[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/10/02/18/RUGBYL_Newton_Cullen.html=#FF0000Click: RFL ask Cullen to Explain his Comments.[/url

why do you think?

they should do - but no club is voluntarily going to sign up to ban half their team, unless all 14 teams signed up and enforced the same thing

Agreed, like it or not if every player was tested now, at least half the league would be banned!

The clubs will play lip service to the testing but in all honesty will dred seeing the little chap with his cup and clip board!

I don't agree. He was mud slinging. if he was THAT concerned he would have taken action when he had the opportunity and the means to do so.

No he wouldnt, im not saying this is correct, however lets say he knows 4 of his lads are doing something they shouldnt, there is absolutley no way he is going to ring up the rfl and tell them to get the drugs testers down here as half my back line is on the bolivian marching powder!

The clubs will trot out the ususall lines (no pun intended) and have a quiet word with the players to keep their heads down (or up in this case) for the next few months!

We all have seen what goes on around various towns on a weekend, young lads with pleanty of cash and not many brain cells are going to find somoething to spend it on!

Then one club should be big enough to start the ball rolling and the others will follow. If we want drugs out of our sport then it starts with the clubs lets get rid of the drugs cheats once and for all.

I personally would go much further than the RFL and if someone took performance enhancing drugs i would ban them for life. Recreational drug users would get 2 years as they do now lets be the leader here zero tolerance is what we need.

Then he is nothing but a hypocrite and a media whore.


He can't have his cake and eat it. he should have done something about it or kept his mouth shut. There is nothing genuine about him! This is about the Mr Big I Am, there is nothing here but self publicity.

If the clubs did their own testing, who's to say that the results would have to be made public (even to the RFL/WADA) ???

They could test their own players, and if anything is found, an internal system of discipline could be enforced (which is outside of anything that the RFL need to know about).

How about this:

Club A. decides to test all of their players for "recreational" drug use on a weekly basis. (the performance enhancers would probably be far too expensive and take too long to test for on a weekly basis).

Perhaps they test everyone on week 1, then draw 5 names from a hat on a weekly basis (Monday morning) for random testing.

Anyway, player B. is found to have a metabolite of a popular form of snuff in his sample.

The club sit him down and discuss the options:
Resign/transfer/own up the RFL and take the ban, or
Agree to couselling/detox (he picks up a "training injury" as far as the public/RFL is concerned), and also sign a contract submitting to regular weekly checks and agreeing that if any further positive results are found, they will be handed over to the RFL for them to deal with under WADA rules?

Could something like that work?
I have no idea - I'm just speculating and have no idea if what I'm suggesting is financially viable, enforcible or even legal.

Just "shooting the shït" as they say (and boy, would I love to shoot the shït that take these drugs and drag our sport into the gutter).

It would be one option but i would sooner see the results going to the club and the RFL but what you said would be a move in the right direction.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see it in the open, with all players tested weekly by their clubs and all results published to the RFL.

But let's be honest, it ain't going to happen.

I'm just trying to come up with something that would allow the clubs to clean their own houses, whilst not subjecting vast numbers of players (if we are to believe what the Saturday-night-crowd tell us) to bans.

If the coaches and clubs know that their players are partaking in illegal substances, they have an obligation to the players and the fans to deal with it. Doing nothing condones it. Knowing about it and taking no action means they are enablers. I am livid with Cullen. I don't think for one minute that he is the only one that knows what's going one, but he's the only one dragging the game even further through the mire by opening his stupid gob publicly. If he has information he should bloody well have gone to the clubs, and the RFL before "blowing the whistle".

just one way to stop this

LIFE BANS

I dont care if there the great english hope or mr average..