How do you feel -

[banger]

- About the 2006 Premiership trophy being awarded to the West Coast Eagles?

Many are saying that it was a tainted win by them, given the well documented drug issues during that period. They beat Swannys by a point in the GF - would they have won without the drugs?


The following was part of an article in the West Australian newspaper today
(20/11/07):

"WA Institute of Sport medical chief Dr Carmel Goodman has urged West Coast fans to abandon the perception that drugs consumed by Ben Cousins were solely recreational and not performance enhancing.

Although Cousins has not failed a match-day test, his acknowledged drug habit is said to involve cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, or ice.

Sports medicine experts are divided on whether cocaine consumed recreationally will benefit subsequent competition performance but are unanimous methamphetamine does.

?It increases the heart rate, promotes a sense of invincibility and decreases the perception of fatigue,? Dr Goodman said.

?Make no mistake ? methamphetamine is a performance enhancer, even if not taken for that reason. Depending on when it is taken, there may be a physiological benefit but there is a definite psychological benefit.?


I am p****d off - Given all the volumes of evidence available (the entire Cousins story, Kerrs phone calls, Fletcher flatlining and so on and so on), Its ABSOLUTELY IRRESPONSIBLE and PROFESSIONALLY NEGLIGENT of the AFL not to be investigating this matter. WCE shouldn't be let off the hook any longer, they should have the 2006 Premiership cup taken off them as they clearly didn't win it fair and square. What do you think?

[Cheer Squad mbr]

This is an issue that won't be going away any time soon.

If the drugs are proven to be performance enhancers (as the article suggests) it would certainly be enough to taint their win permanently.

[liz]

a) None of us has a clue what Cousins took or when or in what quantities or when his usage started to escalate towards addiction.

b) Therefore we have no idea whether he might have taken anything that impacted his performance in 2006.

c) Even if Cousins' performance was enhanced, whose to say it had any impact on the outcome of the game? I know the margin was close but it's not as if Cousins was the sole reason why the Swans lost. They had enough contributors to that result wearing red and white to make any other conclusion entirely hypothetical.

d) Even if the Swans were awarded a premiership retrospectively it would be about as hollow a "victory" as they come. Our team was beaten on the day and nothing will take away that feeling.

e) If you're going to cancel out the result of one match based on hypotheticals, why stop there. Why not cancel out the Eagles PF win against the Crows and award them the premiership based on the likelihood of the Swans beating the Crows in a GF (ie close to nil, based on recent results between the two clubs). Or maybe the whole ladder should be recast and a different hypothetical result arrived at.

I'm still enjoying the memories of 2005, some of the memories of 2006 (it was great to get to go to another GF even if the result sucked), and looking forward to the next one - hopefully one that, at worst, Goodes, Kirk and Kennelly will take part in. And at best Hall, Barry and Magic too.

[ScottH]

They won, we lost.

Time to move forward to 2008.

[goswannie14]

Build a bridge. It's over.

[Glenn]

In light of what has happend, I guess there is a question mark over it.
However no way to tell definitely that there was any drug involvment, life goes on.

[SOPH_CROSS]

we may have lost 2006 but least we didnt win it with a drug scandal next to it

yeah it sucked that we lost but like people have said time 2 move on
2008 is just around the corner

[Roo]

I am p****d off - Given all the volumes of evidence available (the entire Cousins story, Kerrs phone calls, Fletcher flatlining and so on and so on), Its ABSOLUTELY IRRESPONSIBLE and PROFESSIONALLY NEGLIGENT of the AFL not to be investigating this matter. WCE shouldn't be let off the hook any longer, they should have the 2006 Premiership cup taken off them as they clearly didn't win it fair and square. What do you think?[/QUOTE]


Wake up to yourself banger. No one tested positive to anything so nothing can be proved that any west coast players were under the influence of drugs at the time. I think it may be time for you and alot of other people on hear to just accept that west coast won the premiership in 2006 and there is nothing that will be done about that now.

[reigning premier]

For @@@@'s sake.......

Let it go mate. Unless You can prove Whoosha and Sumich were down their "Chopping up" lines of coke, or "packing pipes" full of Ice before the game, it's irrelevant and nothing will ever come of it.

[CJK]

I feel a little bit of both

'grrrr' (losing GF's is never gonna be fun)

and 'meh' (this issue bores me).

[AnnieH]

we may have lost 2006 but least we didnt win it with a drug scandal next to it

Beautifully put Soph.

[Plugger46]

They won, we lost.

Drugs or no drugs, I don't feel any different about the result so let's just leave it.

[Robbo]

Well the cup was held aloft by a traitor and a drug addict so yeah I would say it's tainted.

[cruiser]

Yes, it will always be a tainted premiership win by the Evils but regardless, they won and we lost.

[Lucky Knickers]

WCE will always have that cloud hanging over that team and that win!

I wouldn't want to be awarded that win - we weren't good enough and if we had turned up at bounce down we would have smacked them! We didn't and we lost.