http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...g-was-deplorable-20150331-1mc8hi.html?stb=twt
Drug record keeping 'deplorable'.
Tribunal could not be comfortably satisfied that the players took the banned drug thymosin beta-4
Tribunal noted that "it is the responsibility of the club to ensure that complete and accurate records are kept".
Consent forms "alarmingly inadequate".
far too much reliance on Mr [Stephen] Dank
It's clear the players had no actual knowledge of the substance with which they were injected.
"There is evidence from a player he was injected with a substance from a brown vial that Mr Dank always told him was thymosin." But Jones said that was of "no significant probative value".
comfortably satisfied that biochemist Shane Charter had bought thymosin beta-4
some inference in correspondence from Alavi that he had compounded the drug.
The tribunal was not sure that Dank had received the drug in his capacity as an Essendon representative.
The tribunal rejected the notion that he had used the legal variant, thymosin alpha.
...
Hird, who said on Tuesday he had apologised five times throughout the ordeal, could not confirm what substances were given to the players, saying it hadn't been his role as a coach to choose the supplements.
...
"There are questions that will never be answered," McLachlan said.
"There are some people who say they know what they had given and I think the players would love to know.
"From what I have read and I need to be careful because it is a confidential document, what we can say what was established through the tribunal is that theyweren't comfortably satisfied it was thymosin beta-4. I don't think they have established what it was."