AFL boss Andrew Demetriou will be sweating on ASADA's investigation into Essendon's sports science department. Picture: Glenn Daniels Source: Herald Sun
IT WAS always going to come to this, because football has been searching for the elusive edge ever since the game became fully professional in the mid-1990s.
If the results of ASADA's investigation into Essendon's fitness program are as bad as first feared, heads will be lobbed and this will be remembered as a landmark case in the AFL.
It would be a body blow for a league that so prides itself on being clean of performance enhancing drugs but not entirely surprising.
For years, clubs have undertaken study trips to the English Premier League and US football clubs. Meanwhile, sports science has pushed every boundary, from intravenous drips (Brisbane) in the changerooms to high altitude training real or simulated.
Clubs test players for their red and white blood cell counts after matches, build million-dollar recovery facilities and continue to expand their sports science staffs.
And they continue to look elsewhere for an edge.
Cycling has had too many scandals to chronicle, and even riders who claim to be clean admit to having injected themselves with supplements. It all blew up during the Mark French scandal and at the heart of it was drugs that were either bought overseas or imported.
And once you begin to inject, you could not be closer to overstepping the mark.
Then there's the issue of the supplement industry, which is not regulated like the pharmaceutical profession.
It has led sporting bodies to work directly with university labs to make sure they know exactly what is in the pills athletes take.
Half the time, there may be little benefit from taking supplements, but players and clubs look for the edge, and footballers, because of their workload, can reportedly benefit from a top-up of iron, which would be legal.
There's protein drinks, muscle-building pills, diet pills (remember Shane Warne's case?), and as they're imported there's little chance of knowing exactly what they are made of.
A hard line needs to be taken by clubs: not one thing should pass a player's lips (or be fired through his vein) unless the substance has the all-clear from the club doctor and the AFL.
Anything less than that, however well-meaning, and the players are playing Russian roulette.
Heads will be lobbed over this if Essendon is found guilty of injecting illegal substances.
Nobody should be excused. Players know that they are responsible for what goes into their bodies.
Whoever administered the supplements is paid to know what they contain and those who hired the men who held the needles and/or supplied the pills needed to make it their business to know.
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