the real losers in this are Wakey, after a great start they are looking at the season a man down.

It'll make a nice change for Andy Wilson to get something right occasionally if it is.

Good to see him taking the opportunity to point out what a growing problems drugs are in rugby league apparently - still, at least players in our sport turn up for tests instead of going shopping and getting a convenient haircut eh?

Chissitt,thats maybe why he put "if" in the statement.

However i do agree with mwildcats.A banned substance is a banned substance,whether that be performance enhancing or recreational makes no difference.Whether some recreational substances are viewed socially acceptable makes no difference,the rules are quite clear as are what the potential punishment will be for taking a banned substance(and gettting caught).So if the investigation finds him guilty(with no mitigating factors),good riddance to bad rubbish!!!

the real loser in this is the sport of Rugby League - which for the 3rd time in 2010 is all over the media for the wrong reasons.

is a 2 year ban enough of a deterrent to these idiots?

I think that this COULD be given a positive spin, RU and football players avoid tests, we catch our "badun's" would be my spin, but the RFL wont be that bright to come up with something like this

and on the length on ban issue, i'd make it 5 years, effectively ending the career of offenders

Indeed.

Sort of leaves Wakefield in Limbo.

They will (subject to RFL hearing) have space on cap to recruit,but not really much out there.Maybe look at season loan for an out of favour player.

Only blessing,is that we have already in Obst and Latu two players that can play hooker.

my only regret is Long and Fitzgibbon wont get to pay the cheating little muppet back.

Darren Albert will be in that queue as well

Some recreational drugs are also classified as performance enhancing

If you get a bit stretched, we've got 3

Not sure RL is the real loser.
Once again they have shown they will weed out(pardon the pun) players that are taking banned substances and it wont be tolerated.

For me the biggest loser would be Terry Newton and his family.

At the end of his carreer,most people would remember Terry Newton as a former international and in all probability a bit of a thug/hardman/enforcer(delete as you feel appropriate).If found guilty and banned the way people remember Terry Newton will be alot different and will forever tarnish him.Terry Newton and his family will all have to live with it.

Scott Moore - season loan to Wakey?lol.

We will have to insist you only play two of them against us.

the media is already running the "2 super league drug test failures in 9 month" line - along with the "former coach Paul Cullen says drug abuse is rife in Super League" angle.

Even if the RFL comes up with some mega spin about catching all the cheats, the damage is done i'm afraid.

If 1 young player is stopped playing the game by his parents because of drug fears, or 1 sponsor pulls out of the game because of the negative publicity - the damage is done, and the cheats should be banned for life.

Could it be because the suspension has been imposed by the UK Doping Agency and not the RFL? Just wondering.

Dunno, most of the reports seem to refer to the suspension being imposed by the RFL.

It seems to me that there should be four basic stages in the process.

Stage 1 - drug test taken and analysed

Stage 2 - if drug test is +ve, any necessary confirmatory tests carried out

Stage 3 - if +ve test confirmed, hearing held to hear account from player and impose any suspension

Stage 4 - appeal.

It beggars belief that, if the test was taken on 24th Nov, we are still at Stage 1 and the RFL have only just found out.

A RFL spokesman said today that a hearing will be held in 6-8 weeks time. Surely the process should be quicker than that?

www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ullen.html Put up or shut up time Mr Cullen! "We are writing to Paul Cullen asking him to explain his comments on Boots and All," said RFL communications manager Craig Spence. "We are asking him if he knows of any players taking drugs and to give us the evidence. We will then investigate the cases. "If he can't do that, then we'll ask him to retract his comments."

www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague ... ullen.html Put up or shut up time Mr Cullen! "We are writing to Paul Cullen asking him to explain his comments on Boots and All," said RFL communications manager Craig Spence. "We are asking him if he knows of any players taking drugs and to give us the evidence. We will then investigate the cases. "If he can't do that, then we'll ask him to retract his comments."

Paul Cullen still is a coach.

Yeah I bet it's a huge regret you have had to bare for approximately the 4 month these two have been Hull players. I'm sure you really gave a toss before that you silly person.

There is a third category of drug, i.e. drugs which are taken as remedies for illness, such as asthma treatments and cough medicines. Some of these contain banned chemicals, but are not recreational or performance enhancing (except to the extent that treating an illness successfully is performance enhancing).

You are pushing against an open door here, I totally agree with what you are saying if as most people are assuming it is one of those substances, but at the moment nobody knows what that substance is. It could be something he took in his medication for his shoulder injury, only time will tell when all is revealed. All I am saying is that now is not the time to vilify the man. He is a Wakey player and imo if you cannot support him as a Wakey fan its better to say nothing until it all comes to light, then voice your opinions.

No surprise if it's confirmed.

I've been tempted by substances on numerous occasions myself after 4 years of McNamara's "coaching".

As someone that is subject to compulsory random drug testing in both my work and my chosen sport I have to say that if his B sample is proven +ve then Newton hasn't a leg to stand on. Speculation suggests that the drug detected in his sample is performance enhancing and he has taken steroids to improve his performance then feck him. If the drug has entered his system by way of medication he would have had an opportunity to declare that he had recently taken medication (it is part of the testing process). If he "forgot" to declare any medication or he self medicated then he isn't very "professional". Unless the circumstances of the next paragraph apply, Newton is a c@ck and no loss to the game.

The only mitigating circumstances i can see are that a doctor can prescribe medication containing a band substance providing he can justify it on medical grounds (athletes that need inhalers for asthma is a good example). If the club doctor either supplied a drug containing a band substance without justification, or he simply didn't check, then he has some serious explaining to do before he finds a new job.

I would go along with this if all other offenders are treated the same way, but at this stage we are all speculating and i hope for the best for the sake of our game.

Wakey have done it tough this last couple of years and i hoped we had turned a corner, thanks for the support.

This thread is hilarious. The knee-jerk reactions when it comes to drugs is 2nd only to paedophilia for sheer idiocy.

People equating a medical problem with outright cheating, people wanting 5 year bans for a player who may only be guilty of having taken benylin. The sheer hypocrisy of people calling Newton an idiot while they hang draw and quarter him despite knowing precisely nothing about his case is mind-boggling

hide behind rules being rules all you want, But like Hock, Newton is a person above and beyond the job he does. Give him the same rights we all expect and treat him as innocent until proven guilty.

If he is guilty then we punish him, not in an idiotically draconian way to make some feel better about themselves. But at a level which is fitting for what could be a very very minor crime