Cian Ward reveals how often he was drug-tested whilst playing for Meath

Brendan O’Sullivan tested positive for a banned stimulant in 2016.

The player unintentionally consumed a prohibited substance and has since served a suspension. Kerry GAA made it clear in their statement that there was no foul play involved in the incident with their statement on the matter.

'On the 24^th of April 2016 Brendan O’ Sullivan (Valentia Young Islanders & Kerry) underwent a routine Sport Ireland doping control test following the Allianz League final. The results of the test indicated a rule violation. 'Brendan O’Sullivan fully cooperated in assisting Sport Ireland. 'The subsequent findings of Sport Ireland accepted that the rule violation was not intentional and the resultant suspension has been served. Sport Ireland is expected to deliver a written decision shortly. 'All involved with Kerry GAA are delighted to see Brendan back playing football. 'Kerry County Committee and Team Management will be making no further comments until the Sport Ireland report has been issued.'

https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/869327254492504064 Given the rarity of positive tests in the GAA, it led to a somewhat heated debate on the most recent episode of The GAA Hour. One man that has been tested before is Cian Ward, a former Meath sharpshooter and a regular on the show. Ward played intercounty football with the Royals for seven seasons and revealed his history of being tested.

"I myself was tested twice which is miraculous because if anybody was picking me out of a crowd to drug test me it certainly wasn’t for my endurance or anything like that," Ward laughed. "It’s completely random, I think I was tested twice in the same season."

Those tests were the only two that Ward had to undergo in his seven years playing for Meath which led to SportsJOE’s Conán Doherty to brand the amount of testing as "not substantial". Ward continued:

"We were tested at training too and different guys were pulled out and it’s just completely random and I asked the tester at the time, I was saying, 'what is the story here?' he explained. "We were after losing an All-Ireland semi-final and I was stuck there for an hour with this fella following you around. "I was asking the question saying, ‘why in the name of God is this me again?’. And he said, 'look it’s totally random’ and said that it had happened with one of the rugby players twice in the same season and what they actually did was, the next time round, because he was going about saying, 'oh you’re targeting me,' so they said, 'right, here are the names in the hat. Pick out a name,' and he picked out his own name."

And, although Ward tried to convey that testing was done randomly and fairly, Conán Doherty still felt that testing wasn’t enough.

"The Irish Anti-Doping Agency in 2015 only tested 97 times in GAA," he said. "When something like this comes up, we shouldn’t be so quick to say, 'ah nonsense, it doesn’t happen here'".

There is no evidence to suggest that a culture of doping or other performance enhancing drugs are part of the GAA but in a sport that is often branded amateur played by professionals, maybe it is time to start testing players as if they are professionals.