'Caught red-handed': Shock new claims in Willie Rioli scandal
A number of AFL figures are gobsmacked over Willie Rioli’s adverse drug sample after the West Coast star was provisionally suspended on Thursday.
The devastated Eagles forward faces a suspension of up to four years, with the club scrambling to understand how he returned an adverse finding for urine substitution in an ASADA anti-doping test.
Eagles football boss Craig Vozzo shed what light he could on the alleged offence when he fronted a hastily-convened press conference in Melbourne on Thursday evening.
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"It's something other than urine that has been produced by Willie as part of the testing process," Vozzo said.
"He's very, very flat. The club and our staff are really worried about his well-being.
"He's not in a great space and it's our job to help him as much as we can."
Vozzo said that Rioli's emotional state of mind following the shock news had made it difficult for the club to accurately ascertain the details of what has occurred.
But the revelation left many outside the club pondering how anything but Rioli's urine could come to be in the sample jar given strict testing guidelines.
"As a player who has been through the testing regime as recently as two months ago, I just can't see how it can possibly happen," retired Hawthorn and Melbourne champion Jordan Lewis told Fox Footy.
"I would think it's impossible.
"From the tests I've had done I can't see where another sample has come into it."
St Kilda great Leigh Montagna echoed that thought.
“I find it incredibly hard to believe he has intentionally got away with deceiving ASADA in producing something other than urine,” Montagna told AFL Tonight.
Stunning new claims
The Herald Sun published stunning new details on Friday, claiming Rioli was “caught pouring a liquid — possibly an energy drink — into a drug-test beaker in a panicked attempt to dupe anti-doping officers.”
“He tried to manipulate his sample on-site and got caught red-handed,” the Herald quoted a ‘source’ as saying.
Herald Sun and SEN reporter Sam Edmund elaborated on the claims later on Friday.
“The tight turnaround and the mail we received subsequent to that is that, yes, the detectors picked up the substitution in the act of doing the actual test,” Edmund said on SEN Breakfast.
“What he’s used, we don’t know. There’s lots of theories going around that he’s put water in, he’s put Gatorade in there. We don’t know how.”
The adverse finding was detected in an out-of-competition doping control test on August 20, with ASADA also informing the AFL on Wednesday.
The A-sample didn't return any evidence of a banned substance in Rioli's system, but the finding was that there was evidence of urine substitution, which is known as a "prohibited method".
Rioli was formally notified on his arrival in Melbourne with the rest of the Eagles team set to face Geelong in a knockout semifinal at the MCG on Friday night.
The 24-year-old was officially withdrawn from that line-up.
with AAP