So... Maybe Jason Akermanis was right about drugs in the AFL?

[bulldogtragic]

Aker was widely condemned many moons ago about players taking performance enhancing substances. I don't recall him having any real support from anyone in the industry over it.

34 Essendon players, Saad, Keefe, Frost and Crowley in a short period.

I can't 100% think this is a brand new phenomina. Perhaps, he was right?

[1eyedog]

The law of averages...olympians, cyclists, swimmers, divers, rugby players, boxers...AFL. There is a massive anabolic steroid scandal in professional tennis brewing as I write.

It would be naive to think that the AFL was immune to such uses and as another poster stated in another thread we are finally starting to see some almost adequate testing by the AFL so some careless individuals are being rooted out. Wait till we start finding out about the careful ones. I suspect we are only at the tip of the iceberg.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

He was always right.

It's a colossal issue, amazing it's taken this long to hit the surface so to speak, and that's without mentioning recreational drugs.

[G-Mo77]

Nope he wasn't. All this happened after he finished. :D

[jeemak]

Aker was widely condemned because he fingered a player that improved his fitness over a short period and ran out a game better than he did. With no evidence other than being beaten by this person he tried to stain his career.

He himself in his first book (disgusted with myself that I read it) talked about the massive improvement in fitness and overall performance - due to extra work and attention to detail - he experienced leading up to his 1999 season and first B&F (I think), but it wasn't good enough for him that another player may have been able to do the same.

Of course he was right in a general sense, I don't think anyone after Justin Charles could have suggested it wasn't a possibility.

[Twodogs]

Maybe he was right about Adam Cooney too.

[boydogs]

I'm not convinced. Essendon were obviously pushing the limits but Saad was an unlabelled ingredient, Crowley is still underway and the 2 Collingwood blokes are housemates. From 700+ players it's a bit unfair to taint the good ones with the same brush

[ratsmac]

Aker is probably right about a lot of things but some things you can't say. It's easy to speculate but then to speculate and add somebody's name to it becomes defamatory and slander. Hence why Aker is a dickhead.

[1eyedog]

I'm not convinced. Essendon were obviously pushing the limits but Saad was an unlabelled ingredient, Crowley is still underway and the 2 Collingwood blokes are housemates. From 700+ players it's a bit unfair to taint the good ones with the same brush

But who are the good ones and are they just the ones who have not tested positive yet?

[Remi Moses]

Look I'm no expert, but it seems signing up to WADA has fished out some players.
Wouldn't be surprised if players beforehand were pulling all sorts of stunts and getting away with it.
I think signing up to WADA is a good thing BTW.
As for Acker, well as Ian Chappell would say even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[boydogs]

But who are the good ones and are they just the ones who have not tested positive yet?

Call me naive but I think that's a bit conspiracy theorist

[azabob]

Maybe he was right about Adam Cooney too.

What did he say about Cooney?

[1eyedog]

Call me naive but I think that's a bit conspiracy theorist

Yeah it can be viewed like that.

I guess we'll wait and see but as you say an entire team, Saad, Crowley and now two Collingwood players in the space of two years tells me there will be more to come. It would be naive to think that we have heard the end of it. How widespread is it? It's interesting to extrapolate that of the 700 footballers 38 are currently under investigation as above which is approx. 5% of total players. If you accept the percentages in the article below as a base point for discussions then we could have up to 175 players in the AFL who are doping. There are so many variables to these data obviously because doping percentages vary across different sports but these are the conservative figures from track and field, which was the subject sport of the study and these are only the athletes that actually fessed up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/sports/research-finds-wide-doping-study-withheld.html?_r=1 (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/sports/research-finds-wide-doping-study-withheld.html?
_r=1)

[wimberga]

I work with a couple of ex-footballers (players in late 90's and early 2000's) and they each have some interesting stories about other players.

Nothing on the systematic scale we have seen with Essendon or overly widespread amongst a playing group, but these guys remain covinced a number of players were enhancing their performance with illicit materials

[Maddog37]

I have grave doubts about the Eagles and their ability to bulk up to an extraordinary level in a short period of time and yet still be able to maintain high anaerobic fitness levels. Blokes like Braun and Lamb etc. seemed very dodgy to me.

[Greystache]

If Akermanis is right it's only by coincidence. His claims were his usual efforts to capture headlines over what was a popular issue at the time. There was no evidence or thought other than this will get me attention. Kind of like spreading a rumour your neighbor is a murderer because he keeps parking in front of your house, only for it to turn out he killed someone 30 years earlier.

[Mofra]

Dale Lewis was widely slammed when he said recreational drugs were a problem in the AFL. He has largely been vindicated.

I think, sadly, Aker knows what he is talking about.

[comrade]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/stars-too-injured-overrated-says-former-teammate-jason-akermanis/story-e6frf9jf-1226064457792

Sorry to take the thread off the drug topic, but the above article is interesting reading a few years down the track. Whilst I'm no Aker fan, most of his calls ended up correct (I think he was overly harsh towards Gia who provided very good service in his last few years after Aker left).

Not too say he is right about the drugs stuff, but who knows...

[LostDoggy]

But who are the good ones and are they just the ones who have not tested positive yet?

This sentence underlines why drugs in sport MUST be obliterated at any cost.

Was Aker right about drugs? Yes. Michael Braun? No. Like everything he said, there was an element of truth that got buried by adding extra purely for ego's sake.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Aker is an attention seeking trouble maker, but to dismiss everything/anything he said/says would be foolish.

He is right about a lot of things.

[westdog54]

This sentence underlines why drugs in sport MUST be obliterated at any cost.

Was Aker right about drugs? Yes. Michael Braun? No. Like everything he said, there was an element of truth that got buried by adding extra purely for ego's sake.

Its worth remembering that Aker never actually named Braun in the media. A conversation he had about his column was overheard by Dylan Howard who ran with it on Channel 7.

A touch careless maybe but he's not alone for blame in outing Braun.

[ratsmac]

I have grave doubts about the Eagles and their ability to bulk up to an extraordinary level in a short period of time and yet still be able to maintain high anaerobic fitness levels. Blokes like Braun and Lamb etc. seemed very dodgy to me.

You me both!

[LostDoggy]

Drugs are an epidemic that will never go away, the police are powerless to stop it what makes everyone think that the AFL can? Lucky the AFL has a Union protecting the players rights or it wouldn't be able to be pushed under the rug. I'm pro union by the way.

[bulldogtragic]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/stars-too-injured-overrated-says-former-teammate-jason-akermanis/story-e6frf9jf-1226064457792

Sorry to take the thread off the drug topic, but the above article is interesting reading a few years down the track. Whilst I'm no Aker fan, most of his calls ended up correct (I think he was overly harsh towards Gia who provided very good service in his last few years after Aker left).

Not too say he is right about the drugs stuff, but who knows...

Wow. I forgot about this. I guess history showed him pretty spot on.

[jeemak]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/stars-too-injured-overrated-says-former-teammate-jason-akermanis/story-e6frf9jf-1226064457792

Sorry to take the thread off the drug topic, but the above article is interesting reading a few years down the track. Whilst I'm no Aker fan, most of his calls ended up correct (I think he was overly harsh towards Gia who provided very good service in his last few years after Aker left).

Not too say he is right about the drugs stuff, but who knows...

It's just another example of how Akermanis takes a 50/50 view held by those other than he, sensationalises them and waits for roughly half of them to come true.

Down the track we all proclaim him to be misunderstood and on the surface of things, ultimately right. By the time his comments come to light, we don't give any credence to context (Lake at the time was completely cooked with his injury woes) or scrutinise the validity of what he said at the time or his motives for them (Gia - not AFL standard, Higgins - given too many opportunities too early.....comments that of course have nothing to do with these guys being in a leadership group that didn't want him at the club). From what I can gather, retrospectively Tom Williams was a guy who just needed to believe in himself so he could play through broken bones. Plus, that Adam Cooney fellow leaving the club four years later off his own bat just vindicates him more so.