It could have been any player but, of course, it was Clayton Oliver.
On the day Melbourne were, again, thrust into the spotlight, this time by a politician in Canberra thundering to Parliament about what he called the AFL’s great drug cover-up, it was Oliver of all players who got injured.
It was Oliver jogging off the training track on Wednesday, grimacing, cradling his right hand, watched by this masthead. The club later said he had probably dislocated a finger, but he was expected to play.
Clayton Oliver was injured at Melbourne training on Wednesday.Credit: Getty Images
In the scheme of Melbourne’s off-season, the injury and the allegations of a cover-up cannot be disconnected.
Oliver’s injury is potentially far more consequential to the Demons in the immediate sense than the claims in Parliament.
Those claims, made by federal MP Andrew Wilkie on Tuesday night, are that club doctors were conducting tests in the week leading up to a match on players who had previously failed an illicit drug test for banned substances. Wilkie said others alleged that players who failed these tests were then rested, “ostensibly on account of injury”, avoiding the more punitive performance-enhancing drugs policy.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In essence, he claimed the club followed the AFL’s illicit drugs protocol.
Whether you like the secretive policy – which allegedly has led to lies about why players with traces of illicit drugs in their systems have been removed from games – is a matter of personal choice.
The problem with lies? No one believes you when you tell the truth
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28.03.2024
It could have been any player but, of course, it was Clayton Oliver.
On the day Melbourne were, again, thrust into the spotlight, this time by a politician in Canberra thundering to Parliament about what he called the AFL’s great drug cover-up, it was Oliver of all players who got injured.
It was Oliver jogging off the training track on Wednesday, grimacing,........
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