The weekend's big GAA story continues to cut ice. On Sunday, John Greene of the Sunday Independent broke the story that a player from a "prominent county" had failed a routine drugs test in 2016. That report stated that the banned substance entered his system via a contaminated supplement, and it did not name the player.
Within hours of the story's publication, the Kerry County Board released a statement confirming the player in question is Brendan O'Sullivan. They also added the detail that the failed test occurred after the 2016 League final, and that he has already served his suspension. They also said that they would make no further comment until Sport Ireland delivered their report.
Yesterday afternoon, Sport Ireland issued a pretty statement of their own, in response to the Kerry statement and the Sindo report. They confirmed that O'Sullivan had inadvertently taken the banned substance methylhexaneamine, as a result of a contaminated product (which they do not name).
They also confirmed the length of the ban and a lengthy appeals process. It was initially a seven-month ban, which was appealed and reduced to six months. O'Sullivan then appealed that decision, and was given a 21-week suspension, made up of a period of eleven weeks from the 13th of May 2016 to the 28th of July 2016 and a further ten-week period that came into effect from 26th February 2017. He is now free to play.
To debate the issue further, Paul Kimmage and Kerry's Marc O'Sé appeared on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Today FM. They were later joined by Dick Clerkin, who had written about supplement use in the GAA in his Irish Independent column that day.
We have reproduced transcripts of the most relevant parts of the interview below. It can be listened to in full on the Today FM website, and begins at 1 hr 51mins into Cooper's show at this link.
The debate was prefaced by Kimmage explaining why the issue is important:
It is a story about transparency and trust in the anti-doping process, and the Irish Sports Council's role in this. There has been unbelievable anger out there among other amateur sportspeople out there about what they've read in regard to this case. These athletes - cyclists, runners, rowers - they have no problem with what they are obliged to do in fulfillment of the anti-doping process, so long as it is fair, transparent, and the same for everyone else.
But what we have learned today, as the pigs famously remind us in Animal Farm, "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others". This is the problem. There is a real sense that this doping case is being managed rather than being addressed, and that is very, very serious.
Cooper then asked him to clarify what he meant.
You were alarmed by the 13 months [between the failing of the test and the publicising of it]. This is a positive test that dates back to the National League final of 2016. John Greene [Sports Editor of the Sunday Indepenednt] heard about this story, and went digging, and broke the story in our paper on Sunday morning. He tried to contact the Sports Council and the Kerry County Board to find out what was going on, and he got very little insight from either of those, other than to say 'this is a process that is ongoing, and we have nothing further to say'. That was from the Sports Council.
He breaks the story on Sunday morning, and then the Kerry County Board makes a statement. This is where it gets alarming. They're not saying that this is an ongoing process, they are saying that Brendan O'Sullivan has served his suspension, lending us to believe that he has served a suspension, the process has concluded, and nobody has been told about it.
Cooper then brought in Marc O'Sé, and this is how it played out. He began by asking did he know that O'Sullivan had failed a drugs test.
Marc O'Sé: No, I had no idea that this was going on.
Paul Kimmage: Did you play in that game, Marc, the National League?
O'Sé: I did, Paul, I was 37 on that day, and I can tell you I had a bad day at the office, marking Bernard Brogan, I had a bad day at the office.
Kimmage: Sorry, this is important, because you can really move this on for us. Do you remember the testers turning up, and taking Brendan O'Sullivan? Or how many people were tested on that day?
O'Sé: You wouldn't remember that. The only time I remember the testers is when I was tested myself. I was tested myself twice. Once after an All-Ireland final with Tyrone, and once again two years later. So you'd only remember the testers when you were tested yourself, or you'd hear stories about fellas not coming home on the bus as they were delayed by testers. So, look, I 'm hearing this for the first time, so -
Kimmage (interrupting): - how many were tested?
O'Sé (continuing nonetheless): -so it's news to me. What I will say is, I know Brendan O'Sullivan. He' a good lad, he would never get himself knowingly into trouble.
Matt Cooper: So what happened?
O'Sé: How do you mean what happened?
Cooper: How did he end up giving a positive sample?
O'Sé: Look, again, I don't know the ins and outs of that. What I do know, is that Brendan is a good lad. He is possibly taking supplements, all these players are and he maybe took a supplement that he shouldn't have, I don't know. The important thing to remember is that Sport Ireland have said that he didn't intentionally cheat, and I think it's very important to put that out there. At the end of the day, he is an amateur. The fact he was fully co-operating and accepted the rule violation was not intentional, so he did not set out to knowingly gain an advantage.
Cooper: Hold, on, Marc. When you were on the Kerry team, were you taking food supplements?
O'Sé: Of course, I was, yeah.
Cooper: Were the food supplements recommended to you by the Kerry coaches? Were you told what to take?
O'Sé: Oh yeah. The dietician, the doctors, everyone was in the loop -
Cooper: - then why did he actually seem to go online and get something that was different to what was recommended?
O'Sé: Lookit, maybe, on Brendan's behalf, he was a small bit naive, and -
Kimmage (interrupting): Marc, please indulge me here. I don't want to apportion blame to anyone with regard to this. I want to bring some clarity to it. Now. You say you did become aware of this at some stage. Now, if he has taken a supplement and has been banned for this, surely someone in the Kerry team knows about this, and has a duty then to warn all of the panel not to take the supplement? Were you informed about the supplement, and not to take it?
O'Sé: Of course. Of course, players are informed about what not to take -
Kimmage (interrupting): - of this supplement? Not in general terms, specifically?
O'Sé: One second, there. We are all aware of what you are entitled to take, and what you are not entitled to take. Perhaps Brendan was a bit naive, and maybe he didn't realise the dangers that were out there. He was on the Kerry panel, and he was trying to get on the starting team, and he was trying his best. I know Brendan O'Sullivan, I played with him for a year, sat next to him in the dressing room, I know the young fella, there is no way he would intentionally set out to do this.
Cooper: Okay, Marc. Presumably, the Kerry management knew that he had a positive test. So in a circumstance like that, would they not have told the entire squad, 'Jesus lads, ye cannot take anything beyond what the doctor here recommends, as we have a problem here because one of ye did'?
O'Sé: Like I said, we had no idea had Brendan O'Sullivan had tested positive. The first I heard of it was this weekend. what I'm led to believe, the reason this did not come out until now is that Brendan had appealed, and a number of appeals had gone in, and that this had only concluded recently. I may be corrected on that, but that's my understanding as to why this is only coming out now.
After that, Cooper mentioned rugby, a sport about which Kimmage has spoken about previously, with regard to supplements and medicalisation.
This is where we are getting back to the nub of the problem. Sport Ireland, and the role they have played in it. The sense of injustice I mentioned earlier. With regard to the how they are treated and the big sports, rugby, Gaelic football, hurling, there's a disparity there and it's not right.
Former Monaghan player Dick Clerkin was then brought into the conversation, with reference made to his column in Monday's Irish Independent. Kimmage commended him on the article, as it had done a great service to the game by writing of how he was guilty of naivety in buying supplements online. That piece also stated Clerkin's opinion that there is not a doping problem within the GAA.
He elaborated on that with Cooper, Kimmage, and O'Sé:
Dick Clerkin - I'm fairly confident that doping is not a major issue with the GAA. Very simply, and Paul, you can agree or disagree with this. There are two key things for doping to be an epidemic in a sport.For me, there needs to be a substantial gain in terms of performance, for winning or losing, and following that, there needs to be a financial gain.
Kimmage (trying to interrupt): - Can I answer that-
Clerkin (continuing nonetheless):: And I don't think that's a major problem in the GAA -
Kimmage (interrupting): Ok, ok, ok. Let me answer that. GPA grants, free cars, sponsored clothes, good jobs, newspaper columns, RTE contracts, product launches, hotel openings, I'm sorry, Dick. There are -
Clerkin (interrupting): - No, Paul. It's €500 vs €500,000, -
Kimmage (finishing his point): - there are significant advantages to doing well in GAA.
Cooper then returned to O'Sé:
O'Sé: Getting back to Brendan. One thing I'll say on it. Was Brendan guilty of something? He was, he was guilty of not following the rules, and looking stuff up online.
Kimmage: How can you speak for Brendan. Marc, you said you didn't know about this until the weekend, and yet you seem to know more than anybody about this?
O'Sé: I'm saying I know Brendan. As a person. And Brendan is a good guy -
Kimmage (interrupting): - Good has nothing to do with it. I'm sorry Marc.
O'Sé: Look, he's not into the fast cars, Paul, he's not into his grants. He's an honest to god young fella. He's playing football, and he;s trying to do his best. Did Brendan O'Sullivan do something wrong? Yeah, he was guilty of not checking what he was taking. Like Dick said there, was he gaining an advantage? Most certainly not. That's a very important point.
Kimmage: Well you don't know, Marc. With respect, you don't know.
O'Sé: I do know, Sport Ireland have come out and said it, that he did not take it on purpose, and that he did not gain an advantage. So I do know Paul. They are after coming out to say this.
Kimmage: Well I'm glad you can understand what that Sport Ireland said, because nobody else could.
You can listen to the debate in full on the Today FM website.
See Also: 'Blanket Defences? We Scored 2-17 Last Week, And Could Have Scored 6-17'
