wrong message to clean players trying to earn living
I was at the World Athletics Championships in London last summer and didn’t need the sight of Linford Christie wandering around in the shadows or the reverberations still felt by Justin Gatlin’s win a few evenings previously for the absolute folly of forgiveness when it comes to protecting the integrity of a sport to be reinforced.
When Ger Gilroy started this debate about whether Munster should have signed Grobler on Off The Ball AM on Wednesday morning, there were questions raised about why the media were only dealing with this now as opposed to when Munster signed him last summer.
This is irrelevant, there is no statute of limitation on when an issue like this should be discussed.
What was also used to effectively shut down debate was the excuse that “everybody makes mistakes” which ignores that what sportspeople do is different to what most other people do.
Not everyone’s job involves kids watching them work, cheering them and supporting them. Not everyone’s job involves people paying to see them work.
Not everyone’s job involves holding the trust of hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of people.
Not everyone’s job involves representing people, representing counties, a province, a country.
A professional sportsperson who represents a team, a people, is held in higher regard to everyone else in the community and with that comes huge responsibility.
When it comes to an attitude about drugs in sport we’re all involved to varying degrees because we create the climate.
If there is a climate of indifference towards Munster signing a player who served a suspension for doping then what about the danger of that trickling down to the decisionmaking of some other 21-yearold player who’s struggling with injuries, fearful of losing his contract and wondering what to do next?
If the climate is created by those around the game, the culture is set by those in power and with power.
Munster – and the IRFU for clearing the deal – should not have signed a player who served a ban for doping because it shows there is a pathway for players to get back into playing after deciding to dope, which continues the vicious cycle of some people believing that taking performance- enhancing drugs is a worthwhile risk.
The next time Irish rugby players are asked to wear a version of those #keeprugbyclean T-shirts, how will that sit with a decision by a province to sign the services of a player who doped?
The media debate has started on what Irish rugby’s stance should be – every case needs to be looked at individually but when it comes to giving out contracts there should be zero tolerance with regard to a doping past to protect the livelihood of clean players.
Forgiveness is a wonderful attribute to have in life but it has different repercussions when it comes to protecting the integrity of sport.
Munster head coach Johann van Graan said this week that Grobler’s ban “is a long time in the past”.
It’s not. The position Irish rugby takes on an issue like this has ramifications for the present and the future of the game here.