Sounds of Silence

Every one makes mistakes, and in business things will always go wrong. There is an old saying that the difference between a good business and an average one is how quickly you address the things that go wrong.

So, if as we are repeatedly told sport is a business presumably the same rules apply?

It has now been 21 days since Australian sports fans were alerted to the fact that one of its Olympians had been arrested in Paris for purchasing cocaine on the street. Within hours it was revealed that the individual concerned was Australian hockey player Tom Craig.

Craig was arrested on the evening of Tuesday 6th August and was released on the Wednesday evening with a warning, but no fine or record.

At the time of his release Hockey Australia high performance director Bernard Savage was quoted in The Guardian as saying that Craig’s team mates were not aware of Craig’s decision. He was reported as saying, “It is our understanding that Tom was acting alone, and the only events that brought the players or him to the players attention was him indeed being arrested.”

Although the paper did report Savage as being Bernard ‘Strange,’ not Savage! This was nothing special as one media outlet reported that a “Hockeyroo” tried to run from the Police to avoid arrest. Tom Craig is a member of the Kookaburras, the Hockeyroos are the women’s team. This misnaming of the teams caused a hullabaloo in 2016 at the Rio Olympics, but it would appear that the message has still not got through to certain media outlets.

Clearly Hockey Australia need to do more to assert which brand is which, or embark on an education program with the media.

It was reported at the time that some of Craig’s fellow Australian players followed him to the Police station following his arrest. Chef de Mission Anna Meares explained this situation by saying, ““They heard the commotion, went out and saw that Tom had been arrested. They spoke with police officers, the arresting officers, were able to follow to the police station concerned for Tom’s welfare, and from there, they reached out to Tom’s family who reached out to our lawyers.”

Upon his release Craig read a prepared statement to the awaiting Press. “Firstly I would like to apologise for what has occurred over the last 24 hours,” he said in a brief statement outside the police station. “I made a terrible mistake, and I take full responsibility for my actions. My actions are my own, and by no way reflect the values of my family, my teammates, my friends, my sport, and the Australian Olympic team. I’ve embarrassed you all and I’m truly sorry.” He said.

At the time it was reported that Hockey Australia was “set to commence a disciplinary procedure into the incident.”

Yet since his release there has been silence from the game’s governing body in Australia, which is not good news.

The reason it is not good news is that during this period of silence there have been a number of accusations circulating which are not good for the sport. One alleges that Hockey Australia was aware of recreational drugs being used by players in its high performance unit prior to the Olympic Games. If that was in fact the case what was done about it? More importantly if this allegation is in fact true were any of the players involved sent to Paris to compete for Australia?

This would seem extremely unlikely, as with drug testing at the Olympic Games the team could have put a medal win in jeopardy if one player tested positive. Of course that did not happen, as Australia’s men’s team bowed out at the quarter final stage.

Allegations such as these are extremely harmful to the national team even if they are not true. Potential sponsors may hear them, as well as current sponsors, and opt to distance themselves from the sport, this is why swift action needed to be taken, and outcomes made public.

There are many others close to the sport who also wish to know what other action has taken place following Craig’s release. For example has the athlete and Hockey Australia sent an apology to the Australian Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee for the embarrassment caused? Has a letter been sent to Hockey’s governing body the FIH apologising? What about the Australian Sports Commission who funds the High Performance program, or the Australian Institute of Sport under whose name it operates?

One would hope that this has already happened as a matter of course.

As mentioned previously the powers that be would no doubt be becoming a little frustrated with the sport, as this is the third Olympic Games that Australian Hockey players have found themselves in hot water.

In 2016 Simon Orchard was one of nine Australian athletes who were fined and put on good behaviour bonds after being detained by Brazilian police for tampering with their Olympic Athlete Accreditation to gain access to watch the Australian Boomers basketball team v Serbia.

While appearing trivial to some, as the accreditation also acts as a visa for athletes and media attending the Olympic Games this was indeed a serious offence, as they were tampering with an official document, and that offence could have seen the athletes sent to prison.

It is believed that with the help of Channel Seven they managed to find lawyers who helped the athletes avoid the full legal process and a court appearance three weeks after the event, and they not only negotiated an expedited hearing, but also one that resulted in each athlete being given a two year good behaviour bond and a fine of 10,000 reals ($4092).

In Tokyo in 2021 five unnamed members of the Australian men’s hockey team were caught breaking the COVID-19 rules at the Olympic Games after they left the Athletes’ Village to buy beer from a convenience store. According to reports at the time, three members of the team went to the store at 3am, and a further two left the village at 6am to purchase more crates of beer. It has been alleged that one of those players was the same player arrested in Paris.

Again many put this down to being harmless hijinks, but all Tokyo 2020 participants had to abide by stringent rules due to the Covid pandemic, and athletes were not allowed to leave the Olympic Village except to train or to compete in their event. A simple journey to the venue should have made it clear how Japan felt about the pandemic, as the streets were virtually deserted.

At the Tokyo Olympics it was revealed by the organisers that eight people accredited for the Olympics were stripped of their credentials for breaking those COVID-19 rules at the Games. That is how seriously this was taken.

Did any of these players face sanctions from Hockey Australia on their return? If they did not receive any sanction, is that why we had the situation in Paris? That is a very simplistic view, but for every action there is a consequence.

To some looking in, it would appear that within Hockey there is an inconsistency when it comes to behavioural standards.

In 2016 Anna Flanagan, who was the pin-up girl for the Hockeyroos, and whom Hockey Australia used regularly for publicity purposes was suspended by the Hockeyroos from playing in two tournaments, the International Hockey Open in Darwin and from the Champions Trophy in London, after a court in Perth fined her $1000 and suspended her driving licence for 10 months for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Flanagan had not advised Hockey Australia of her arrest. This was it was revealed under advice from her lawyer. It is worth remembering that Flanagan was 24 years old at the time, and understandably would have taken the advice of a lawyer who was employed to help her. Hockey Australia claimed that her player agreement meant that she was duty bound to tell them immediately in the event of such a situation arising. Therefore the silence recommended by her legal adviser back-fired horribly, as Hockey Australia came down hard on her with the suspension.

What is interesting is in this situation, the story broke in the press and in less than 24 hours Flanagan was suspended. A suspension that all but put paid to her chances of playing for the Hockeyroos at the Rio Olympic Games

Like Tom Craig, Flanagan made a public apology and acknowledged the danger in driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Her punishment was announced swiftly. It was public, and it was severe. We still wait to hear if Craig will receive any sanction.

In fact a few months after Flanagan’s Driving Under the Influence charge in 2016 a player in the men’s National Development Squad was arrested for the same offence. They advised Hockey Australia of their arrest, even though they were not in the Kookaburras squad at that time. As far as can be ascertained they did not suffer any suspension, and the whole episode was hushed was up. In March 2017 the player in question was added to the Kookaburras squad.

Hockey is a sport that publicly advocates equality, understandably some are looking at the current situation and questioning whether Hockey Australia’s actions match their rhetoric. The perception is that it is the same game but there are different rules being applied depending on your gender.

In 2010, a Hockeyroos squad member tested positive to the banned substance clenbuterol during a national training camp. The player in question said that they had taken a weight loss product prior to the test, and took full responsibility for not checking whether the product contained a banned substance. Hockey Australia accepted ASADA’s findings, and the player was banned for two years. They also had to pay back their $7,703 training grant to the Australian Sports Commission.

While this was a slightly different offence, again Hockey Australia acted promptly, and the player in question who was 27 years old when the ban finished was never selected for Australia.

While some may argue that whatever decision has been reached it should be kept in-house and any punishment private, this carries little weight with the public. Unfortunately, what has happened was very public, some would say it was an international incident, and it happened when an individual was representing their nation, Australia.

One argument that has been put forward is that the player cannot be punished as the offence happened outside of competition. Such an argument again holds no stall with many, as the athletes were still at the Olympic Games where they were representing Australia, they were still staying in the Olympic Village up until that time, and so very much part of the Olympic competition, even though they had been eliminated.

This however does raise the issue of who was actually responsible for the player at this time, as once the Olympic selections are made the teams and individuals become the property of their National Olympic Committee? However the sport itself is still overseeing the athletes and their performances.

Ultimately, the sport has to take responsibility. Hopefully an announcement will be made as to the ‘disciplinary procedure’ and sooner rather than later. The longer this drags on the more new rumours will start to circulate, rumours that will tarnish the sport, the team, and to some extent Australia’s standing in the Hockey community worldwide.