Why Martin, Why????

[pedro]

And maybe we end up with another RL player feeling exactly the same way that Terry Newton did.

So PM, wot's the answer to his OWN demons, ?

Repeat, he can't rely on other people to continually be at his beck and call, each time he "cocks" himself up.

At some point, he has to help HIMSELF - that's just life !

Its called support...support him to help himself. To say thats just life is ignorant as a lot of people mess up and get help and support. Why should he be any different? Beacause he played rugby?...Go and have a word with yourself

[Wes]

Im gona say 2 things on this and 2 things only, I will not reply to any responses as this is my opinion on the matter.

1) What hes been caught for is in most pre work out drinks that you can legally buy, jacked 3d being 1 of them, however the substance is on the anti doping list so although I dont think it is bad what hes been caught for both he and the club should know better, our game has some of the best nutritionists now, they should be used better by both club and players.

2) You cant help someone that doesnt want to be helped ... you can take a horse to water ... etc etc etc

[Kittwazzer]

Comment from Martin's dad. Read tomorrow's Mail on Sunday!

[Kittwazzer]

Here's the article in today's MoS. Looks like Martin is not going to roll over and play dead. Good luck to him!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/articl ... andal.html

[Fujiman]

Here's the article in today's MoS. Looks like Martin is not going to roll over and play dead. Good luck to him!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/articl ... andal.html

Interesting but if they were all on it how come nobody tested positive after the derby match?

[josie andrews]

RFL statement - 15th of January 2012

The RFL has today reaffirmed confidence in its actions during the recent doping investigation involving former Hull FC Chief Executive James Rule, former player Martin Gleeson and former conditioning coach Ben Cooper.

“We are clear that the governing body acted entirely appropriately throughout what was a long and complicated investigation involving UK Anti-Doping and a National Anti-Doping Panel,” said RFL Chief Operating Officer Ralph Rimmer.

“As part of their investigation, UK Anti-Doping received external legal advice which found that there was no evidence to suggest that anyone at the RFL was complicit in the giving of false evidence to the NADP, or knew at all that the evidence was false. It found that there was no case for anyone at the RFL to answer.”

The RFL will be making no further comment at this time.

http://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/24 ... -statement

[Kittwazzer]

“The RFL will be making no further comment at this time.”

So why aren't they instructing their lawyers?

[Kittwazzer]

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/201 ... up-160103/

Sean Long EXCLUSIVE: ‘I gave Gleeson banned drugs. Gleeson scapegoat in cover-up’

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

16 January 2012

SEAN Long, the former Wigan, St Helens, England and Great Britain international rugby league star, has spoken for the first time – exclusively to Sportingintelligence – about his role in the rugby drugs scandal at Hull FC that led to Martin Gleeson getting a career-ending ban, and about the subsequent cover-up, which involved Hull and other parties.

Gleeson has alleged that the game’s governing body, the Rugby Football League, were also involved in the cover-up and that there is documentary evidence that RFL officials did not pass key information to the authorities when they were obliged to do so under the terms of the UK National Anti-Doping Policy.

A simple point-by-point guide to the case and main allegations is here

Central to the case is who gave Gleeson a dietary supplement called OxyElite Pro, which contained ‘controlled’ stimulant, MHA, as a listed ingredient.

If MHA is found in a sportsman’s body in competition, they can be banned for up to two years for a first offence.

Gleeson, along with the then HULL C.E.O James Rules and the club’s conditioning coach, Ben Cooper, was initially party to a false explanation that Gleeson had bought the OxyElite Pro himself and that Cooper had mistakenly told him it was ‘safe’. The reasoning behind lying early on was an attempt to get a ‘no fault’ short ban for Gleeson, and avoid bad publicity for Hull.

In fact, multiple players had been using the drug, by mistake.

And it was Sean Long who personally gave the OxyElite Pro to Gleeson, to cope with fatigue.

Long has a totally clean record and was only using the supplement himself in error.

The supplement provides a caffeine-like buzz and Long had been using it to combat tiredness. Long had checked it with Cooper and Cooper had – mistakenly – told Long it was safe.

The fact that Long gave the drug to Gleeson is utterly pivotal. Key RFL officials knew this on 3 June, the day Gleeson found out about a positive test in a sample given on 13 May. And yet those officials did not alert UK Anti-Doping at the time, as they should. A cover-up ensued that cost Rule and Cooper their jobs, and landed Rule, Cooper and Gleeson with doping bans.

Gleeson’s was commuted to 18 months when he helped to prosecute Rule and Cooper but nobody from the RFL has faced any sanction.

The RFL say they were cleared on the advice of external legal opinion to UKAD but have failed to answer an array of questions to explain what they knew and when, and why they were apparently party to the cover-up.

‘I gave Martin the OxyElite when he joined Hull and it’s a crying shame that he has been a scapegoat in this case,’ Long told Sportingintelligence today.

‘I’d been using OxyElite Pro for months, and so had other lads at the club, mistakenly, because Coops had told us it was fine.

‘After Gleece tested positive and we heard that news on 3 June, I was in a right panic, and I wasn’t the only one. I’d taken it OxyElite Pro as recently as the night before, the Thursday, and we had a massive derby against Hull KR on the Sunday.

‘I didn’t want to play because there was a danger I’d be tested and a danger I’d failed a test but I was told “It should be out of your system by Sunday.”

‘Incredibly that derby went ahead, with me playing in it, and with Gleece playing in it because they’d got his suspension temporarily lifted on the basis of an untrue story about how he’d got the drugs. And there were other lads who’d used it who also played in that game.

‘I could have tested positive and then “Bang”, that would’ve been a 19-year career down the swanny, ruined. As it happened I dislocated my shoulder and I broke my thumb and I had to go to hospital so I wasn’t available for testing.

‘But the thought of having your reputation ruined is terrible. That’s what’s happened to Martin and I hope the full truth emerges so that everyone can know what really happened.’

At group of Hull players including internationals from more than one country, gave written evidence to a long, secret UKAD investigation into the cover-up to tell how they had used OxyElite Pro mistakenly or knew of its use by other team-mates.

Long, now assistant coach at Salford City Reds, submitted a written statement that included the following:

‘I have been playing professional rugby league for 18 years, internationally since 1997 and I have had a clean record throughout. I have been tested at least 3 to 4 times a year and have always sought approval prior to taking a supplement, in accordance with the regulations of whatever club I have been playing for.

‘I finished my career after 18 years through injury but had I have been tested that day, it could have very easily me or in fact any of the other players in that team. It is unfair and unjust that Martin’s been banned, when he thought what he was taking had been cleared by the club.

‘None of the players that were taking this supplement were taking it as a performance enhancing drug.’

At tribunal, Hull FC did not even provide Gleeson with legal representation. James Rule acted as ‘counsel’ as more lies were told.

‘I believe that if Martin had had the opportunity of proper legal representation at that early stage he would not be facing a two-year ban,’ Long wrote to UKAD. ‘At the most it would have been six months, in line with other rugby union and football players that tested positive for the same substance.’

Long told Sportingintelligence: ‘I hope the full facts are made public now. The truth needs to be told.’

[butt monkey]

So the crux appears to be that more than one person (Martin Gleeson) at Hull were taking this supplement under the "mistaken" belief it was safe to do so, and this fact has been covered up by both Hull and the RFL

I’d been using OxyElite Pro for months, and so had other lads at the club, mistakenly, because Coops had told us it was fine.

‘After Gleece tested positive and we heard that news on 3 June, I was in a right panic, and I wasn’t the only one. I’d taken it OxyElite Pro as recently as the night before, the Thursday, and we had a massive derby against Hull KR on the Sunday.

‘I didn’t want to play because there was a danger I’d be tested and a danger I’d failed a test but I was told “It should be out of your system by Sunday.”

‘Incredibly that derby went ahead, with me playing in it, and with Gleece playing in it because they’d got his suspension temporarily lifted on the basis of an untrue story about how he’d got the drugs. And there were other lads who’d used it who also played in that game.

The part I underlined suggests that Hull were knowingly using this stimulant to enhance players performance prior to games. What a shambles this affair will become and totally undermines what they achieved last season

[butt monkey]

UK Anti-Doping have given their backing to the Rugby Football League in the Martin Gleeson drugs case.

The former Hull centre, suspended for 18 months after testing positive for a banned substance, alleged the RFL had taken part in a cover-up and that he has been made a scapegoat.

UK Anti-Doping issued a statement on Monday saying: "UK Anti-Doping conducted full and extensive investigations which led to three individuals receiving bans totalling seven years.

"This was the first time that any member of an athlete's entourage has been banned in this country and the first time globally that tampering with the doping control process in this manner has resulted in a violation.

"We sought external legal advice to independently review all possible charges during this process. Throughout our investigations, when approximately 250 hours of UK Anti-Doping staff time was spent on this case, we received support from Hull RLFC and the RFL."

Looks like a "closing of ranks" http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... gs-backing