Are performance enhancing drugs an issue in the GAA?
The recent PED incident surrounding Kerry’s Brendan O’Sullivan has raised a critical conversation within the GAA — does it have a doping problem?
This is an article about prejudice on both sides of an important issue. Therefore, it is important to state my own bias from the outset. I love Gaelic games, both hurling and football. I love them for a multitude of reasons. I love the freedom of expression, the wildness, the brilliance seen in a great game. In an increasingly homogenous western world where it appears that the Irish language is dying, I love the fact that Gaelic games are one of the few aspects that mark Irish culture as being unique and special.
I love the fact that a team from Slaughtneil in Derry, with a pick of a couple of hundred people, only half of which are men, can hound the Saint Vincent’s men of Marino into submission, on their quest for national respect and local veneration.
People all over the country, regardless of sex, age or race, will be discussing the weekend’s events at local and county level. What happened to Waterford? Did Connolly deserve his suspension? Did ya hear himself was out drinking at the weekend? Jesus, Mark Coleman looks like a child! Ireland is one of the few countries in the world where some of the best athletes that an area can offer will give up most of their free time in their twenties and thirties in the pursuit of the original Corinthian ideal; pride of place and the pursuit of excellence. These are games that seep into the fabric of communities nationwide and have been shown to be impervious to good and bad times alike.
This draws the events involving the Kerry senior footballer, Brendan O’Sullivan over the past weeks into sharp focus. He has been under investigation and has served a suspension over the past year in relation to a potential doping offence, discovered after the league final against Dublin in 2016. The following is a detailed review of the facts of the report from Sport Ireland pertaining to the case. This is important because there appears to have been a misrepresentation of the facts in several quarters in relation to same.
Initially, the report details the Valentia man’s background and playing pedigree. It then details the nutritional advice provided by the Kerry nutritionist and O’Sullivan’s perceived intolerance of caffeine gels that had been recommended/checked as safe by the Kerry set-up. Next, there is an exact description as to the sequence of events that led him to buy the named product, Oxyburn Pro Superthermotech, in a shop in Cork City, on the advice of a friend. The report also documents the other pharmaceutical products/supplements that O’Sullivan had ingested in the previous two weeks which included; co-amoxiclav (Augmentin), magnesium, krill oil, pharmaton, vitamin C, pre-fuel, caffeine tablets and gel and whey protein.
Sport Ireland stated that the product that O’Sullivan used was contaminated with methylhexamine and was not labelled on the list of ingredients. They also stated that O’Sullivan was not wilfully trying to dope/gain an illegal advantage over his team-mates/competitors. Finally, they also stated that the level of education provided by the Kerry county board in relation to supplements was insufficient. He was found guilty of an offence because ultimately, it was O’Sullivan’s responsibility as to what product he put into his body and he did not heed the precautions that were available to him as a high level athlete.
This correlates with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) statement that athletes ‘need to be aware that, under the policy of strict liability, they are responsible for any substance found in their body. Athletes using supplements do so at their own risk and, because of supplement manufacturing processes can lead to their contents varying from batch to batch, ASADA cannot advise if supplements contain prohibited substances.’ Essentially, O’Sullivan was found guilty of inadvertently making his bed and having to lie in it.
Methylhexaneamine (MHA), a chemical relative of ephedrine, was originally intended to be used as a nasal decongestant in the 1970s, but in more recent times it has found its way into dietary supplements marketed with thermogenic/weight loss or stimulant properties. It has been known to be tricky substance to locate in the ingredients section of over the counter energy products and while it is banned in sport, it is still legal in dietary supplements, making it incredibly difficult to monitor. It came to prominence in 2009 when five sprinters, including Yohan Blake, at the Jamaican Athletics Championships were found to have positive samples. In 2010, nine Australian Athletes were found by the Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority to have tested positive for the substance and has been implicated in rugby league controversies in the UK in more recent years. It was also the substance in footballer Kolo Toure’s wife’s slimming tablets that caused him to receive a significant suspension in 2011.
Over the past few weeks, there has been an interesting debate waged as to whether performance enhancing drug use is an emerging issue in the GAA at intercounty level. There have been numerous arguments made by many parties in relation to the story, some of which appear to be skewed by personal belief systems. There are a number of ex-players who have come out in defence of O’Sullivan, adopting the stance that the GAA is not in danger of doping infiltration because, well, it’s the GAA — these are amateur players and they are honourable men who live amongst us, train and play for the pride in representing their county and have nothing to gain from cheating from using performance enhancing drugs.
This is a non-argument. GAA county teams take the games they play incredibly seriously and devote a significant portion of their youth and spare time in the pursuit of excellence and a common team goal. The temptation to try gain an extra advantage over an opponent and indeed team-mate competing for the same position is understandable and absolutely needs to be guarded against.
Dick Clerkin, writing in the Independent, stated that Gaelic football is largely a skill-based game and that this would remove the motivation to dope. This point was mentioned as an aside at the end of his piece and was immediately used as a stick to beat him with. In fairness, his assertion is wrong. Gaelic games are indeed skill-based but require significant aerobic, anaerobic and strength reserves at both club and inter-county level. Using an illegal drug in the form of stimulants, steroids, blood products etc. could have an exponential impact on a player’s performance, not to mention an ability to recover more quickly from tough training. To argue otherwise is willful ignorance and not in keeping with scientific evidence.
Tomás O’Sé has made the point that the professional and personal implications for an amateur player are too great and that the GAA and GPA should reconsider allowing players to be tested. Again, I do not think that this is a valid argument. The purpose of drug testing isn’t just to catch cheaters but to also protect the players involved and the integrity of the game. There is no evidence of players who don’t welcome testing, because it helps to safeguard a level playing field and indeed individual health status. Indeed, Michael Murphy declared last week that ‘if in order to keep things right, I would be in favour of testing every week if that was what it took’. Even on an economic basis, players receive tax-payer’s money in the form of grants and therefore should be subjected to the testing requirements of other athletes receiving the same in other sporting disciplines.
On the other hand, there have been numerous writers that have insinuated that doping in the GAA is a bigger issue than previously thought. Ewan MacKenna wrote in an article for the The Independent (UK) that to “claim that elite players are amateur is a falsity with […] grants between 519 and 1,066 euro per year in government grants”, as well as petrol expenses. As a weekly income for a top player, this comes to roughly twenty euro, hardly an incentive to dope. MacKenna also states “five teams […] were guilty of missing tests due to whereabouts failures and fines were administered ranging from €310 to €1,025 in each of those cases”, appearing to suggest that teams had been intentionally changing venues to avoid testers.
This is not the reality and MacKenna is likely to have known this as an excellent GAA correspondent. County teams without dedicated county facilities will constantly have to change plans for training secondary to waterlogged pitches, double bookings, match cancellations etc. This exact point was previously addressed as a mitigating factor by Dr Una May, the head of anti-doping in Ireland. To suggest otherwise could be seen as deceptive and obtuse. He creates an impression in the piece of a culture of secrecy and deceit where there has proven to be none.
Eamonn Sweeney, in the Sunday Independent, wrote that “O’Sullivan deliberately sought out and took something for the purpose of enhancing his performance”. This is a vague statement at best and misrepresents the findings of the Irish Sports Council. A player can eat some porridge in the morning in order to have enough energy to train hard later that day. Is that player guilty of deliberately seeking out some carbohydrate for performance enhancement? He also says that the amount of tests carried out is miniscule compared to the amount of inter-county players. The reason for this is simply that the Irish Sports Council “do not consider Gaelic games as high risk, and time has told us that”, as stated by Dr Una May, the Irish Sports council anti-doping director. The other reality is that behind athletics and cycling, Gaelic games participants are the most tested athletes in Ireland. The reason for being third on this list is self-explanatory.
Sweeney, Paul Kimmage and several other journalists have stated that three players have tested positive for doping since the inception of testing, implying absolute guilt with or without sanction. Again, this is not strictly accurate. Aidan O’Mahony, an intercounty footballer with a long and documented history of severe asthma, was found to have an increased level of salbutamol in his blood after the All-Ireland final of 2008 and was subsequently investigated.
The GAA’s Anti-Doping Hearing Committee “emphatically ruled that the high level of salbutamol in his system was due to using an asthma inhaler for medical purposes only and exonerated him of any attempt to enhance his sporting performance” and he was cleared of any wrong-doing.
Thomas Connolly, the Monaghan player, was found to have the substance stanozol in his system after a national league game in 2015. This is a more controversial case and could easily be argued as willful ignorance on the part of the player, who admitted to consuming anabolic steroids to combat the pain associated with challenging training sessions but did not understand that this would constitute doping due to a lack of education from the county team representatives. Charlie Francis, the coach of disgraced Ben Johnson, would describe this as ‘low-IQ training’ — getting caught, and frankly constitutes doping in my opinion.
Finally, it is important to re-iterate that Brendan O’Sullivan was not found guilty of taking a drug for the purpose of performance enhancement but of negligence on his own behalf. Therefore, of the three positive drug tests in the GAA since testing began in 2001, there has been one instance in which it can credibly argued that a player was using a substance for the purpose of gaining an unethical advantage over his opponents.
Both Ian O’ Riordan and Paul Kimmage have voiced interesting opinions on the case. Kimmage tweeted “To all my GAA friends: Wake up and smell the caffeine. Because once the Genie is out of the bottle there’s no putting it back” and has subsequently demanded transparency.
On Off the Ball’s Sunday paper review show, he demanded why the name of the product wasn’t released to the general public and that the likelihood of the product being contaminated was laughable. There has been very little said since the name of the exact product was released by the Irish Sports Council and the exact sequence of events that lead to a failed test. He also asked John Greene, the journalist who wrote the original piece “Had any of this yet? ‘You’re not worth the chair you’re sitting on!’”, suggesting that GAA fans were angry at one of their own being exposed.
Besides being willful speculation, that sentiment has not been expressed by any GAA fan that I have spoken to on the matter. Cycling ideals and culture do not correspond to the GAA’s and there should be no comparison made. Ian O’Riordan suggested that O’Sullivan was taking the product for weight loss purposes as the product is marketed as both a fat burner and a stimulant. Again, this strikes as willful misinterpretation to discredit the player in question. He also listed the number of supplements that O’Sullivan had taken in the two weeks before the league final, tweeting “So this is what your average amateur GAA player takes before a game”. This is another example of twisting facts to suit his own narrative as it clearly states in the Sports Ireland statement that this was what the player had taken in the two weeks leading up to the final, not the day before. There may well be a supplements culture that exploits people in their pursuit of health, but that is a different argument for a different day and is certainly not unique to GAA players. It is unfair to use this as evidence against O’Sullivan.
Finally, it is important to describe what a drug culture in the GAA would consist of. For it to succeed, it would require buy-in at every level on a county team, players and staff alike. It would require the county board to consistently be amenable to changing venues for training at the last minute to avoid detection.
It would involve medical staff supervision and complicit approval/direction of effective doping protocols. It would involve over thirty members of a playing panel to agree to take performance enhancing drugs while maintaining omerta for the rest of their playing careers and beyond. This also takes into account players who have been dropped off the panel before championship, back to their home clubs where local enmities can fester and test the tightest of lips. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is the case in the GAA.
On the other hand, it would be willfully naive to think that there aren’t players out there who are tempted to take PEDs to secure their place on a county team. Drug testing is absolutely necessary to protect the players and the integrity of the games that the country loves. Journalists have a duty to seek out the truth, in the interests of the public’s right to know but they also have an absolute duty not to misrepresent any text, document, or people’s expressed opinions. In the topical and headline generating world of doping in sport, I’m not sure that this has always been the case in this instance.
