Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

In Melbourne for an integrity in sport conference organised by Greyhound Racing Victoria,New Zealand-based David Howman issued a reminder to Bombers fans that WADA had been seeking to ensure the “comfortable satisfaction” level of proof was reached,rather than targeting the Essendon players in particular.

“I think the Essendon fans still don’t necessarily accept the whole thing,” Howman toldThe Ageon Wednesday.

“And I can understand that.[But] I don’t think they should blame me any further. All I did was say ‘I don’t think the way in which it was decided at the lower level[AFL anti-doping tribunal] used the right test,used the right burden of proof.

“All we were doing,was nothing to do with who the people were,was make sure that the highest authority accepted it,and whatever they decided we would run with. That’s what happened and it was shown that the lower level was just slightly wrong.”

Howman,who is now chairman of the Athletics Integrity Unit,also said he thought the AFL had improved its mechanisms in dealing with integrity issues.

“I think the AFL learned a lot from the exercise they went through with Essendon,and I think if asked that directly they would concede that,” Howman said.

“I think ASADA[Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority] learned a lot from Essendon as well. You must not forget that there was also the NRL engagement with Cronulla,and that was handled in a slightly different way.

“So I think you’ve got to do a debriefing after all these things. I certainly met with the AFL after it,when I was still at WADA. And I thought they were very receptive to suggestions on how they might look at the way forward. And the fact that they’ve got this integrity unit now,really humming,is a good answer.”

Howman was on the Federal Government-backed panel which recently finalised a report into integrity in Australian sport,and said it would be inappropriate for him to comment further publicly on the report’s findings.

License this article