The media are portraying Hales as some sort of victim in this yet Hardaker and Hock were branded stupid coke heads, not saying the RFL/WADA are in the wrong but that ban must have cost Hock hundreds of thousands of pounds and although I wouldn’t go as far in saying it ruined his career it certainly took him out of the top echelon. Hales can just carry on as if nothing has happened.

Yep,

I do not disagree with the way that Rugby Union are dealing with the issues. They are using hair samples that record illegal drugs misuse much better than the system that we use. As it is unless non-performance enhancing drugs are used virtually on the field of play the penalties are lax, as in the case of Ben Barba (?). Personally I would rather see players educated and encouraged before being banned. When they are banned then that should be it. Do not make a big song and dance about the victimhood of the players, that just encourages others. If the player is too set in their ways to change then say thank you and good night, but not until we have made the effort. Naming and shaming for first offences just makes life more difficult for the sport because in the present climate it just normalises drugs use because we have lost that sense of shame. As a sport we still need to decide what we want. You cannot be a Super League player if you cannot tackle, pass, run and avoid taking drugs. It is a fairly simple concept.

It certainly needs looking at. You would think no footballers are taking recreational drugs, whilst it’s rife in rugby league but it’s a society wide issue and both sports are full of lads with plenty of time and money (plenty more in football) on their hands.

Union and Crickets punishments are unbelievably lax in comparison to Leagues but it’s football I have the huge issue with. These lads seem to be angels.

To be fair footballers seem to get caught a lot less, whether there is a reason for that I do not know. Jake Livermore was the most high profile one recently and he got 6 months which was a reduced sentence because he lost his child around the same time, a similar defence as Hardaker used, so they are stricter than Union and Cricket.

simple, caught = lifetime ban. they are ILLEGAL drugs, We have this thing called THE LAW.

Quote: MGarbutt1986 "simple, caught You may be intrigued to read about this then.. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... -1-9725453

Quote: MGarbutt1986 "simple, caught You may be intrigued to read about this then.. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... -1-9725453

We need to pull out until other sports sign up, were unfairly treating our players

Nope. That just represents a race to the bottom. Why should we allow the others' shortcomings to be the benchmark?

Why should we treat our players worse that most of the other elite sports and the NRL? If no one else is doing it why should we?

I’d say there’s definitely a reason and they have pictures of the queen on them!

Livermore used a really sad story in his defence and the human side of you says fair enough but the realist says why can I only think of him and Adrian Mutu in the last 10-15 years to have been caught taking recreational drugs? Are they well behaved? Or is it being covered up? It’s an easy answer IMO.

Yeah, it seems strange especially considering there must be umpteen times more pro footballers than rugby league players. Although I don’t think they have the party culture league players have and maybe the fact they have a lot more eyes on puts them off?

I’m sure there’s a small part of that but then even the lads down in the lower leagues seem to be whiter than white as well.

It just doesn’t stack up.

I think players who get tested for recreational drugs should get a short ban and be educated to discourage them getting in that situation again. However players caught with performance enhancing drugs in their system should get a long ban.

Rugby Union don’t announce publicly any drugs offence unless it’s a players second time. If a player is caught once, they must face regular testing and I believe some welfare program. We should do the same, we throw our players under the bus for 2 years for one mistake and give ourselves too much bad publicity when it isn’t necessary.