The AFL anti-doping tribunal handed Fremantle's Ryan Crowley a 12-month suspension, when it could have been two years, after accepting Crowley's explanation involving medical reasons and inadvertent use of a banned substance.
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Crowley will be free to return to football on September 25 after the tribunal handed him the suspension on Thursday. Its verdict accepted that Crowley had inadvertently taken methadone, which the midfielder argued was given to him by a friend and that he had believed it was a paracetamol-like substance.
The tribunal also took into account confidential medical information from Crowley. Significantly, ASADA did not argue with the Fremantle tagger's contention that even though he had a positive test on game day, he had taken the substance some days before he played. Crowley had also experienced back pain before taking the methadone.
The AFL's revised anti-doping code appears also to have assisted Crowley's sentence, because rather than mandating a suspension, it allowed the tribunal to set its own penalty – from two years down to zero – depending on the level of fault. In Crowley's case, the level of fault was simply judged to be worth 12 months, rather than the maximum of two years, or minimum (for no fault) of no suspension. Under the old code, he would have had to establish "no significant fault, no significant negligence" to achieve the same result.
Crowley appeared at the hearing just once and has been training with the Dockers, but is out of contract at the end of this season. He is free to play at the weekend of the preliminary final (25-26 September) and while it seems impossible that he could play this season, given that he will not have played, the decision would be Fremantle's if they are playing then, and the same would apply to his WAFL team.
St Kilda's Ahmed Saad received an 18-month suspension for taking a banned substance in a sports drink. In contrast to Crowley, ASADA did appeal Saad's verdict, seeking a two-year ban, without success.
Methadone is a medication that can be used as a pain reliever, and has often been used as a less powerful substitute for heroin by addicts who are trying to wean themselves off the drug. Under the AFL and World Anti-Doping Agency codes, it is a "specified" substance, which is less serious than most banned drugs and meant Crowley was allowed to play immediately after first his late season positive test. He accepted a provisional suspension on September 25 last year.
The tribunal verdict was handed down by chairman David Jones, who also presided over the Essendon case, as did fellow panelist John Nixon. Dr Susan White was the third member of the three-member panel.
