OK, not sure where to post this as it crosses a number of categories, but have plumped for here - mods feel free to move.

I have just finished reading "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong" by David Walsh. Its a great read and I can thoroughly recommend it. As a synopsis, David Walsh is a Sunday Times journalist who from Lance's very first Tour win questioned whether he had had some chemical assistance. The novel details the long battle in which in the end David's belief (and the knowledge gleaned from numerous others who were bullied and harassed by Armstrong and his team).

What struck me as I was reading it (and the reason I chose to post this here) was the similarities between what David Walsh describes and what we have seen with the Essendon supplements saga.

In 1998 the Tour de France was ruined by the revelations that the Festina Team was systematically doping, in the aftermath of this the 1999 Tour (Lance's first win) was heralded as the first "clean" Tour and a new era. Walsh reveals how this was simply not the case.

Linking this to the Essendon situation you can see the parallels between the denials, luke warm investigations, pontification from the sports governing bodies, the personal attacks on journalists seeking to report the truth and even the dastardly "chemist" who came up with the scheme. Its actually frightening when you align the 2 scandals just how similarly they play out.

What this all suggests to me is that its not over and that the use of supplements that push the boundaries is considerably more widespread in the AFL than just Essendon. The rush by the AFL to get the matter resolved ahead of the 2013 finals really was just a hatchet job to close the matter and give the public some perception that the matter was done and dusted.

When something like this occurs it should be evidence to the governing body that its not just a one off situation, but a symptom of a much deeper problem. Just as the UCI chose to gloss over the 1998 Festina doping as being an isolated event. So too has the the AFL chosen to stick their head in the sand re the use of illegal supplements. Hird et al may have gotten off on the drug use charges by pleading ignorance and blaming it all on Dank and Robinson, but that doesn't mean that there is no issue.

Where there is smoke there is fire......