bing181

FFS, make your point, have your little snipe, then drop it. You're the king of "I don't care what anyone thinks", yet you're like a dog with a bone when anyone disagrees with you. If in reality you didn't care, you wouldn't even deign to reply.

Would suggest that evidence to the contrary is fairly widespread. There are a raft of reasons why players change clubs. Or don't.

Though one salient difference is that Matt Davies did test positive for the substance concerned … whatever it was. A bit different to the Essendon case as there are no positives, but whether in the longer term it'll make any difference, we'll have to wait and see.

"comparatively few caught doping". Too easy. If there are "comparatively few caught doping" that would tend to reinforce my point, not yours. Outside of (baseless) conjecture in threads like this on forums like these, Craig hasn't come to attention. The Charlie Walsh and AIS programs that Craig was part of have never been part of any doping allegations, yet alone doping infringements. But this isn't the place … back to Essendon, and this (as a for example): http://www.insideathletics.com.au/sprints/14088-matt-davies-speaks-out-about-his-doping-ban "I have been sanctioned for a substance that I had not intentionally or consciously ingested, on the basis (as ASADA described it) of a "possible anti-doping rule violation". Inadvertent use, of an unlisted substance, which had no information to even suspect it would be a concern."

Craig worked in track cycling, where there have been comparatively few doping infringements. Just saying.

Ah, silly me. I thought you meant, well …. "the world". My mistake.

Given what a snake in the grass Flack turned out to be with his destructive role in both the Mifsud and Tanking affairs, I'd be marking his dismissal down as a positive on the Neeld scorecard. Suggest you're being selective and/or somewhat disingenuous with some of your other points as well. For mine, WJ did a good job of presenting the for/against Neeld arguments.

Can you just stop with this line unless you can back it up with something concrete I live overseas, and I can assure you, no-one outside Australia gives a damn about doping infringements in the AFL. Meanwhile, I'm sure we're all on the edges of our seats wondering whether the Irish Tug-of-War federation has managed to clean up the sport there after 3 positives in 2012.

By who?

Well, Rogers hasn't come out with an excuse. But given that there's an official WADA warning, it's obviously more than just smoke and mirrors. Also, it's basically a training drug, used for weight loss, not a performance-enhancement drug per se. The conjecture re Contador is that he'd had a blood transfusion on the rest day at the Tour de France, and that the stored blood (extracted during a training period) contained Clenbuterol. Anyway, I wasn't saying he is/isn't innocent at all, was just commenting that it seems very odd: no clenbuterol cases in cycling all year, then suddenly two in the same day from guys who have been racing in low-key events in China at the end of the season. And just to keep this on-thread: marked difference here between the treatment of the cyclists concerned and the Essendon players. Even though there aren't yet confirmed positives (waiting for the B sample to be tested for that) or charges, the riders have been suspended by their teams. OK, no Essendon players tested positive, but then neither did Tiernan Locke in the UK, and he's been suspended as well.

Yes, understood, was just commenting on the Rogers' situation rather than the AFL/ASADA situation. AA didn't even need to say anything, as it's nothing to do with Cycling Australia, but you're right, makes an "interesting" parallel with how the AFL view things. Though not for much longer one imagines.

I'd just be careful on this one. Two riders (Rogers and Breyne) tested positive for Clenbuterol after racing in China for something that's a known problem in beef there, so much so that WADA have a warning out on it: http://www.wada-ama.org/en/media-center/archives/articles/athletes-must-show-caution-due-to-contaminated-meat/ Taking a weight-loss drug at the tail-end of the season for a no-name race - and by riders who have ongoing contracts? Doesn't quite add up. As Robbie McEwen tweeted "one thing for sure - not many riders will put their hand up to race there in '14"

Not the style though.

Confirmed.

You just replied to him.

If you're going to start accusing someone of something, get your facts right. And if you get them wrong, then be man enough (or woman enough) to admit you got it wrong. And people accuse some of our players of being gutless.

No he hasn't. "Jurrah was charged with driving in the Northern Territory while disqualified in another state, driving at a dangerous speed and manner, failure to obey signal of a member and exceeding the speed limit by over 30km/h."

No drugs in tennis either, so he would be on solid ground there. ...

A human being's life has become a train wreck, and the best you can manage is "Lol".

Jurrah was found not guilty of attacking anyone with a machete, was found guilty of one (singular) count of driving over the limit, and was was found guilty of attacking a (that would be one) woman. That you resort to exaggeration and hyperbole pretty well sums up where you are with it all, but gives your argument (such as it is) little or no credibility. But one can only hope that you live the kind of charmed life where no-one in your family or close to you ever loses the plot, makes a mistake, or for whatever reason finds themselves unable to deal with the world around them.

Perhaps, but I'd be surprised if the Switkowsky report would have been enough of a case in and of itself to ban a senior coach for a year and remove a team from finals. I suspect that the AFL realised that they needed the weight of ASADA behind them in order to press charges - which they clearly wanted to do before the finals and Draft. The problem here comes about because it's a team sport. If this were an individual, they would have been automatically suspended until the case were resolved.

If Hird had just done what Bailey, Cuddles and co. all did, and taken his medicine quietly in the background, none of this would have happened. Well, not on this scale.

Training discussion anyone?

In regards to elite-level sports people, he wouldn't be alone. Someone I know well did some work for an olympic champion, and after getting to know him, were of the opinion that "I wouldn't cross the road to xxx on him if he was on fire". Not to say all champions needs to be bullies and egomaniacs … but it does seem to help.

Any chance of merging the two threads? Essendon's woes have become the AFL's, and vice versa.