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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
It should be 2 years backdated from November 2014 for every player found guilty, which is the minimum standard that athletes from all Olympic sports must abide by - the AFL are a signatory to the WADA code so this should be the minimum standard required. If that means that Essendon have to fold or relocate, I could care less. Systematic doping should have no wriggle room for technicalities on the basis of 'image of the game'.
Strong leadership means making tough decisions to preserve the integrity of the sport in question - the AFL's leadership could not be any more meek and rubbery. FFS, the NRL have a couple of years where there were no premiers because they took a hardline stance on salary cap cheating, even on a minor scale as per Melbourne Storm's first premiership in that salary cap cheating era - by contrast, Essendon have been able to maintain their 1993 flag when they cheated the salary cap in that year.
This is why I am no longer an AFL member and find it difficult to get the slightest bit enthused about the upcoming AFL season."Look at me mate. Look at me. I'm flyin'"Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
What's sad is why the football community is so silent on this issue. If this sort of mismanagement happened in government, political, level the public would be up in arms. The great majority of the football public are resigned, fatigued, and sick of it all. But who is going to hold the Teflon AFL to account?
I don't see any great football leaders coming out swinging for the game. It needs a Leigh Mathews or a similar legend to come out and have an honest conversation. Oh, oops....he might not want anyone digging around in his backyard during the Lions premiership haul.You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― EpicurusComment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
Genuinely can't tell how this is going to play out.
My view is that the Club and its coaching staff knew what they intended to do and it has broken the rules resulting in a program of systematic doping. Their players were likely duped in some respects, but that isn't good enough. They didn't do the right thing and have hitched themselves to the wrong wagon.
Top end of town has tried to swing it in a way that doesn't risk their earning capacity from the AFL industry. It's gone pear shaped and since then, it's been a shit fight.
My view is, make the right call and throw them out, no matter the cost.Time and Tide Waits For No ManComment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
Hird and Little still think the players will not be charged and they have done nothing wrong (ie the players have done nothing wrong)FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
Hird reminds me of the Black Knight in the old Monty Python sketch. The one who has both his arms and legs cut off by the White Knight, but still defiantly wants to fight. Eventually goading the White Knight, who is riding away, calling him a coward....
... To which the White Knight says "What are you going to do? Bleed on me?!"
Hird's been smashed in straight sets twice in the courts, he's been suspended, his club's been banned from finals and excluded from the pointy ends of two drafts... His president is gone, his support staff, his CEO. Everyone except him (oh, and the Doctor who he deliberately kept out of the loop.)
He's effectively a bleeding stump, screaming "C'mon you cowards, come and get us!" It's laughable.
If Essendon get off with a warm cabbage leaf flogging, it's because the AFL have applied behind-the-scenes political pressure in order to protect their TV deal and their "brand" - not because Essendon are innocent.Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
Well said SoS. You're quite right about the money men trying to spin it in a way so it didn't affect their capacity to continue earning and it blowing up in their face.
Essendon must be punished to the full extent.They say Burt Lancaster has one, but I don't believe them.Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
Mark Baguely also in the clear, has joined David Zaharakis, Elliott Kavanagh, Lauchlan Dalgleish, Nick O'Brien and Jackson Merrett as having 'Crossed the picket line'.Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
They are fast running out of 'still listed' players who are yet to play a game this year. This whole 'protect the players' privacy' exercise may well turn out to be reduntant.
By my count there's only 18 players from that list left that haven't played this year.Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
WADA boss to review 'entire' Essendon-AFL investigation
The World Anti-Doping Agency's director-general says he will review the "entire" Essendon drugs investigation and has also declared his plans to discuss "all elements" of the affair directly with the Australian government, and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.
In a position that will put him at odds with critics of the WADA code – specifically the nuances of how it works in a team setting – David Howman has told Fairfax Media there is no problem with the application of the rules in team sports.
One week before 34 former and current Essendon players are judged innocent or guilty of banned drug use by an AFL anti-doping panel, WADA's director general since 2003 said: "There has been no suggestion from any team sports that they were not catered for appropriately within the rules."
Asked whether he believes the WADA code is better suited to navigating anti-doping issues for individual athletes than it is for team sports, Howman responded with an unequivocal: "No".
"Team sports have always been part of the code and have all partaken in the review processes that led to the introduction of the code," Howman continued.
The director-general's remark about how WADA will review the Essendon case came in response to Fairfax Media's question about the length of time it has taken for the Essendon matter to reach an AFL anti-doping tribunal. It has been more than two years since ASADA – which went on to conduct a contentious joint investigation with the AFL – announced its unprecedented probe.
"We will review the entire investigation when all the cases that have resulted from it have been completed," Howman said. "We will discuss all elements with the Australian government and ASADA."
In confirming that WADA continues to "monitor" the proceedings concerning the AFL and Essendon, Howman – the former boss of New Zealand's national sports drug agency and a barrister who specialises in sports law –said "ASADA would have a right of appeal prior to the exercise of any right that WADA has".
In an average year, there are around 2000 anti-doping decisions in sport globally and WADA has appealed about 40 a year on average. WADA can appeal on behalf of a sport, on behalf of an anti-doping agency, or on behalf of an athlete or athletes. Any appeals, at this stage, must go through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
When the AFL's anti-doping tribunal delivers its verdict on the 34 footballers – some retired, some still playing – and one former Essendon employee on Tuesday, it will specify an appeal window. WADA will have 21 days to launch an appeal after the expiry of that date.
Responding to questions from Fairfax Media on Monday about WADA compliancy, the AFL's Patrick Keane said the league is "100 per cent committed to clean sport. The AFL has no plans to not be WADA compliant".
Asked about any misgivings the AFL has about the WADA code's application in team sports, Keane said: "The AFL has said that there are learnings from the issues arising from the Essendon Football Club. At an appropriate time, the AFL will address them. It is not appropriate while the case is still proceeding."
Keane would not elaborate on reports that the AFL wants to revise elements of its agreement with ASADA when the Essendon case is resolved: "... There are definite learnings from the Essendon Football Club case, but this will be left until after this case is completed," he said.
When similar questions were put to former WADA president and former premier of New South Wales, John Fahey, he said: "In my six years as WADA president I saw no evidence, and received no complaint by any team sport in the world, relating to the code's effectiveness with teams.
"The code is reviewed every six years ... so that process will begin again some time towards the end of 2017, and any team sports should feel free to put their submissions together."
Fahey offered no thoughts on how next week's AFL anti-doping tribunal verdict might play out, or the likelihood of WADA exercising its right to appeal any of the findings.
Fahey has observed keenly – and has at times expressed dismay – how the anti-doping trials of the NRL and AFL have unfolded. Last September, after Essendon and coach James Hird failed in what began as a joint Federal Court action, he said he believed the likelihood of footballers serving longer suspensions for banned drug use has increased due to "certain people with big egos and fat wallets". Well before a Federal Court case into the Essendon saga revealed the political pressure that was applied on ASADA, Fahey also lamented publicly that the agency's former CEO, Aurora Andruska, had been confronted by "bully boys in the system".Comment
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Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players
And so the inevitable has happened. Won't be the last time we'll be seeing this headline in the coming months/years either."Look at me mate. Look at me. I'm flyin'"Comment
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