There is no way Reid now would even remotely take a risk on substances with any grey area at all so I can’t imagine we are one of the clubs.
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Have you seen the headline “Bombers dope James Hird Academy children”?
It’s not us, clearly.
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I don’t think Greg Williams is at Essendon anymore. Wasn’t Heath Hocking announced as the new coach of the JHA?
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Suggest there is a distinction between treatment of a retired player for a sport induced problem and treatment of ongoing competing athletes pain from a sport induced injury.
The puzzle is why AFL footballers are given such prominence. Is it because the problem is greater in Australian rules at elite level compared to other sports? Or is it simply because two of the doctors prominent in the treatment happen to be club doctors and are associated with Paradigm. Getting sufficient numbers for a clinical trial may never have been easier than in this case.
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Speaking of such, any updates with the investigation into Bock? My google searches say nothing
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Bock drinks coffee at a hipster cafe in Burleigh between Park and James St. The investigation is still ongoing as to why I don’t have the balls to approach him and ask about Dank.
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ask him how he feels about 34 EFC players getting suspended while he admitted to taking a PED & Dank and Robinson admitted supplying and showing how to administer it.
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Going by Tom Browne’s tweet it sounds like Gerard Whateley has just spoken about this new wonder drug. Anyone hear it?
Malcolm Blight weighed in on players being treated as lab rats in an interview with Whateley on SEN.
Just waiting for Sarah to ring Eddie.
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AFL says chief medico Peter Harcourt did not approve use of wonder jabs
MICHAEL WARNER, Herald Sun, 5 minutes ago – 5 April 2018
AFL Legend Malcolm Blight has voiced his concern about the use of a breakthrough pain treatment which the league says it has not approved.
Blight, who forged a stunning playing career before coaching Adelaide to back-to-back premierships, today spoke after a Herald Sun report detailing the use of the new drug by seven AFL clubs.
The drug, being accessed by AFL players under the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s “special access scheme”, is used to combat osteoarthritis and help players recover from injury.
Speaking on Melbourne radio, Blight said he believed fans would hear more in coming weeks unless there was greater clarity over the drug’s status.
He was also staggered by reports up to 50 AFL players might have used the drug.
“I’ve never heard, in 50 years, where the AFL have been involved or anyone in the AFL has been involved in trials with drugs,” Blight said on SEN.
“They are well and truly run, won and done prior to any other time, any other country.
“They’re certainly not to use as lab rats on AFL players … that’s the way it reads, and if that’s the case I should think there’s going to be a fair bit of noise about this.
“I just couldn’t imagine we’d be trailing stuff on guys you’re paying $1.2, $1.3 million.
“And I know you (could say) ‘where do you trial it?’ Well, you trial it elsewhere.”
The AFL last night distanced itself from the drug but the league confirmed its top medico had told the company behind the drug that it was not a banned substance.
Melbourne company Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals maintained that doctors at seven AFL clubs had been given approval to use pentosan polysulfate sodium by league chief medical officer doctor Peter Harcourt.
The company’s chief executive Paul Rennie today rejected Blight’s comments, telling SEN:
“I don’t like Malcolm’s terminology … this is not ad hoc, experimental. This is proper clinical practice.
“I think the AFL have created an absolute storm because of semantics.
“We don’t just say ‘here, go and use this drug’.”
Rennie said the league “categorically” knew of the drug’s use among players.
Last night the AFL insisted Dr Harcourt had not approved the drug.
“Dr Peter Harcourt did not approve this medication,” an AFL spokesman said.
“The medical director of the AFL was asked whether the substance was prohibited under the WADA Prohibited List and he stated that it is not listed on that list.
“It is a misrepresentation of the role and the views of the AFL medical director to say that he approved this medication.”
Rennie said Dr Harcourt had sent an email in 2015 saying as long as the substance was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list it was up to club doctors whether they used it on players.
“Before we went anywhere near the first player the club doctor involved ran it past Dr Peter Harcourt as a final check and there were no objections,” Rennie said.
Rennie said he spoke to Harcourt on the phone late yesterday.
“I called him to reconfirm that the issue of using pentosan polysulfate sodium was discussed in 2015,” he said.
“He further confirmed that use of the drug on AFL players was a decision of the club doctor.”
Pentosan polysulfate sodium has been used for decades to treat blood clots and painful bladder syndrome in women but only recently emerged as a treatment option for osteoarthritis.
It is not registered for use in Australia but is being accessed by AFL players under the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s “special access scheme”.
The drug has been injected into injured players twice a week for six weeks, including an interstate superstar battling complications from a knee injury.
The drug is also being used as part of a phase two clinical trial, not involving AFL players.
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I’m speechless.
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Fark Harcourt. Fark the AFL. Slimebags.
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I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with this trial if the players are fully informed and consent to it. The problem I have is that the supplements that Dank used should be treated no differently. None of this is cheating and if people want to use drugs or supplements to improve their performance I don’t care, as long as they have been advised of the risks and possible long term side effects, it can be their choice.
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There’s an optics problem for the AFL if club doctors with a vested interest and Paradigm are using AFL players to pump up the share price.
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So because this “pharmacologically experimental environment” is not restricted to just one club, but now it’s across much of the League it’s all ok then, isn’t it Gil?
As commented last night by DJR, TB4/TB500 was not specifically on the WADA prohibited list in 2012. Neither is PPS today. And as I said earlier, Dank/EFC were caught out by ‘S0’ in the WADA Code, and therefore PPS is also technically captured under ‘S0’.
This hypocrisy stinks.
Where are those moral high-grounder loud mouths now? Cawo, Fatprick, John Fahey, David Culbert, Roy Masters… Hello…anybody there? Of course not.
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Seeing how the Commonwaste Games are on the afl are hoping no one will notice.
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Who are these players? They are personally responsible for everything that’s put into their body. Regardless. REGARDLESS! With the doctors approval or not.
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Why isn’t this and the one of Gil on the FRONT PAGE page of The Age?
(where’s farker Nick McKenzie and the other one (can’t be bothered remembering his name).
If they could find a way to blame Hirdy and Essendon for this, it would be!
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