AFL coaching legend David Parkin has warned football codes will suffer cycling’s fate if they do not heed the lessons of the doping crisis in Australian sport.
The four-time premiership coach, who also lectures in sports science, said he was gobsmacked by last month’s Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report.
But he added there should be no surprise in the AFL and NRL that players might be taking performance enhancing drugs.
“We’re now facing up to something which I guess cycling probably faced up to 25 years ago and did nothing about it,” he told the SBS Insight program.
“We’ve been warned … there’s always a temptation that’s been in sport.
“We’ve seen it, East Germany and Olympic Games and things over a long period of time.
“If we don’t in fact do something we’ll end up as cycling did 25 years later.”
Essendon are under three investigations because of supplements supplied to players last season, while Cronulla are also under an Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation.
The Sharks have stood down coach Shane Flanagan and sacked four other club officials.
World cycling continues to reel from Lance Armstrong’s downfall, one of many doping scandals that have destroyed the sport’s reputation.
Parkin said he had never seen evidence of doping during his lengthy involvement in the AFL.
“I was gobsmacked when the announcement was made by the Minister for Sport, I must admit,” he said.
“I’ve been in this sport for … five generations. I’ve not seen it.
“And I’ve been very pleased with the attitude of our performers in our game in not trying to look for ways of actually bending and breaking the rules for their own benefit.”
But Parkin also revealed that during his coaching career some staff had been sacked because of fears they had become rogue operators.
Australian former professional cyclist Trent Lowe said one area where his sport had suffered was a strong union for the competitors.
“One thing that has become really evident to me from this discussion is how backward cycling is in relation to the systems that are set up in some of the other sports,” Lowe said.
“We have ignored some of these problems for 25 years or something … there still is no union for professional cyclists, for example, or no meaningful union with any power.
“The teams can really bully the riders around into doing things that might not be beneficial to their health.”
Lowe added he never doped during his racing career.