GAA aware of AFL doping issue prior to 2014 Test

The GAA won’t be seeking any immediate clarification on the retrospective banning of 34 Australian Football League (AFL) players for doping offences, three of whom featured in the last two International Rules series against Ireland.

News of the bans emerged on Monday evening, when 34 past and present players from Essendon Bombers, one of Australia’s richest and most storied football clubs, were each issued with two-year suspensions: the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal brought by the World Anti-Doping Agency against a decision last March, which at the time cleared the 34 players of taking the prohibited supplement Thymosin beta-4 during the AFL’s 2012 championship season.

Essendon captain

Current Essendon captain Jobe Watson is among those banned, and featured in the 2014 Rules series victory over Ireland, played in Perth, along with the now retired team-mate Dustin Fletcher. In the 2015 series played last November, which Ireland won in Croke Park, Fletcher again featured, in what was his last game before retiring, as did Dyson Heppell, also among the players facing the two-year bans.

While all the players were handed mandatory two-year bans backdated from March 31st, 2015, and were found to be significantly at fault, CAS ruled most of the 34 would only be suspended until November 13th this year, depending on the backdating that applies in each case.

The investigation into the Essendon doping offences was ongoing at the time Ireland travelled to Perth for the 2014 Rules Test: Watson and Fletcher featured in the game, as at the time the AFL had not provisionally suspended any of the players found to be taking Thymosin beta-4, the banned supplement known to aid in tissue repair and regeneration. Both the GAA and Wada (the World Anti-Doping Agency), accepted this discretionary decision.

“The issue was brought up when we were in Australia last year (2014), so we were certainly aware of it at the time,” said the GAA’s head of communications, Alan Milton. “The AFL took a stance on it, and we were happy with that. The players were not suspended while the investigation was ongoing. It was agreed that they would be available for selection.

“It may come up for discussion when we meet the AFL in the spring time then, but there has been no internal (GAA) discussion on it, no.”

However not everyone was happy with the decision at the time. The former head of Asada (Australia’s anti-doping authority) Richard Ings questioned the validity of that International Rules series in Perth, warning the subsequent Australia victory could be overturned based on a future anti-doping hearing

"Under the Wada code, if two or more players from a team are found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation then a sanction can be imposed against the team itself," Ings told The Irish Times. "Which raises another scenario; if two or more players on the Australia team end up being found guilty of doping offences the match result could be null and void. The result could be awarded to the Irish team."

Ings then added, “a provisional suspension should mean exactly that. If you cannot compete against other clubs, you should not compete against other nations”.

AFL reaction

While the overturning of that result is highly unlikely, the AFL has been rocked by the CAS decision. Essendon chairman Lindsay Tanner called their verdict “manifestly unfair” but also admitted to systematic failings at the club and vowed to support the players; however Asada boss Ben McDevitt  called the verdict “the exposure of the worst case of team-based doping that this country has ever seen”.

The decision also leaves the Melbourne-based Essendon without 12 of their listed players and effectively hobbled for the entire 2016 season. Five of the 34 banned players have since signed with four other clubs, with the remaining 17 no longer active in the top-flight.

The investigation into the doping offences was made public in February 2013, two days after a government report alleged widespread doping in the country’s top sports leagues. A joint investigation with the country’s national anti-doping authority uncovered an organised regime of supplement injections given to players: the club was fined A$2 million, kicked out of the 2013 playoffs and had their coach James Hird suspended for a year.

Stephen Dank, a controversial sports scientist who worked with Essendon and Cronulla, was banned for life by the AFL last year for his involvement in the supplements programme.