ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

[azabob]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

Perhaps self sacrifice is part of earning a more than decent wage, and the prestige of leading a club like the EFC means significant tolls on your physical and mental wellbeing are part and parcel of what's required to do it properly.

If you take that sort of roll on, you have to take the good and the bad with it.

Disagree. I see the Watson scenario Similar as Gryfon. Difference is he acknowledged he need a mental break and took a short break. I don't think he shirked his responsibility then or now.

[Bornadog]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

Decision from WADA mid January.

[Dry Rot]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

Decision from WADA mid January.

So if they get rubbed out for 2 years, which is looking more likely, what do the Bombers do?

Raid VFL sides for 13 players? What happens with their cap next year?

And what about sides like Port and us with ex-Bombers players? And the poor old Saints with their star CHB recruit?

[Throughandthrough]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

I heard somewhere that the dogs players are all drug tested every week.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

I hope it's not too late for Stew to cut a deal. Or better yet, he's already done it.

[divvydan]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

So if they get rubbed out for 2 years, which is looking more likely, what do the Bombers do?

Raid VFL sides for 13 players? What happens with their cap next year?

And what about sides like Port and us with ex-Bombers players? And the poor old Saints with their star CHB recruit?

Surely if such a thing happened, that would be evidence of a systemic doping regime and thus the club itself should be penalised for a similar time frame. Of course, if it's up to the AFL as to how to punish the team, then it would only ever be fines and draft picks since the AFL can't afford to lose the current 9 games a week for TV.

[Topdog]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

So if they get rubbed out for 2 years, which is looking more likely, what do the Bombers do?

Raid VFL sides for 13 players? What happens with their cap next year?

And what about sides like Port and us with ex-Bombers players? And the poor old Saints with their star CHB recruit?

How is that looking more likely?

[Dry Rot]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

How is that looking more likely?

CAS not impressed that the players did not tell about injections in in the initial investigation

The chairman of the three-man panel deliberating on the Essendon case questioned why players should be entitled to a discount for "no significant fault" – the mechanism that can cut a suspension in half – if found guilty.

During the November hearing, the British chairman of the Court of Arbitration for Sport panel hearing the World Anti-Doping Agency appeal, Michael Beloff QC, questioned lawyers on why Essendon players should receive a "no significant fault, no significant negligence" discount – which the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority was at one stage willing to offer the players if they took a deal.

Beloff's comments came during the arguments on sentencing, when the players' legal team and the AFL counsel made a concerted push to have the players receive both "no significant fault, no significant negligence" if found guilty and significant reductions in penalty for lengthy delays in the case that were beyond players' control.

The penalty for a guilty finding for this kind of doping offence is two years, but a "no significant fault" finding can reduce it to one year. Players have already served about 4 months of a provisional suspension over 2014-15, and they can receive major reductions for the delays in a case that has lasted nearly three years. There is a further discount of six months if they demonstrate co-operation with ASADA.

Fairfax Media understands the comments of the CAS panel members suggested they were amenable to the idea that the players had been victims of delays that were outside of their control, including the Federal Court legal action taken by Essendon and then coach James Hird to have the investigation rendered unlawful.

Based on their legal advice prior to the hearing, Essendon had believed that with backdating provisions, including the provisional suspension served, the players were unlikely to miss games, even if they were found guilty.

But this seemingly presumed a "no significant fault" finding. The conduct of the hearing, and comments from the CAS panel, has some from the players' defence less confident about the outcome than they were before the AFL anti-doping tribunal that cleared all 34 players before the 2015 season.

As Fairfax Media previously reported, Beloff and the panel indicated they were troubled by the players' difficulty in explaining why they omitted to mention they had been injected with substances including 'thymosin" (including a non-banned variant) when they were questioned by drug testers during the 2012 season.

Some of the seven current and ex-Bombers players summoned to the CAS hearing were questioned by the panel on this point.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essendon-bombers/afl-queries-over-sentencing-discounts-for-bombers-20151223-gludfv.html

[The Adelaide Connection]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

The verdict will drop on Tuesday morning.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-01-09/tuesday-is-dday-for-the-essendon-34

[GVGjr]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

The verdict will drop on Tuesday morning.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-01-0...he-essendon-34

Huge decision for a number of clubs including ours. I wonder what the AFL has as a contingency if clubs lose players.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

Huge decision for a number of clubs including ours. I wonder what the AFL has as a contingency if clubs lose players.

Rookie upgrades instantly seems an easy place to start. I just hope like hell Stew doesn't regret not taking the slap on the wrist offer Gordon Legal had for him.

[GVGjr]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

Rookie upgrades instantly seems an easy place to start. I just hope like hell Stew doesn't regret not taking the slap on the wrist offer Gordon Legal had for him.

That could only be part of the solution as 4 upgrades won't be sufficient for the Bombers. I tend to think the clubs concerned could have a bite at the various state leagues.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

That could only be part of the solution as 4 upgrades won't be sufficient for the Bombers.

Isn't that a part of the punishment if found guilty? I know the AFL would do something, but if a 4 man cycling team knew two of them might be rubbed out for drugs offences and yet turned up as a 4 man team to the next event would we expect the event management to let them go and grab other cyclists from other events. I'd think not, I'd think they could call on their reserve team cyclists but that's it. Essendon can still very easily fill a side, but if they're determined to be guilty then I'd say having a reduced playing roster forms part of the punishment.

[ledge]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

I heard they have been granted the right to get state players, I remember last time a state club had an issue with it, which of course they would.

[GVGjr]

Re: ASADA issues show-cause notices to Essendon players

Isn't that a part of the punishment if found guilty? I know the AFL would do something, but if a 4 man cycling team knew two of them might be rubbed out for drugs offences and yet turned up as a 4 man team to the next event would we expect the event management to let them go and grab other cyclists from other events. I'd think not, I'd think they could call on their reserve team cyclists but that's it. Essendon can still very easily fill a side, but if they're determined to be guilty then I'd say having a reduced playing roster forms part of the punishment.

I'm not so sure when the AFL has TV rights to consider. Essendon being weak is one thing but they can't allow them to be sub standard.

I'd suggest that if any team are losing players for the H&A season then depending of the period of the suspension they should be able to top up if needed.

Essendon have actually cleared the decks from 34 players down to 12 so the impact to them now isn't as massive as it could have been.

I'm still surprised that the Saints went as hard as they did for Carlisle knowing that a decent suspension was still a likely possibility.