‘IT’S UNFAIR TO SAY “CHEAT”...’

THE player at the centre of the drug test failure that has rocked the GAA, played for Monaghan three times this season. He featured in all three of Monaghan’s pre-season McKenna Cup games, against UUJ, Down and Cavan, before failing a random drugs test in February. He becomes only the second player to have failed a test since the GAA signed up to the Irish Sports Council’s policy to police against the use of drugs. Kerry’s Aidan O’Mahony beat a two-year ban in 2008 after excessive levels of Salbutamol in his system were found to be related to treatment for a medical condition. However, the Monaghan player could be faced with a four-year ban after WADA, the World’s anti-doping agency, doubled the maximum ban for athletes found to have used performance enhancing drugs last year, after claims that a 24-month suspension was too lenient. However, while the GAA will be bound by the Irish Sports Council, ‘mitigating factors’, if they are found to exist, will be taken into account and discretion can also be used in any proposed action when the association deals with the case next month. Privately, it is understood the GAA is furious at the leaking of the failed test as they are still not in receipt of official confirmation from the Irish Sports Council, but they were aware it was imminent. GAA president Aoghán Ó Fearghail (below) insisted yesterday that he did not believe that there was a ‘cheating’ culture within the association and warned against rushing to ‘judgment.’ ‘Players will always compete at the highest level to win but I would think it is unfair to discuss and use the word ‘cheat’ in the same sentence as what is happening (now). ‘These are ongoing issues. Players will do what they can to win but they generally will do it within the rules of the game as best they can,’ he adedd. Meanwhile, the GPA released a statement yesterday, claiming that the status of the player was a ‘trial panelist’ but confirming that they were ‘advising’ him. ‘The GPA is currently advising a GAA player who has had an adverse finding as a result of an out-ofcompetition drug test in February of this year. ‘The player in question is a trial panelist and whilst he is not a member of the GPA, the Association is nonetheless providing him with personal and professional support,’ read the statement from the players’ body.