You're quite right, it refers to Ewan Dowes as an 'England Star'.

I think describing it as a hissy fit is trivializing things somewhat. Rightly or wrongly the man has had his career taken away. Also I don't think Gleeson has tried to drag the other players' names through the mud. Clearly neither do they as they have made statements in support of him.

At the end of the day he made a mistake and paid for it. He's hardly the first to accidentally take a banned substance and end up with a suspension, but none of the others have flailed around in self-pity quite as much.

The statements released on that website were made [iin confidence[/i to the UKDA enquiry - i.e. [iwell before[/i Gleeson started trying to blame everyone but himself. I very much doubt that any of those players would do the same again given how he's released confidential documents to the gutter press.

Too many players use the 'someone told me it was ok' as an excuse, and that's exactly what it is.

Spot on....
Regardless of anything, a Rugby League player has between 10 and 15 years to play at the highest level and for those years, it would seem obvious that EVERYTHING they eat and drink should be first 100% checked for ingredients. If in doubt, don't take it....and as has been pointed out, the buck stops with the players themselves.

I do believe the club themselves should take some of the blame as well, given that they invest an awful lot of time and money in these players and should therefore have a system in place to assist players......as for the conditioner who mistakenly (or otherwise) said this stuff was OK....he shouldn't be allowed work at the cosmetics counter at Boots....let alone be let near an sportsperson again!

Admittedly Gutterfax, but in this case even a consummate professional like Fitzgibbon was caught out.