News Dons ASADA scandal (Latest: Pg 101 - CAS verdict. Guilty, 12 months.)

Prince_Rhodesia

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Dec 17, 2009
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Will WADA allow the Essendon footy club to escape without a single infraction notice being issued?
That's the question. Don't worry about the major balls up that is ASADA. It's WADA that can't let this go, as it would reflect badly on them as the governing body on sports doping. Their credibility on the world stage will be damaged, and they won't let that happen.

No matter what ASADA told Essendon regarding the legal status of AOD-9604, ignorance won't be taken into consideration because the players and the club could have read the list of banned items on WADA's website before they started their jab happy operation.
Also, the lack of records of what was intravenously administered to the players will shaft them just as much as if they admitted their guilt.
WADA will simply ask the club why no records were kept regarding what exactly was injected into the players.
What kind of organization conducting an experiment of this nature, doesn't record every little detail in order to know what works and what doesn't?
When James Hird's "suspension" (paid holiday) is over, he'll simply waltz in and take over again, never acknowledging his role as the dumbest man in football.
According to Dean Robinson, Dank used the Jedi mind trick on Hird by telling him that Collingwood were doing it.
And yes, if Dank told Hird that Collingwood jumped off a cliff, you better believe that Jimmy Hird Diesel and the Injectors would have been looking for a higher cliff to jump off.
 

suspect footskills

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Oct 15, 2012
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This is easily the most monumental clusterf#ck disaster to have hit a club since the inception of the AFL. Clubs have strayed and paid big time in the past but the players have always been seperated from blame for events outside of their control. I have no love for Essendon but nobody wants to see players having the screws put to them and especially not like this. Like they haven't been subjected to enough already, yet now there's more to come?
It seems this will drag on well into future if indeed the players are subject to sanction by a governing body. Essendon may well find themselves being sued by their own for loss of earning potential or miriad other issues which may arise affecting this playing group. The sheer scope of the potential fallout in years to come is surely beyond anybody's current reckoning. To speculate that this could eventually lead to Essendon as a club, ceasing to exist in its current guise isn't all that far fetched.
I only hope that common sense can prevail in any potential moves to sanction players. The mitigating circumstances would have to weigh heavily in favor of the players were they to be subject to suspension or bans of any sort.
That they weren't the architects or even part of the implementation of the program to which they were subject must surely be the deciding factor in how this is dealt with.
 

Prince_Rhodesia

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Dec 17, 2009
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This is easily the most monumental clusterf#ck disaster to have hit a club since the inception of the AFL. Clubs have strayed and paid big time in the past but the players have always been seperated from blame for events outside of their control. I have no love for Essendon but nobody wants to see players having the screws put to them and especially not like this. Like they haven't been subjected to enough already, yet now there's more to come?
It seems this will drag on well into future if indeed the players are subject to sanction by a governing body. Essendon may well find themselves being sued by their own for loss of earning potential or miriad other issues which may arise affecting this playing group. The sheer scope of the potential fallout in years to come is surely beyond anybody's current reckoning. To speculate that this could eventually lead to Essendon as a club, ceasing to exist in its current guise isn't all that far fetched.
I only hope that common sense can prevail in any potential moves to sanction players. The mitigating circumstances would have to weigh heavily in favor of the players were they to be subject to suspension or bans of any sort.
That they weren't the architects or even part of the implementation of the program to which they were subject must surely be the deciding factor in how this is dealt with.

As a fan of AFL in general, I hope that the players aren't penalized. But some onus still has to be placed on those that willingly took part in the program.
There were players that opted not to participate. Among the reasons given why those particular players chose not to take part, was that they didn't like getting needles. Was that actually the case?, or was that simply a way to mask the possibility that those players realized that being asked to sign a waiver wasn't quite right? Essendon stuffed up and now people have to pay.
 
If players get infractions, Hird coming back to coach next year would be the biggest joke ever and just can not happen...

AFL won't stop him as they are weak as piss
 

Pendles!

Premiership Player
Sep 13, 2008
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AFL won't stop him as they are weak as piss
Essendon as a club have to do something. This bloke has just about brought them to their knees - he can't be allowed to just waltz back in and take over as if he did nothing wrong.

The responsibility has to fall on with someone and unfortunately Essendon have lost great people (CEO and pres) as a result and frankly it is not their fault. Hird is to blame IMO.
 
Essendon as a club have to do something. This bloke has just about brought them to their knees - he can't be allowed to just waltz back in and take over as if he did nothing wrong.

The responsibility has to fall on with someone and unfortunately Essendon have lost great people (CEO and pres) as a result and frankly it is not their fault. Hird is to blame IMO.
Its amazing how almost everyone except the guy who instigated the whole thing has been forced out while the guy who seems most at fault gets a sabbatical on full pay. Maybe the justification for all the admin people being shown the door was the 'governance issues' that they admitted to. Pretty sure the issue at hand is that their players were injected with banned substances (as it seems like we are about to find out for certain finally), no governance issues in those syringes
 
If players get infractions, Hird coming back to coach next year would be the biggest joke ever and just can not happen...
There is a clause in WADA rules that if a club/team/organisation has more than a certain of number of members/participants (I believe it's 6) who breach the drug code and are suspended than the officials at that club can be suspended also.

Not sure if that clause was active at the time of the indiscretions though.
 
I actually wonder what naming the 14 players involved achieves at all.

They aren't guilty of anything (yet) and in the long run might not be suspended so to name them only brings untold pressure and public abuse on a set of players who are get to be proven to have done anything wrong.

It would have been smarter by ASADA (smart and ASADA don't go well together though) to continue the investigation and only release the names of those they intend to charge with infractions that definitely carry a suspension.

That's how I'd feel if they were Pies players, I remember Neil "dickhead" Mitchell naming Beams and McCarthy before he should have and I was pissed off at the time, as was our club, and they turned out to be completely innocent.
 
Nothing will happen to the players. Without interviewing Danks, they do not have any real evidence.
No sure why Danks hasn't been interview as they do have the power to force him.

I just don't want this to derail football again, especially if there will not be an outcome.
 
Did ASADA release the names?
The rumour is that ASADA leaked the names to several media outlets, with amazingly Caro being one of the few who decided not to name them.
 
May 25, 2006
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I actually wonder what naming the 14 players involved achieves at all.

They aren't guilty of anything (yet) and in the long run might not be suspended so to name them only brings untold pressure and public abuse on a set of players who are get to be proven to have done anything wrong.

It would have been smarter by ASADA (smart and ASADA don't go well together though) to continue the investigation and only release the names of those they intend to charge with infractions that definitely carry a suspension.

That's how I'd feel if they were Pies players, I remember Neil "dickhead" Mitchell naming Beams and McCarthy before he should have and I was pissed off at the time, as was our club, and they turned out to be completely innocent.

In the real world (ie outside football) it is perfectly legitimate to name people accused off offences before they are charged or convicted. Cant see why the Essendon players deserve any special rights to privacy that regular punters dont get.
 
In the real world (ie outside football) it is perfectly legitimate to name people accused off offences before they are charged or convicted. Cant see why the Essendon players deserve any special rights to privacy that regular punters dont get.

Look what Jobe Watson copped for being honest on TV. They will all cop it now because they put too much trust in their club & it's leaders.
I thought the booing of Watson was piss poor & I don't consider any of their players cheats. I do consider them naive.
Hird & Dank should get their arse's sued off if these guys are suspended. Naming them before charges are laid shows the HUn only cares about selling papers & subscriptions. They don't care about players, clubs or more importantly the good of the game. I expect nothing less from Robbo though to be honest. As much as I can't stand Caro, good on her & the Age for not publishing those names.
 
May 25, 2006
63,622
44,469
Beach
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Collingwood
Look what Jobe Watson copped for being honest on TV. They will all cop it now because they put too much trust in their club & it's leaders.
I thought the booing of Watson was piss poor & I don't consider any of their players cheats. I do consider them naive.
Hird & Dank should get their arse's sued off if these guys are suspended. Naming them before charges are laid shows the HUn only cares about selling papers & subscriptions. They don't care about players, clubs or more importantly the good of the game. I expect nothing less from Robbo though to be honest. As much as I can't stand Caro, good on her & the Age for not publishing those names.

Thats the world we live in. If he took something illegal then he has to cop the consequenses.
 

Chief Ten Beers

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 11, 2008
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I don't consider any of their players cheats. I do consider them naive.

This is true, but I can't help but think naivitiy is no substitute for an excuse. Certainly when it comes to law or rules of a game anyway.

If we look at the facts, the players were being injected off site (multiple times in a week), surely it is in their interest to question it or even in their rights to refuse them (as one player did).

Grey area indeed and I'm not after an argument, but I think the players should shoulder responsibility and accept the consequences that what they took was illegal - purely so no other club thinks about cheating again and we retain whatever integrity is left in the AFL.
 
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