WE NEED THIS

Test failure will help keep GAA clean — Sheedy

FORMER Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy believes the GAA needs drug testing procedures to uphold the integrity of its games.

Following yesterday’s revelation that a Monaghan player had failed a drug test, the man who led Tipperary to All-Ireland success in 2010, and who is a member of the Irish Sports Council, said: ‘If someone’s crossed the line, there has to be penalties.

‘I think it’s really important that we can always put our hands up and say that we’re an absolutely clean sport. I wouldn’t like any of my team to be claiming an edge by taking supplements or anything like that,’ said Sheedy (right).

‘We always need to ensure that any sport is operating in a true sporting manner and that’s why I think it’s really, really important to ensure that the behaviours we have embedded stay, in whatever form. I know it’s really difficult on players t o be t here, f our hours waiting

but ultimately we have to make sure that we can say that the GAA is run to a real high standard and is 100 per cent clean. GAA President Aogán Ó Fearghail says he has full trust in the Irish Sports Council system for dealing with a failed drugs test and is confident that the process dealing with the unnamed Monaghan footballer, who tested positive last February, will be dealt with in a fair and accurate manner. The Association has been rocked by the news that the player, described by the GPA as a ‘trial panelist’ tested positive for a steroid in February, putting the drug-testing demands on amateur players under the spotlight. ‘It’s a process and it’s ongoing, that’s the most important thing,’ said the GAA President yesterday. ‘And it would be very unfair of me to make any comment on something that is an on-going issue. ‘All I am concerned with is [that] the process is followed fairly and accurately for the player concerned and for the Association as a whole, but until that process is complete, I would hold fire on having concerns of any kind. We co-operate very closely with the Irish Sports Council and I have full trust in the system.’ Ó Fearghail also refused to say whether he was surprised by the positive test. ‘Very little surprises me in life. We have close to a million members in the GAA. Our players are volunteers, there’s no personal gain for any player. Things happen but this is an ongoing process.’ Sheedy added: ‘Ultimately we all need to operate in clean sports. I’ve had situations being involved as a manager but the tester comes, you do your test and they move away.’ The former Tipp boss was

speaking at the launch of RTÉ’s Championship coverage in Knocktopher in Ballyhale, where Henry Shefflin was unveiled as an analyst for the first time. Long-time pundit and former Cork All-Ireland winner Tomás Mulcahy (below) was also on hand and he described the current drug-testing procedures as a ‘minefield’, adding that every county team will be worried by the reports of a failed test. ‘When you hear of somebody testing positive, that’s going to ring alarm bells all over every county panel. ‘In the euphoria of a big game, whether it’s a Munster Championship or a League final, suddenly you’re the player who is pulled away and you have to go in and give a urine sample. All the boys are out having the craic, enjoying the celebrations, and you’re still in there under the tunnel inside with a little bottle. ‘For me, as part of the older type of brigade, it’s hard to take that on board. But it is what it is. ‘Look at the publicity that a player will get if he tests positive. It will have a big impact, not alone from a team perspective but his own personal life, family life, job situation. There are huge complications down the road. Is it going to lead to players saying, “I’ve had enough of this”? ‘It’s supposed to be random but if you’re unlucky that you’re pulled in a couple of times, is it inside in your head then that these boys think something? We talk about the amateur game but testing like that is a professional approach, a professional demand. Will the players down the road look for something different because of that? I don’t think so.’ He felt that it’s the level below inter-county where the real problems could lie. ‘I would worry what’s going on underneath. Same as happened in rugby where guys took it on board themselves to go to the gym and do their own thing and take their own supplements to actually say, “I want to be a Henry Shefflin, I want to be a Patrick Horgan”, ’ but without the professional back-up behind him. It’s a huge minefield. Last Sunday in Thurles I saw four or five from the Irish Sports Council. ‘The secretary of the Cork County Board said, “They’re there for the drug-testing, to take samples”. I just thought, “This has gone to another level”.’