Does anyone believe that the AFL will ever bring charges against Evans, Robson, Hamilton, Dank or Robinson?
That to me is the major failing in the way the charges are being dealt with. By ignoring them the full blame is being put on the guys remaining. It goes back to what Mark Thompson stated last night, the responsibility should be shared between a number of individuals in the whole team. The focus on Hird only is ridiculous.
The other things that is being ignored is the AFL's own role in the saga. If the AFL were concerned enough to meet with Hird and warn him against use of peptides (which Hird has allegedly denied he was warned btw), why was there no follow up to it? Surely due process should have been written confirmation of the issues after the meeting. This definitely shows a lack of governance on the AFLs side, especially since this happened within their integrity unit, which heck, this is the pure reason that this unit exists. Not like a coaching panel whose reason to exist is to explore ways to improve a teams performance.
How much did the AFL know a well? Its well known that Demetrio in 2012 publically aired regrets about the increased influence of sports scientists, yet it seems they are taking no ownership and responsibility for what happened. They had to make changes to their own regulations and procedures after the case came to light, so obviously there was failings there.
Its very obvious the charges are lacking context, and are angled at a trying to achieve a certain outcome, rather than letting natural justice occur.