Ahmed Saad tells of his devastation at receiving a drug ban and desire to reignite his AFL career
AHMED Saad speaks for the first time, exclusively to the Sunday Herald Sun, since receiving an 18-month suspension for taking a banned supplement.
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IT looked completely innocent. A speckled orange powder in a big tub. Drop a couple of scoops into a shaker filled with water. Mix. Gulp down.
Nothing unusual. Had it before. Ahmed Saad had drunk the powder shake with the strange name of Viking Protein Before Battle — and like everyone else hadn’t read the fine print on the label.
It was ingredient No. 5 that turned out to be a problem — methyl synephrine HCL.
SAAD DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE: WATTERS
It’s a stimulant aimed to increase energy levels, focus and get the blood pumping.
It’s also banned under the performance-enhancing drug code. Not every day — it’s only illegal on game day, but Saad didn’t know that.
Today is game day. Saad has caught the bus to the Round 15 away game against Fremantle with good mate Terry Milera.
PRE-match, the routine is like any other game day. Milera and Saad hone their set-shot routines before the match.
They head inside to hear St Kilda coach Scott Watters’ final words — heart pumping, mind on red alert.
Saad’s headphones are on, R&B is blasting out. He puts a couple of scoops of the Viking powder into a shaker and down it goes. It isn’t hidden.
BOMBERS SHOULDN’T BE BANNED: SAAD
There are teammates all around in the Patersons Stadium changerooms.
The wonder powder didn’t help. The Saints went down by 30 points. Saad kicked two goals and to this day believes he gained no benefit from the powder.
“Nothing, actually,” he said last week.
“I got dropped the couple of weeks I was using it and went back to the VFL, so it’s not like my form was great.”
Tonight Saad’s number is up. ASADA drug testers usually ask football managers to pick a few numbered cards from a pack to decide which players to randomly test.
When they came calling that night — deep in the bowels of the stadium — Saad had no fear. He wasn’t even nervous — what could possibly go wrong?
Everything actually. Once Saad’s urine sample was collected his fate was sealed.
He fell into a 10-month anti-doping investigation that cost him his place at the Saints, incurred catastrophic legal fees and put his family through hell. It culminated in an 18-month suspension.
Saad isn’t bitter. He doesn’t watch the 34 Essendon players recently issued with show cause notices from ASADA run around every week with gritted teeth.
He’s accepted what happened and says he’s grown as a person. And he doesn’t want any other player to deal with what he went through.
The ASADA process, which began with a phone call Saad first missed because he was at Saints training, was as drawn out as it was crushing.
He failed the drug test on July 7 last year and only had his 18-month ban set in stone six weeks ago, when ASADA’s appeal to have it boosted to the maximum two years failed and it did not take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
On October 1, Saad was finally hauled before the AFL doping tribunal. He knew ASADA would win but was desperate to limit the damage.
The guilty verdict and 18-month ban took four weeks to hand down. In that time Saad turned 24, married his sweetheart Elle and spent about 17 days on his honeymoon.
HIS wedding fell just five sleeps after the tribunal.
Saad was able to clear his head for the Docklands nuptials but as the newlyweds sunned it on the Maldives beaches, his career lay in limbo.
“It kind of never left my mind because I was still waiting for a result. That was tough,” he said.
Saad would hide details of his ASADA dealings from Elle, careful not to drag her in. She took care of the wedding plans as he fought ASADA.
“People have to realise that what happened to me actually affects everyone around you, probably more than it affects me,” Saad said.
“It affected my mum and my wife and my sisters and my uncles because they could see me going through it. That was probably the hardest thing I had to deal with, seeing them so emotional and upset.”
When the scandal erupted Saad immediately called uncle Sherif Mohamed.
It was Mohamed who in 2006 first taught Saad how to kick a Sherrin after a childhood spent playing representative soccer while living in Egypt.
Mohamed formed a key plank of Saad’s support base when ASADA dropped its biggest bombshell.
Unhappy with the 18-month ban, it would appeal to have a maximum two-year penalty.
“I was devastated. It was one of the hardest parts, knowing I had to go through it all again,” Saad said.
“And if they won it would have been career over. If it went to 24 months that means I get back in July next year.
“No club is going to pick you up after not playing for two years, which means I’d have to spend (2016) in the VFL.”
It’s hard to sleep when your life is ticking by. Saad said this was the toughest time of his life. Not knowing whether you’ve got a footy career or you’re finished.
It’s days and weeks and months like these when you need all your mates around. Saad said he had that in spades.
Watters, sacked from the Saints in November, would check in every month and has urged every club to consider Saad at this year’s draft.
Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas, whose son Tyson is best mates with Saad, remains a mentor.
AFL multicultural manager Ali Fahour is in Saad’s camp, his Blue Rock management team is fighting hard to get Saad a second AFL lifeline and former Collingwood player Adam Iacobucci appointed himself Saad’s fitness coach.
Iacobucci, who captained Saad in the VFL, gives the 24-year-old five high-intensity sessions each week and said he already boasted an impressive fitness base.
The personal trainer and founder of Unified Fitness Systems is mapping out a plan to get Saad to elite levels by later his year. The AFL draft is in November and although Saad’s suspension expires in late February, if the AFL adopts the new WADA code, he is hopeful that he’ll be eligible to train with a club from January 1.
FUNNY what happens when things go south. You find out who your mates really are and you find something, somehow, inside yourself. A strength that you probably didn’t know was really there.
Saad is more responsible. He appreciates AFL life more than ever. And he’s matured out of sight — it’s evident in his stance on the Bombers.
Essendon players reportedly received more than 40 injections containing exotic drugs in Stephen Dank’s 2012 supplements program — with ASADA believing the banned peptide Thymosin-beta4 was one of them — but, for now, remain able to play.
Saad naively knocked back an energy drink that is legal most of the time and has been labelled a cheat.
And as Saad sits in his suave suit taking a break from his full-time position as an associate adviser at Shaw Stockbroking, he speaks without spite.
“The last thing I’d want to see is anyone go through what I went through,” he said.
But is it unfair they’re allowed to play as he’s stuck in an office after being hauled through his own drugs investigation for what Watters described as an honest mistake?
“Not at all,” Saad said.
“I did what I did and I’m going to cop the punishment and they’re a different case and I wish them all the best.”
He also knows he can play AFL. So do AFL recruiters. They watched Saad boot 45 goals from 29 games and know he will do anything to get back next year.
St Kilda has asked for special permission to give Saad fitness tests before deciding whether to redraft him. If the Saints baulk, Saad will go anywhere.
It’s no surprise. The 175cm Egyptian was rejected by TAC Cup and VFL clubs, but penned a remarkable underdog story to reach the elite stage.
Without an invite he rocked up to Preston’s Cramer St suburban oval and asked for one pre-season training session with the Northern Bullants in late 2008 to prove himself.
Saad made sure he was at the front of the running pack and his skills were sharp. While a senior VFL debut didn’t come until 2010, his swift ascent ended with a 50-goal 2011, the league’s rising star and a chance at the Saints.
Not bad just five years after his first kick of a football.
He wanted it badly then. But he now wants a second chance even more.
And while he might look like a stockbroker today, fitted out in his slim-cut suit, underneath remains the muscular build of a footballer.
Not to mention the desire.
“It’s on my mind every day,” Saad said.
“Because it’s been taken away from me it makes me want it more and makes me miss it more.
“I’m sitting at a desk doing my job every day, but I’d rather be at training with the boys and doing something that I really love.”
WILL AHMED SAAD RETURN TO THE AFL NEXT YEAR?
“Ahmed’s potentially a 30-40 goal forward who’s very quick and when on his game also applies terrific pressure. He made an honest error of judgment and deserves a second chance.”
- Former St Kilda coach Scott Watters
“He’s always been someone in excellent shape and he’s got the experience and the work ethic. I have no doubt in a couple of months he’ll be back (at AFL standard).”
- Fitness coach Adam Iacobucci
“He’s proven himself as a capable AFL small forward and there isn’t a lot like him in this year’s draft. I think he’ll attract strong interest.”
- AFL recruiter
“I want another AFL chance pretty bad. Even more than what I did at the start and I’m going to do everything I can. I’m going to train, put in the hard work and hope a club gives me another shot.”
- Suspended footballer Ahmed Saad
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