't know if the FFA do or not. Seems to be an irrelevant deflection in a thread about reporters being threatened by the AFL & NRL and allowing cheating to fester.

But to respond to your deflection anyway; better to not have any testing that to have the farce* that the AFL uses, which has been revealed to have more holes than swiss cheese.

* as described by the president of the biggest AFL club on the planet.

On the one hand we have a well considered policy, developed with input from medical experts, which involves intervention from club doctors in the first two strikes, and which has been copied by the ASC, Cricket Australia and the NRL, and which has been looked at in a positive light by journals such as the British sports medicine journal I have referenced.

On the other hand we have nothing.

And you're arguing in favour of nothing?

An interesting perspective.

Your well considered policy has been proven time and time agaim to be a farce and has been repeatedly manipulated and shown to actually be enabling players in their illicit drug use.

THE NRL is reeling from claims the AFL had worked on a secret deal with government agencies which would see it avoid sanctioning players suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs.

NRL boss Dave Smith has been prevented from speaking publicly about the Australian Crime Commission investigation but The Daily Telegraph understands he is livid the AFL was seeking favourable treatment to avoid player suspensions.

Smith met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Sydney's west this week and sought reassurances that rugby league was treated in exactly the same way as the AFL in the doping scandal enveloping both sports.

It is understood AFL boss Andrew Demetriou met with drug agency officials and politicians in recent weeks to forge a deal which would see the Essendon players at the centre of the investigation freed from sanctions.

When news of the AFL's machinations reached the NRL, Smith acted swiftly to ensure no such deal materialised.

Demetriou admits his office has taken a proactive approach to dealing directly with ASADA and the federal government but denies there have been secret deals or favourable treatment.

"I won't deny that we have been in talks with ASADA since day one," he said. "We have been transparent and the Essendon players came forward freely with their concerns at the start. They have been totally honest.

"I know the NRL has been jumping up and down with the Prime Minister but there is a mechanism in place, available to all athletes under the code, that allows for more lenient penalties if the athlete is honest from the outset. All we have done is seek to ensure that our athletes will be treated fairly under that code.

"The investigation is not even complete yet so nobody knows the outcome but I will say that we have treated this very seriously from day one.

"We have not hired lawyers or loudly criticised the process. The ACC obviously has a lot of information and we are keen to ensure this is the right outcome for all concerned."

However, Smith remains concerned his players will be suspended without a fair hearing because of the ACC and ASADA's need to produce "scalps".

NRL staff are privately fuming Cronulla were swooped on by ASADA, while Essendon were not subject to the same scrutiny from the drug agency.

Smith has been told that ASADA's new wide-ranging coercive powers, which come into effect in the next few weeks, will have a huge impact on the NRL players under investigation.

Without a positive drug test, the investigation has so far stalled, with players under a cloud being told they should confess.

ASADA will soon have the power to force them to answer questions, giving them wide ranging powers to suspend without a full investigation.

What's the FFA's policy?