As a cycling tragic I took great interest in this piece written by Jason Akermanis on the subject of doping in the AFL, and not just any doping, but the kind that professional cyclists love, blood boosting via EPO or transfusion.
As a top-level professional athlete, you see certain things that leave you bemused. Some people like to think we are winning the fight against drugs in sport, but I’m not sure.
I have had suspicions for a while and on days, such as the one I described, I think nothing I’ve seen in football recently has made me change my opinion.
What should I do? No idea. I have no proof, just an educated opinion based on very real experiences.
I have raised my thoughts with teammates, past and present. Some laugh at me. Others nod knowingly, smile and say: “What do you do?”
It was very interesting from the point of view that here was a well known athlete pointing the finger in a way that would allow anyone with an an understanding of the game to figure out who he was writing about. Now it looks like the subject of Akermanis’ allegations has been outed.
WEST Coast player Michael Braun was “in shock” last night after being publicly linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The Eagles midfield player was named on Channel 7 as the player allegedly referred to by Jason Akermanis in his syndicated newspaper column last week, which detailed his suspicions of an opponent using banned substance EPO.
Braun’s manager, Paul Connors, said last night that his client was made aware of the link before he played in the loss to Fremantle at Subiaco Oval yesterday.
“First and foremost, the accusations as reported on Channel 7 are unsubstantiated and a total disgrace,” Connors said.
Of course there is no way to prove this outside of regular intensive testing like they have in cycling. I don’t know if the AFL tests regularly for blood boosting, but as an endurance sport it is ideally suited to extract the benefits of such products and techniques, so it should be tested for in the same manner as cycling.
It’s also worth pointing out that in the fallout from Spain’s Operation Puerto the greater number of athletes named came from sports like Football.
Unfortunately, the authorities and media chose to attack the one sport that was actually doing something about this scourge and ignored the rest. Hopefully this is a wake up call to the AFL to dig a bit deeper, target suspected athletes over a period of time and establish blood profiles for all players. Jason Akermanis is to be congratulated for raising his suspicions because on the subject of doping a code of silence must not be allowed to develop in any sport.
Update: Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews deliberately sticks his head in the sand.
4 responses so far ↓
Conor // Aug 6, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I don’t believe Jason Akermanis should be congratulated. If he merely wanted to raise the issue of performance enhancing drugs then he could have done so without making unsubstantiated claims about a particular player. He is a headline grabbing attention seeker who has, to a certain degree, sabotaged his own public image a number of times through his actions. This is yet another example. It is irresponsible of him to set about destroying other players’ image without proof or justification. I do not believe in doing what he has done he has the best interests of the game at heart.
Phil // Aug 6, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Actually Conor, I’ve see a lot of guys deny the obvious right to the end in cycling, wake up, sport is in danger and Akermanis does have it’s best interests in mind…..and by the way, he did not name anyone, Channel 7 did. Akers was only speculating in the context of what has happened in cycling and drawing some parallels. And he would be in a position to judge based on past efforts.
dj // Aug 8, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I see most of the response of the AFL as similar to that of the various cycling teams and sponsors – largely about protecting incomes and maintaining appearances.
I can’t imagine that there are *not* AFL players involved in one form of doping or another. The physical demands of the sport and the money involved are such that it would be highly surprising if there were not. Which is not to say that the number of these players would be high, just that given the histories of other sports, it would be amazing if AFL did not have its share of players seeking that extra bit of help from the medicine cabinet.
Club Troppo » Friday’s Missing Link - on Friday! // Aug 10, 2007 at 9:11 pm
[...] As is his wont, Phil Gomes is terrific on drugs in sport, with a thoughtful examination of Akermanis’ contribution. [...]