Now ye're talking - to a Rugby Journalist

blue note wrote: »

This is exactly the attitude that I'd suspect is prevalent in sports journalism. Basically no interest in doping as a story, happy to assume it's all fine. While I agree that ewan McKenna and paul kimmage can be annoying when talking about it, I'd be amazed if they're not correct about the majority of it. Even David Walsh seems fed up of it now and doesn't seem to want the hassle of pursuing team sky. Cycling and athletics are known to be full of drugs, but I'd be amazed if the majority of (in particular) professional sports are not riddled with drug taking. I'd say a lot of it is abuse of TUEs. And if it's not a genuine TUE, it's no better than straightforward use of banned substances.

So my question - would you say that sports journalists in general don't actually want that story? I imagine it could make getting access to players and clubs more difficult, you'd get typecast as the journalist only interested in doping and sensationalising it, it ruins all the positive stories about whatever team winning the Heineken cup, etc. It just seems to me to be in your interest to ignore it.

Trust me, the access we get is definitely not good enough to tempt anyone to turn a blind eye.

When you say: 'you'd get typecast as the journalist only interested in doping and sensationalising it, it ruins all the positive stories' - I'd say you're spot on if, as it seems, you're asking for articles on doping that are extremely speculative hit-pieces (I think Ewan did one like that last year, actually, but it was taken down by the publication).

You're dead wrong about nobody being interested in doping as a story (Munster fans seemed to think we were all way too interested in it when the Grobler storm happened last year). Even in my original answer here I said every sport ought to be concerned. Trouble is, we can't just go tarring people with a doping tag with zero evidence.

At some point, there probably have been Irish players on PEDs, but I'd be lying if I told you I've seen the slightest evidence of it now.

It's a shame that you think all sports are riddled. Must really take the joy out of it. For me, anyway, it's very tough to watch people in competition when they have a history of doping because we know that the benefits can live on in the muscle long after the substance has passed through.