Last to first.
Bird wasn't there when the supplements saga took place so he would only have second hand reports about the medical staff that were employed at that time.
I didn't blame Bird, I merely said he could have sought a second opinion if he suspected that club wasn't acting in his best interests. Clearly he didn't feel they weren't doing so. Like the players years before he evidently trusted the medical advice.
I agree with you here, but your statements re the players in both affairs are quite different, which was my initial point.
Whether they would have or not won a premiership 5 years later is total speculation. Your statement was that you accused them of cheating to win a premiership, a claim without any foundation at all. Even had they been banned, that ban would have long been expired and in the year they won they had comprehensive drug testing done. Further, virtually the whole squad was untainted with only two players I believe from that time and even with bans they would have clear to play.
Your claim they cheated has no merit and is based on emotion alone. Due to the fact that you believe the punishment didn't fit the crime you unfairly want to accuse a squad of cheating that had nothing to do with the crime . That's not worthy of someone who generally prides himself on evidence and not false beliefs.
Fact 1: The Sharks administrated enhancing and prohibited substances to their players, which amounts to cheating.
Fact 2: The players admitted to Fact 1, which again amounts to cheating.
Fact 3: This was only discovered years later. (2014)
Fact 4: Standard MINIMAL punishment in such matters is a 2 years suspension, none of it retroactive!
Fact 5: Punishment was not only way below the standard, it was dealt retroactively.
Players and staff should've been punished according to standards, which would've meant they would not have been available in 2016. So no, not an untainted squad, not an untainted coach, not and untainted organisation!
Like it or not, speculative or not, winning a premiership without said players and staff (including an important senior player, their captain and their coach), as well as all the logistics issues associated with it, in a competition as tight as the NRL, would be highly unlikely.
So, not only did the Sharks attempted to cheat their way into a premiership, ASADA and the NRL helped them get there. I couldn't give a **** whether this would stand up in court or not, but as far as I'm concerned, they had an illegal team in 2016, and I (with many others) call that cheating.
P.S. If the doping affair had been discovered earlier and punished accordingly, no one knows what would've happened later. I'm not sure someone like Paul Gallen or even Wade Graham would've come back from it.
Regardless, had the Sharks won a competition after that, I wouldn't have liked it, but I wouldn't have accused them either, like I didn't accuse clubs I despise, such as Manly, Roosters or the Storm last year.
