Was the 2006 West Coast Grand Final tainted?

[PerthSwannie]

Interesting article by Andrew Burrell

(.........Respected Melbourne-based football journalist Mike Sheahan tells The Weekend Australian that the Eagles� 2006 premiership should now be considered @�tainted� given the number of players known to have been using substances that were banned or performance-enhancing.

�My gut feel is that there were six or seven who have had major substance problems either at the time or since, and that the club was aware of that and it was allowed to continue,� he says......)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1227271987582

[Zlatorog]

Finally, somebody had the guts to talk about it. We heard the rumours it was tainted ages ago.

[annew]

Interesting article by Andrew Burrell

(.........Respected Melbourne-based football journalist Mike Sheahan tells The Weekend Australian that the Eagles� 2006 premiership should now be considered @�tainted� given the number of players known to have been using substances that were banned or performance-enhancing.

�My gut feel is that there were six or seven who have had major substance problems either at the time or since, and that the club was aware of that and it was allowed to continue,� he says......)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1227271987582

Would love to read the article but I dont subscribe to The Australian so cannot open it.

[mariachi]

Would love to read the article but I dont subscribe to The Australian so cannot open it.

If you have an iPhone, try this. Open a safari page, go to the bottom and click the two squares, then click Private on the next screen. Rupie can't count your free articles anymore, so... : ). It means no site knows who you are anymore, so you need to log in here when on private though. Or click private off when done reading the freebies.

[Danzar]

If you have an iPhone, try this. Open a safari page, go to the bottom and click the two squares, then click Private on the next screen. Rupie can't count your free articles anymore, so... : ). It means no site knows who you are anymore, so you need to log in here when on private though. Or click private off when done reading the freebies.

You can also google search the exact headline and access the article from the google search. I think this is a deliberate allowance so that news aggregators can pick up articles readily via their own auto search tools.

You have to use the exact headline that is in the online version of the article, then click on the first link from a Google search. If that doesn't work, keep clicking on the links down the page. You only get in once though. So don't exit until you read (or printed/copied) the article.

In the case of this thread, search: West Coast Eagles stained by soap opera of ex-star Ben Cousins then try the first link.

[The Big Cat]

If you have an iPhone, try this. Open a safari page, go to the bottom and click the two squares, then click Private on the next screen. Rupie can't count your free articles anymore, so... : ). It means no site knows who you are anymore, so you need to log in here when on private though. Or click private off when done reading the freebies.

Thanks mate,

[The Big Cat]

Do a Google search for Andrew Burrell Eagles and you'll get there.

[royboy42]

Do a Google search for Andrew Burrell Eagles and you'll get there.

They've caught up with that one too..Bloody walls.

[stevoswan]

Do a Google search for Andrew Burrell Eagles and you'll get there.

Just did, and what an interesting article it was. On the question of whether the '06 Premiership is tainted, well, hell yes!! All the drugs mentioned in the article are on the 'banned' list whether they're performance enhancing or not! I'm sure they were back then, it's not as if recreational drugs in sport has been a recent development, so technically they should lose the title. Pity we wouldn't get it back though. It won't happen, the AFL are still largely motivated by the same 'image' driven attitude that got the West Coast culture in trouble in the first place. Sigh......

[andy0414]

They are still claiming that the substances were not performance enhancing so it doesn't matter. This is rubbish because if they had stopped taking the drugs they would not been able to perform at all. The club turned a blind eye to the problem to win a premiership. Even Cousins was surprised by what he got away with.

[The Big Cat]

They are still claiming that the substances were not performance enhancing so it doesn't matter. This is rubbish because if they had stopped taking the drugs they would not been able to perform at all. The club turned a blind eye to the problem to win a premiership. Even Cousins was surprised by what he got away with.

Gerard Healy has always claimed that cocaine etc IS performance enhancing as it allows players to train harder without pain. (Remember the "gut running" of Cousins and Kerr!)

[liz]

After nearly 10 years, is it something worth dwelling on? We scored one less point during the game, and as a result didn't get to experience the post match euphoria that comes with following a premiership-winning team. Nothing gets that back - no amount of asterisks against the name of the winning team, regardless of whether they are warranted or not (which we will never know anyway).

We're fortunate enough that our club has reclimbed the mountain once since then. And while it may never quite feel like it, also fortunate that they've been good enough to at least reach the grand final on a second occasion since. We sit here at the start of 2015 knowing our club is a pretty decent chance to challenge strongly again this year. I'd rather relish the here and now, that dwell all the way back to 2006. Especially when I think back to those years at the start of the "modern era" of the Sydney Swans from 1996 to 2004, when we were sometimes good but never quite good enough, and we all must have wondered if our club would ever be good enough to actually win the darned thing. Not to mention those who supported the club all throughout the 72 year drought.