Championship Preview:‘As you are providing a sample at a urinal, your chaperone stands, peering over your shoulder at every move’

A few years ago, I was captivated by all I could find about the Lance Armstrong controversy.

I grew fascinated at the scale of the entire doping operation involved and how he was so insatiably driven to win by whatever means was necessary, fair or foul.

I wondered how long it would take, if ever, before we got our first major doping scandal in the GAA. Doping in cycling, and the use of performance enhancing drugs in elite sport worldwide is a story growing all too familiar.

In my time in GAA, I have never once seen or heard even the slightest suggestion of any player, in any county taking PED’s. It just doesn’t seem to be a part of our culture. But with stakes rising ever higher and standards improving across the board in terms of physical preparation, the GAA took a significant step in 2001 with a programme of drug testing senior inter-county sides as part of an agreement with the Irish Sports Council.

I can remember getting a briefing at the time by our team doctor Mike Finnerty about what was acceptable and not acceptable to take. We were given information and guidelines, lists of banned substances, declaration forms if we were currently taking prescribed medication etc. The list of banned substances from the Irish Sports Council is as long as your arm, written in tiny print on both sides of a leaflet that is supposed to fold up and fit into your wallet, but one would need a medical degree to understand. The clearest instruction on the guidelines was, ‘if you are about to take something, even an over the counter cold remedy, you need to consult with your team doctor first’. We all laughed and joked about it at the time, didn’t really take it seriously — that was until the night the testers showed up at training and it became real.

Four testers appeared in Fitzgerald Stadium. Unannounced. They set up base in one of the unused dressing rooms and started their process with military precision. All of the names of the players at training were written down on pieces of paper and under the supervision of team management, four players were drawn at random.

Once your name was called, (of course, I was one of the guinea pigs) a chaperone was assigned to you, and until such time as you go and provide a urine sample, that person literally does not leave your side. It was a daunting process at first. Eventually after training on a beautiful summer’s evening, my chaperone and I headed for the dressing rooms. Of course, that alone drew whistles and catcalls from the rest of the boys. As you are providing your sample at a urinal, your chaperone stands, peering over your shoulder at every move. You then bring your sample into the main room, separate it into an A and B sample, label it, package it, and seal it. Only your hands touch the containers.

You sign documentation, and away you go.

In total, I was randomly selected for testing on four separate occasions throughout my playing days. I can’t say I overly enjoyed the process because even though you know you’re clean, you always worry about whether you took something innocently that may have been contaminated — and as a result you become labelled a cheat for the rest of your life. Huge consequences for amateur players.

I remember after being beaten by Tyrone in the All-Ireland of 2005, we were wallowing in a corner of the players’ lounge of Croke Park licking our wounds, when Seamus Scanlon appeared at the door with a chaperone nearly an hour after everybody else had cleared the dressing rooms. He looked agitated. He had been nabbed by testers on the way in the tunnel and still wasn’t able to provide a sample. ‘Stage-fright’ we started calling him, but that didn’t seem to help with his agitation! He had told his new shadow, ‘the water and energy drinks aren’t working, so unless you want to go the function with me later, we better go upstairs for some Heineken!’ It was the only thing that gave us a laugh — watching the horror on this man’s face as Scanlon rapidly downed copious amounts in an attempt to rehydrate. He eventually did the business, but I don’t think either he or his new date quite made it to the function that night.

In 2008, Aidan O’Mahony and his inhaler was the first to feel the wrath of the testing procedure. He was exonerated of course, for what was nothing more than an appropriate use of his declared asthma medication which contained Salbutumol.

I’m not familiar with the intricacies of this case in Monaghan, but it appears a little less straightforward. But I would strongly suggest that people shouldn’t rush to judgement and bury this young lad before hearing the full story. Hypothetically, it could easily happen in any county in Ireland; a guy playing with his club and not on the county panel can take whatever he wants. He needs to get physically bigger, so he takes something like creatine powder for example. It can be labelled as safe to use on the tub, but can be easily contaminated with banned substances. You get called up to your county squad whiles it’s still in your system, you get randomly tested right off the bat, and boom, you’re in deep water. Reputation gone.

It was always something as a player I was very uncomfortable with. The idea of amateur footballers and hurlers being held to a professional standard with the Sports Council never made sense to me.

In my opinion, we are over-treating a problem that does not exist. It’s like having bouncers checking ID’s at an old age pensioner Christmas party. Pointless.

The only ‘cheats’ I believe the testing will unearth will be as a result of a lack of education and information for the players.

Two cases in nearly 15 years speaks for itself.