Former Australian track and field athlete Dave Culbert believes Dustin Fletcher should not be recognised as a 400 game player.
Culbert, now a prominent sports media broadcaster, said on SEN radio on Wednesday morning, that by definition, due to the nature of the ban, the games played by Fletcher and the other banned players in 2015 should not be counted on record.
โWhen you look at the finding thereโs a two-year period of ineligibility. They served an interim suspension when they took themselves out of training, but the suspension backdates to March 2015,โ Culbert said on SEN radio.
โTherefore all of the games that the players played in the 2015 season, theyโre ineligible.
โBy definition the games that theyโve played donโt count, so Dustin Fletcher isnโt a 400 game player.
โThose games have to be removed from their record and therefore Dustin Fletcher doesnโt get to 400 games.
โThis isnโt an easy thing to say, itโs not a nice thing to say, you donโt say it with any joy, but these are the facts of what happens when players breach anti-doping rules.โ
Fletcher retired at season's end on exactly 400 games and he is one of only four men in the history of the VFL/AFL competition to reach the milestone, along with Michael Tuck, Kevin Bartlett and Brent Harvey.
was his name on the list of players injected
who decides what goes into the drink bottles that every player use’s on and off the field , and wouldnt the “Team/ club appointed professional Doctor be responsible for what the players are given ?” Has any one ever seen a player ask the water boy “hey whats in this bottle ?” it’s called TRUST in your club . no more box’s of drink in the rooms after a game
All players regardless of the time spent in a club TRUST implicitly the team doctors , medical team , nutritionists , dietitians and over all management and probably along with their parents sign waivers to do what ever they are told believing that it is ALL LEGAL
If you use this argument, then for every game a banned player played in last year, the club should be fined for playing an ineligible player. The points then appointed to the other team (if Essendon won the game). This then changes the ladder for 2015 and therefore all finals games. The backdating is a joke as the players took the field and have not and were not deemed ineligible.