Former Bradford Bulls academy hooker and current outstanding performer at Batley Bulldogs, George Flanagan, has tested positive for recreational drugs and faces a two year ban.

[url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/rugby-league-headlines/Batley-rocked-as-player-fails.5150372.jpSource[/url.

Flanagan was Batley's top try, goal and point scorer with 11 tries and 20 goals in the 12 games he'd played since joining.

Oh dear.

A 2 year ban is inevitable, Durbin and Dave Allen both got them when they were with us, and didn't the young Saints lad get 2 years last year?

When will these kids learn.

Don't you just wonder why he was, I have a little feeling why...


Helped put Hunslet Hawks to the sword in the Challenge Cup will Batleys position in the cup be reviewed?...

smoke dope and get a two year ban.

kick the out of someone on CCTV and get suspended for 6 weeks.

Plain wrong

a hat-trick which included the match winning try on Sunday.

Pretty impressive if he was high.

Who?

Recreational drugs....

Could not agree more

Rumour has it that Batley Bulldogs knew about it before the Hunslet Hawks Challenge Cup game aswell...

I'll probably get shot down for this but I really don't see why using recreational drugs carries such a punishment. Fair enough,it's not a good example to be setting but as they are not performance enhancing drugs it should be up to the players what they do in their own time imo.

Agree 100%. It's a pretty stupid thing to do if you're a professional sportsman and should carry an internal punishment rather than a 2 year ban or whatever.

Ditto

Whilst I'm against recreational drug use, I do think its harsh to get punished for it in the same way as using performance enhancing drugs. The similiarity between them is only that they are both called drugs.

If a player gets arrested for assault then surely that is a bigger problem than smoking pot.

He's still stupid because he knows the rules.

This threads going a pretty sensible direction, normally the fun police would be riding on by now, not allowing anyone to discuss drugs.
Durham Giant makes a really good point and while i'm on it I honestly don't think any recreational drug should carry a 2 year ban on first offence.
Any decent amount of research into the subject will tell you alcohol per head is a far more dangerous drug but thats a different topic.
Performance enhancing drugs yes, recreational? doesnt affect your performance any different than if you'd had 5 or 6 the night before, in fact you'd wake up fresher on drugs

Spot on

Because some recreational drugs can or did used to be able to be used as a masking agent which means that they are on the banned list. For what it is worth, the ban is the standard ban as approved by UK sport.

www.batleynews.co.uk/news/Bulldo ... 5172196.jp It turns out he might have been dealing them!

www.batleynews.co.uk/news/Bulldo ... 5172196.jp It turns out he might have been dealing them!