Bennett: We All Have Duty of Care on Drug Use
by Wayne Bennett
Monday April 02, 2007
Source: The Australian newspaper
MUCH has been written and said about drugs in football. This time it's the AFL.
In the bad old days, with what has unfolded at the West Coast Eagles, other clubs and other codes would have been privately rubbing their hands together. Throwing stones.
Things have changed. We all face the same problems.
We've had rugby union scandals, rugby league, AFL, soccer -- and that's just the team sports.
Understand there are two distinct aspects when it comes to drugs in sport: performance-enhancing drugs, and recreational drugs. Illicit drugs.
Unfortunately, administrators and clubs across the codes are still living in the past. Drugs are not going to go away.
Old habits linger. The unwritten law -- regardless of your behaviour off the field, if you train hard, turn up on time and you play hard and have talent, we will protect you.
Players generally are really good blokes. And I have to say from my experience that most players finding themselves in trouble have been good blokes.
Look, I haven't gone through a long coaching career without regrets and one of my deep regrets is I was one of those coaches.
But I came to the realisation 18 months ago I had to change. Because it was only going to be a matter of time before clubs would find themselves in the same position as the West Coast Eagles.
No one out there is going to protect you any more.
In times gone, the coach would protect you, players would rally around you and the club would put up a smokescreen.
Just as importantly, the media has completely changed its attention. In yesteryear, or at least yesterday, the media was part of the cover-up because it didn't want to know this story.
It changed. The second thing to turn me around was duty of care. I've always taken this role very seriously, even before the term duty of care came into being.
Parents entrust their children to you at 17 and 18 years of age and their lives change dramatically. Those changes are to do with influences within the club -- often by what the other players exhibit.
Our coaching staff made a conscious decision we didn't want an environment where alcohol and drugs had a place at our place.
We didn't want the teenager coming in, seeing the champion player sitting there off his face. It couldn't be cool any more.
So we made what I believe to be one of the best decisions we have made as a club -- and I must say the NRL has been very supportive: to randomly test 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for recreational drugs.
The Broncos employ an agency that we have no control over and the agency tests our players any time day or night, any place. Over 800 tests have been done on our players.
I read where it is believed that 2 or 3 per cent of footballers take drugs. Frankly that is 2 or 3 per cent too many.
The choice is you have zero tolerance or you allow illicit drugs to infiltrate your organisation.
The benefits of the zero policy are that it leaves no one in any doubt. It protects your organisation and it protects your most valuable assist -- the young men.
You also tell the wider community that it is not acceptable. You don't have a fallback position.
If I'm to believe what administrators say, they all want their codes drug free. Their actions don't match their words.
I love the line that says: ``As I grow older I listen less to what people say. I just watch what they do.'
I want our code to be drug-free, but I have no call over our code. I do have some say at the Broncos.
At the Broncos, we came up with the three-strike policy. The first time it's rehabilitation, three months where the player attends weekly counselling and is tested six to 10 times a week.
Any re-offence or failure to attend counselling or a test, you get one more opportunity and then you're gone.
Our players signed off on it and I don't understand why any club wouldn't.
I am not a believer in one strike and you are gone. These young men who are drawn to illicit drugs just can't click their fingers and be free of drugs.
If they could, then they would do that. Unfortunately they are addicted or heading towards addiction and they need help not scorn.
They know they are hurting themselves, their families and their team-mates but they still can't stop. It is our duty of care to them as clubs.
They are still good people with families who care about them and now they need us more than ever. It's not the time to abandon them.
I have both known -- and known of -- former players in different codes who have had wonderful careers, retired and then fallen into drug scandals.
Do you honestly believe the drugs only arrived when their legs were gone? Not until they retired? Please.
I see the AFL is going to increase the number of tests they do. It's rubbish. You either blanket test or you are looking for a soft landing.
The thing that holds you back with all of this is the fear your top-line player is going to be the one who gets picked up.
I don't make a lot of rules because I invariably find your best players break them.
But in making the decisions we made at the Broncos, we accepted no double standards. No fall-back position. No soft landings.
You won't see players in small groups whispering about it, others protecting the star because we want to win the next game of footy.
If you believe the club and the game is bigger than the individual, your life can go on without him.
In the end you win.