Lasting fallout in drugs furore IT is five months since we were told Australian sport was riddled with illegal drug use, match-fixing and links to organised crime. "This is the blackest day in Australian sport," gasped Richard Ings, former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority head, in a quote that went around the world. Few reporters dared to doubt him. After all, there was then justice minister Jason Clare announcing he was "shocked" by an Australian Crime Commission report. There was then sport minister Kate Lundy beside him, warning the wicked, "we will catch you." Behind them, looking shamefaced, were the heads of five big sporting codes, summoned as representatives of the guilty. And all of this big-noting and organised sliming was done to the cheers of grandstanders used to trading in sanctimony. "Endemic corruption" had been exposed, insisted the Sydney Morning Herald's Peter FitzSimons. So five months later, how many athletes have been charged with illegal drug-taking? None. How many instances of match-fixing have been detected? How many criminals have since been convicted for offences involving sport? In fact, how many athletes are even likely to be punished for knowingly taking banned performance-enhancing drugs? ASADA's investigation into the Cronulla NRL team has so far gone nowhere, with player interviews called off. Now Essendon claims ASADA told it the prospects of a prosecution for its use of the AOD-9604 peptide was "very, very, very low." AFL boss Andrew Demetriou said: "There is some uncertainty around the status of AOD-9604." ACC boss John Lawler says ASADA first told it the drug was not illegal under the S.2 anti-doping provision, and had not added it was still banned under the S.0 catch-all or banned substances not approved for human use. ASADA confirms it made "no reference to its status under S.0." If Essendon can demonstrate that it, like the ACC, was misled by incomplete advice, how can its players be punished? Some players may yet be charged. But what grounds did Labor ministers have in February for branding Australian sport as corrupt? How could they, aided by some leading sports commentators, have so casually inflicted such damage to the reputation of some of our most famous clubs?