Championship

With Aidan O'Mahony to go before the GAA's Anti-doping Hearings Committee this week Weeshie Fogarty says that the GAA wronged the Rathmore man by making his name public.

How is it that some person some where in Croke Park can't get certain thing correct in relation to our players? I refer of course to the on going Aidan O'Mahony so called drugs case. Now for those of you who by some chance has heard of this latest ongoing mess let me explain.

Aidan O'Mahony one of Rathmore's and Kerry great players is asthmatic since childhood. Now we all know some one in our lives that is asthmatic and will be familiar with what is necessary to give that person relief and indeed live a normal lives. Now for the problem that Aidan finds himself in. Salbutamol is used in the treatment and prevention of asthma, exercise-induced asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.

It is very commonly prescribed and many will be familiar with the blue reliever inhaler, such as ventolin inhaler or Salamol inhaler. For the last few years drug testing has been part and parcel of the lives of inter-county GAA players. Salbutamol, which is the main ingredient in the inhaler used by all asthmatics is not permitted for use by players unless and this is the kernel of the saga, unless the user has notifies the relevant authorities that he or she simply has to use this. Then permission has to be given otherwise the athlete can not compete.

We are absolutely certain that Aidan has followed the proper procedures and notified the authorities of his problem. And of course the Kerry team doctor would have monitored his usage of the inhaler before all big games as he would of any other doubtful medicines members of the panel might have to take before inter-county games. This would be as a result of flu, injury, lack of energy, etc.

All must be cleared before hand. So Aidan was tested after the final whistle in the All Ireland. The results were announced some weeks ago, and it is here that the whole sorry mess began. First of all why was it made public as we are dealing with a strictly amateur player?

And if the results of the test had to be released surely some one up there should have had the decency and understanding not to release the name of the player. It would have been very simple to announce that, "a player is under review for the use of an asthmatic inhaler following a drug test after the All Ireland football final." End of story. Short and to the point and leave it at that. The Rathmore man's name and photograph has been plastered all over the media since and it is very unfair to himself and his family. It was very poorly handled just like the Paul Galvin affair, which was allowed to run and run the whole summer.

I believe that drug testing is necessary in our games. It will only be a matter of time in my opinion before some player will test positive for a performance enhancing drug.

Can we say for absolute certainty that there is not one single inter-county footballer in Ireland that has not tried something to help his performance? I know some young men that take the banned substance Creatine. They are not inter-county footballers I must stress but they are dabbling in this drug, Creatine which is used to increase muscle mass. They are just ordinary young men who participate in sports and they will never be tested. The big danger I have told them is that while they are taking Creatine they should be under medical supervision.

In my time it was preached that if you swallowed half dozen raw eggs every day your energy levels would double. That was the closest we got, enhancing performance eggs. Aidan O'Mahony will be totally cleared this week of any wrong doing but due to all this adverse publicity what message dose it send out to other sufferers of asthma.

Someone responsible should hold up their hand and say, "I was the person who wrongly revealed the name of this Kerry player. It will not happen again". But no one in authority in the GAA is ever wrong, are they?