Anyone suspecting possible drug use in Gaelic games may have got their answer yesterday from the GAA's new Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee, because as far as they are concerned it doesn't exist. A little naive, perhaps, although they do admit the widespread use of food supplements and other illegal aids, which carry certain risks and yet are doing nothing but "creating expensive urine".
Dr Pat Duggan, the chairman of the committee, was particularly confident of a drug-free sport: "As somebody acting as a team doctor for the past 20 years or so, and being intimately involved with players at county and club level, personally I have never, either anecdotal or otherwise, heard of any suggestion that any GAA player has been involved in any illegal activity," he said.
"But one of the triggers for the increased demands for doctors to be involved with teams has been the doping issue, because you do have the vulnerable player out there who just doesn't know what is right or wrong. So inevitably that forms a very big part of what we're about. Protein supplements are being used, certainly, and creatine certainly as well, but then they're not illegal. But the clear message we're putting out there is that they still have no use within the GAA."
Yet the committee certainly is not avoiding the issue of doping, and will constantly review it with the Irish Sports Council, thus updating players on what they can and cannot take.
Dr Niall Moyna, head of DCU's Health and Human Performance Department and fellow committee member, was particularly strong in opposing any such supplement use: "One of the frightening aspects of the issue is that a German scientist has just conducted a study taken on random samples from drug companies or from the internet, and found that the vast majority of food supplements were contaminated with anabolic steroids.
"There are two simple reasons for that - the processing methods, in places like China, and also that these supplements are sold on the basis that they improve muscle strength, when in fact these amino acids won't do that, unless you stick an anabolic steroid in with it.
"So it still worries me that a lot of our players continue to take these supplements misguidedly, and we dread the day that one of our players is found to have a positive test, and that's something that really has to be addressed sooner rather than later.
"The other thing is that any true scientific study into this area will tell you they are of absolutely no use, as long as a normal, balanced diet is followed. The problem is the production companies are spending millions on promoting their product, with very little being spent of the other side, when in fact all their use is doing is creating expensive urine. So we can't emphasis strongly enough that there is not a shred of evidence that they offer any benefit, and that's definitely one message we want to get across from the start."
