Drug & Match Fixing Scandal in Sport

[Yossarian]

Going by this afl article which has named the NRL clubs involved we are in the clear.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/exhawk-in-deal-to-sell-peptides-20130211-2e93n.html

I wouldn't worry about us TTS. Other clubs are in some bother though.

 

[LARDS]

A good article from Sydney Morning Herald

Ministers turn judge and jury in sport case
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ministers-turn-judge-and-jury-in-sport-case-20130211-2e8tw.html#ixzz2KdtebGyC
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11:52AM Tuesday Feb 12, 2013
Gerard Henderson
Executive director, The Sydney Institute
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Hands up readers who believe the Home Affairs and Justice Minister, Jason Clare, and the Sports Minister, Kate Lundy, have gone over-the-top in their response to the Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport that the Australian Crime Commission released last Thursday. I believe so.
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The Minister for Justice, who oversees the ACC among other agencies, is supposed to be responsible for matters relating to the security of life within Australia. He is not expected to be an investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury whose public advocacy happily coincides with the perpetual 24/7 news cycle. The Minister for Sport is responsible for supporting sport from the grassroots to the professional levels. She is not expected to hector and threaten sporting organisations.
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Yet, in an extraordinary media conference in Parliament House last Thursday, Clare and Lundy stood at podiums with the ACC chief executive, John Lawler, and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chief executive, Aurora Andruska, nearby. Flanking them was what seemed like an old-fashioned police identification line-up. The potentially guilty men - they were all male - consisted of the heads of four main football codes plus Cricket Australia. The heads of basketball and netball were not present. Perhaps they had the good sense not to accept an invitation to such a confected event.
Minister for Sport, Senator Kate Lundy
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The ACC's report does not justify its media-grabbing title Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport. If organised crime has established such ''a tangible and expanding footprint'' as the report suggests, then you would expect it would have come to the attention of the Australian Federal Police and its state and territory counterparts.
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Legal provisions prevent the ACC from disclosing detailed information about the nature of the matters in the report. You wonder why Lawler got involved. Especially since the report is littered with the word ''some''. As in: ''some coaches''; ''some sports scientists''; and ''some individuals''.
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Clare and Lundy used the report as a platform to lecture-at-large about the unspecified involvement of organised crime and the undocumented prevalence of illegal drugs in unnamed sporting organisations. Initially, Clare declared ''the findings are shocking and they'll disgust Australian sports fans''. In fact, the ACC did not make specific findings and its conclusion is vague - even if it does contain an attention-grabbing reference to disgraced drug cheat Lance Armstrong.
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Then Lundy proclaimed a threat: ''For those that wish to ruin the games that we love, the government has a simple message; if you want to cheat we will catch you, if you want to fix a match we will catch you.'' There is virtually no evidence of match fixing in Australia. In any event, the role of government is to make laws. It is up to police to catch alleged law breakers, not politicians.
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By Sunday, Clare moved into hands-up mode. Appearing on Insiders, his message was simple. And repetitive. The Justice Minister appealed to guilty individuals and organisations to give themselves up. Early in the interview, Clare conceded the ACC ''can't identify persons or organisations that it has criminal intelligence on''. And he added that ''those people and those organisations can put their own hand up''. He used the ''put their hand up'' phrase on five additional occasions.
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So Clare's strategy is that the managers of sporting organisations should dob-in their clubs and members. During the interview, he conceded the ACC ''report identified one potential example of match fixing which is under investigation at the moment''. Just one and this is being investigated.
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In the tradition of the NSW Labor Right, Clare has picked up the habit of repeating himself for emphasis. Having dealt with Australian sport, he told Insiders presenter Barrie Cassidy one Customs officer had been arrested at Sydney Airport last year and more would follow. The Justice Minister emphasised the point: ''There'll be more stings, there'll be more arrests and there'll be more reforms. And let me emphasise that point to you again, Barrie, there will be more arrests and there will be more reform.'' Yeah, we got it. However, it is not the role of the Justice Minister to urge that individuals be arrested for criminal activity that has yet to be detected.
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It may be that the ACC can sustain the suggestion Australian sport is riddled with illegal drug use and match fixing along with organised crime. Until, and unless, it does there is good reason not to blacken Australian sport in the eyes of the world. Hands down.
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Gerard Henderson is the executive director of The Sydney Institute.

These nuffies from Canberra are bringing all australian sport into disrepute.

 

[Yossarian]

Gerard Henderson seems to have little to no understanding of how federal law enforcement works… ASADA asked the ACC to make enquiries - the ACC is tasked by a board. It's not like Lawler wakes up one morning thinking about drugs in sport and launches an op. The ACC has powers that the AFP does not have. The purpose of the ACC is to investigate serious and organised crime over muliple jurisdictions.

 

[supercoach]

You get the feeling reading between the lines, they have very little in the way of hard evidence and are trying to bluff the guilty out, if of course if their are guilty parties. They may have some luck on the performance drug side of things, but I would not imagine not to many people would dob in a organized crime syndicate, they tend to get very nasty with people who talk to the authorities.

It would be a shame if this is all a storm in a teapot, as Australian sport and plenty of people have already taken a mighty hit and mud has a bad habit of sticking even if proven to be false. As with most things like this, the only winners will be the legal eagles.

 

[Yossarian]

You get the feeling reading between the lines, they have very little in the way of hard evidence and are trying to bluff the guilty out, if of course if their are guilty parties.

That's how most of these things work and it is usually effective. I mean you can take your chances and try to lie or stonewall but you're taking a pretty big risk. They're pretty effective at building a case down there and they've already spoken to a lot of people.

They may have some luck on the performance drug side of things, but I would not imagine not to many people would dob in a organized crime syndicate, they tend to get very nasty with people who talk to the authorities.

The ACC is pretty used to dealing with organised crime syndicates. These people are pretty small fry compared to some of the others. Besides if you're down in the star chamber your options are start talking or go to gaol.

It would be a shame if this is all a storm in a teapot, as Australian sport and plenty of people have already taken a mighty hit and mud has a bad habit of sticking even if proven to be false. As with most things like this, the only winners will be the legal eagles.

As I understand it there is enough evidence of illegal behaviour to warrant some sort of investigation. It may well be that an ACC op is a little overblown but time will tell.

 

[supercoach]

Will be interesting Yossarian, my initial thought was these authorities must have plenty of damming evidence to go so public as they would have known their would be a media frenzy . I now think it maybe a mini beat up. Although time will tell. The ABC just reported it will take probably three months for everything to come out in the open.It will be a long three months

 

[Hardwick]

Its amazing this story hasn't leaked.. no one seems to know anything… Gus seemed to change his tune after the briefing.. why ? did he get slapped around? did he realise it was serious? or is he relieved the Penrith issues aren't major?

 

[softlaw]

I'm not commenting on the content of the article in LARDS' post but be aware that Gerard Henderson/the Sydney Institute have a massive anti-Labor agenda in everything he/they do and will take every opportunity and use every method available to twist events to suit his/the institute's agenda.
Doesn;t mean he's wrong though. Even a broken watch tells the right time twice a day.

 

[Glennb]

Gerard Henderson seems to have little to no understanding of how federal law enforcement works… ASADA asked the ACC to make enquiries - the ACC is tasked by a board. It's not like Lawler wakes up one morning thinking about drugs in sport and launches an op. The ACC has powers that the AFP does not have. The purpose of the ACC is to investigate serious and organised crime over muliple jurisdictions.

Read it again Yoss…he is 100% spot on. His point has nothing to do with Lawler or ACC, it is with Lundy and the minister for Justice. These guys are politicians, not police. It is NOT the governments roles to investigate, solve and prosecute crime. The Ministers have no place in this IF it has legs, if it doesnt have legs, their involvement is a disgrace that should never be forgiven.

 

[Hardwick]

I'm no expert on the ACC, and I must admit I haven't heard much about them but when you google you get lots of hits on big drug jobs and guns and all sorts of hard crime. This makes me think that they were pushed into this by the government? I also think that they would have some perspective and not overstate things - its not like PIEDs would be a big deal to them compared to drugs like cocaine and heroin. If they say organised crime has penetrated sport shouldn't we listen? I think they would prefer to be doing other things and im sure as someone mentioned its only a few people anyway.

I also agree that ASADA need more power and that the ACC appears to be able to push through where ASADA would be blocked.

This whole adventure is a good thing. Richardson says he had a bad night. Well surely a bad night is better than letting this thing spread before we end up like cycling in the 90s. Yeah some innocent people have been tarnished .. but really.. what is the cost of doing nothing? A few months might save several years.. so I think we should be thankful the ACC got involved and uncovered the cancer before it spread.

 

[innsaneink]

You get the feeling reading between the lines, they have very little in the way of hard evidence and are trying to bluff the guilty out, if of course if their are guilty parties. They may have some luck on the performance drug side of things, but I would not imagine not to many people would dob in a organized crime syndicate, they tend to get very nasty with people who talk to the authorities.

It would be a shame if this is all a storm in a teapot, as Australian sport and plenty of people have already taken a mighty hit and mud has a bad habit of sticking even if proven to be false. As with most things like this, **the only winners will be the legal eagles.**

….and maybe a political party and some pollies.....

 

[Yossarian]

Gerard Henderson seems to have little to no understanding of how federal law enforcement works… ASADA asked the ACC to make enquiries - the ACC is tasked by a board. It's not like Lawler wakes up one morning thinking about drugs in sport and launches an op. The ACC has powers that the AFP does not have. The purpose of the ACC is to investigate serious and organised crime over muliple jurisdictions.

Read it again Yoss…he is 100% spot on. His point has nothing to do with Lawler or ACC, it is with Lundy and the minister for Justice. These guys are politicians, not police. It is NOT the governments roles to investigate, solve and prosecute crime. The Ministers have no place in this IF it has legs, if it doesnt have legs, their involvement is a disgrace that should never be forgiven.

I did read it Glenn. It's really not unusual for a minister to be present at a briefing by a LEA. The fact these things are rarely reported while this is front and back page news says more about this country's obsession with sport. Likewise his criticism of Clare towards the end is just hysterical. Every A-G and Justice Minister since time began makes comments similar to those he critcises Clare for ["However, it is not the role of the Justice Minister to urge that individuals be arrested for criminal activity that has yet to be detected."] In reality Clare didn't urge the arrest of individuals he suggested the ongoing nature of the investigation(he was talking about customs officers in this case) would result in more ops and more arrests. Hardly beyond the scope of his brief I'd suggest.

Anyway with references to your criticism of my post, the parts of the story I was referring to are:

"The ACC's report does not justify its media-grabbing title Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport. If organised crime has established such ''a tangible and expanding footprint'' as the report suggests, then you would expect it would have come to the attention of the Australian Federal Police and its state and territory counterparts.
Legal provisions prevent the ACC from disclosing detailed information about the nature of the matters in the report. You wonder why Lawler got involved. "

You need to read my post again against that part of Henderson's piece.

 

[Basil_Tiger]

Its amazing this story hasn't leaked.. no one seems to know anything… Gus seemed to change his tune after the briefing.. why ? did he get slapped around? did he realise it was serious? or is he relieved the Penrith issues aren't major?

Yeah,he changed tune very quickly unlike Bennett who is still treating it as a joke.Must be a Penrith player(or ex) or 2 that is on the gear(or whatever they call it these days).

 

[Tommy Magpie]

Based on Brian Smith's comments, and Cronulla's reluctance to make comment, makes me think a BIG name sharks player may be in some trouble. Lets wait and see what comes out of this.

 

[happy_tiger]

Based on Brian Smith's comments, and Cronulla's reluctance to make comment, makes me think a BIG name sharks player may be in some trouble. Lets wait and see what comes out of this.

A lot of Ex Tigers players at the Sharks Tommy , lets hope we don't get dragged into this

 

[Tommy Magpie]

NO - I was thinking of a big name shark that used to be at the Eels as a junior, when Smith was coach.

 

[Yossarian]

Well based on his comments I'm thinking of another player who left Newcastle and made it big soon afterwards but may not be at the club they left for now.

 

[LARDS]

NO - I was thinking of a big name shark that used to be at the Eels as a junior, when Smith was coach.

I think I know who you mean, but I hope youre wrong.
This is the big shame of it all at the moment.
Its unfair to be singling out anyone just because they dominate in a game or have a "big motor" without any evidence, but thats whats going happen.
I thought Smith would have known better than make those comments.

 

[Hardwick]

70 players AFL and NRL - holy cow thats cycling proportions

 

[Hardwick]

70 players AFL and NRL - holy cow thats cycling proportions