Swans’ cortisone pain

Star duo, club fined $30,000 for failing to declare treatments in finals

BREACHES of strict AFL rules introduced because of the Essendon supplements scandal have landed Sydney and two of its top players in hot water.

The league has fined the Swans, Lance Franklin and Luke Parker a total of $30,000 for failing to declare cortisone treatments on their doping control forms during last year’s finals series.

The Swans were penalised $20,000 for failing to keep upto-date records on the AFL’s controlled treatments register.

Half of the Sydney fine was suspended.

The AFL treatment rules were brought in four years ago as a direct result of the Essendon supplement debacle.

After a lengthy and controversial process, 34 current and past Essendon players served bans last year for doping offences.

A joint AFL-Sydney statement said the Swans or the players had not broken antidoping rules.

“The sanctions arose out of inadvertent administrative failures to record required information during the 2016 AFL finals series,” the statement read.

“At no stage have the Sydney Swans failed to adhere to WADA rules and all treatments used by their players were WADA approved.”

The WADA rules reference in the AFL-Swans statement was endorsed late yesterday by ASADA.

“The treatments are not prohibited under the WADA code. ASADA investigated the matter and concluded that no anti-doping rule violation had occurred,” an ASADA spokesperson told AAP.

The league said the Swans were fined for “failing to keep and maintain a complete, accurate and up-to-date regis- ter of controlled treatments in the AFL’s controlled treatments register”.

The AFL noted that the club doctor kept thorough medical records of player treatments.

“The AFL took into account that the club’s failure in this case was an oversight during an intense pre-and-post grand final period and that the club otherwise had excellent medical procedures,” the statement read.

Franklin and Parker were fined $5000 each because they did not record the cortisone treatments on control forms when they had drug tests.

“This is not a breach of the WADA code but is a breach of the AFL’s Treatment Rules, which go above and beyond the WADA Code,” the league said. “In both cases the players received anti-inflammatory treatment cortisone, a WADAcompliant treatment, but inadvertently failed to declare this as required by the rules.”