WADA appeals against Bombers

VitalDread

The Unofficial Face of Bigfooty Bulldogs-NGA & VFL
Joined
Oct 9, 2011
Posts
18,892
Likes
22,993
Location
Cranbourne
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Chicago Bulls
Thread starter #1
THE ESSENDON supplements scandal is not over, with the World Anti-Doping Agency appealing the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal's decision to clear 34 present and former Essendon players of using banned substances.

WADA will take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has courts located there, in Sydney and in New York.

It is a blow for the Bombers and the AFL and could see the saga drag out for the remainder of 2015.

WADA has reviewed the case prepared initially by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) that led to the Anti-Doping Tribunal hearing.

Read the Anti-Doping Tribunal's full statement

"After a thorough examination of the evidence contained within the (ASADA) file, WADA has decided to lodge its independent right of appeal to the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport," WADA director general David Howman said in a statement released early onTuesday Australian time.

"As with all pending cases, and adhering to the proper and normal respect for the integrity of the legal process, WADA will refrain from commenting further on the subject until a decision has been made by CAS," the statement said.

The 34 past and present Essendon players were found not guilty of taking banned peptide Thymosin beta-4 by the David Jones-chaired AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal on the eve of this season.

The charges date back to the Bombers' supplements regime during the 2012 season, overseen by controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank.

New date for Dank hearing

Dank has been found guilty of some charges by the AFL panel, but there is no mention of him in WADA's statement.

Timing for the CAS hearing process is yet to be revealed.

Essendon legend Tim Watson, the father of Bombers skipper Jobe, expressed his surprise at the decision and said it would have an impact on the players.

"The players will be waking up this morning and hearing this information for the first time and they'll be thinking 'Oh no, here we go again, we've got to go through this whole process of uncertainty again'," Watson said on SEN radio.

"The players got to a point where they were able to compartmentalise the whole thing, and they all breathed that sigh of relief when they heard the Tribunal's [decision with some] closure, and now it's going to be reopened.



"It will be very interesting to see what their reaction is and how they will deal with it this time round."

Seventeen or 18 players from the 34 originally served with infraction notices for allegedly using banned substances remain with Essendon.

They did not play during this season's NAB Challenge as a way of reducing the impact of any subsequent suspension that might have been backdated to when they last appeared in a competitive match.

Former Bombers Patrick Ryder and Angus Monfries, now with Port Adelaide, and Stewart Crameri, now with the Western Bulldogs, also did not play in the pre-season matches.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-...gainst-34-former-and-current-essendon-players
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

go you pups

Hall of Famer
Joined
Jun 27, 2013
Posts
41,042
Likes
36,595
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Tottenham Hotspur, SSC Napoli, ESH
Moderator #4
Funny that VD only just started this, like nearly every other Victorian club has a anti-Essendon/ASADA thread bar us, particularly the big 4 teams and Norf
 

BrisDog

Club Legend
Joined
Dec 13, 2012
Posts
2,096
Likes
5,110
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#6
Is there a lower standard of proof for WADA hearings? They got Lance Armstrong on purely circumstantial evidence.

Essendon should have taken an early whack like Cronulla.
 

Doggies_13

Premiership Player
Joined
Dec 29, 2009
Posts
3,923
Likes
3,412
Location
Hobart
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#7
Is there a lower standard of proof for WADA hearings? They got Lance Armstrong on purely circumstantial evidence.

Essendon should have taken an early whack like Cronulla.
WADA appealing basically takes the decision away from the AFL, the Afl dismissed a lot of evidence.

Difference between Cronulla and Essendon is the ego of James Hird.

On the Carlisle discussion it does make it an easy decision for him but are very tough one for us i've said before i'd give up a first rounder for him in a heat beat but now i'm not so sure if he is going to miss a season or 2
 

Tommycash

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Sep 1, 2012
Posts
7,203
Likes
6,614
Location
Perth, Western Australia
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Swan Districts, Glory
#10
Is there a lower standard of proof for WADA hearings? They got Lance Armstrong on purely circumstantial evidence.

Essendon should have taken an early whack like Cronulla.
Same state of play as the first time round. Indeed, the hearings are de novo. That is, the trial begins from the beginning. Normally in appeals the evidence is only that which came from the original decision. This is not the case with WADA appeals to CAS. This is problematic because there are question marks over the way the trial was run by ASADA, and you can bet the lawyers for WADA are going to be a step above. Let's hope the original decision was water tight.

If you want to read more about the appeals process, go to page 80 of this: https://wada-main-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/resources/files/wada-2015-world-anti-doping-code.pdf
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Yojimbo

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Nov 14, 2012
Posts
7,267
Likes
5,909
Location
Home and Away.
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#12
Why didn't wada appeal Cronulla's 3 game bans?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No one cleared the NRL guys they admitted guilt, maybe if the AFL
anti doping tribunal had given the Essendon players the same
sanction then this sordid saga would finally have a full stop.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
 

dogwatch

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
Posts
15,982
Likes
21,703
Location
Canberra
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Arsenal
#14
It's amusing to read Essendon's Little and Watson expressing faux surprise (for the media) and complaining about the process being dragged out.

Excuse me, but wasn't much of the dragging out done by Essendon identities? Why the surprise when ASADA itself said it was handpassing it straight to WADA so that the process wasn't any more delayed than it needed to be and WADA could start rolling its sleeves up?

The only surprise would have been if WADA had said they are happy with the outcome and are not going to take it any further.
 

Norm De Guerre

Left of the dial.
Joined
Mar 27, 2004
Posts
7,274
Likes
19,627
Location
Sharpening Occums Razor
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Australian Farnarkling XI
#15
FWIW. I was told this was very likely to happen by a friend in the legal industry three weeks ago. The faux surprise emanating out of Tullamarine would be quite amusing to those firms holding fire that still have past or present Essendon players on their books.
 

BRWB

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Posts
14,792
Likes
21,553
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#18
I am so over all of this bullshit.

I hate Essendon as much as the next guy, but ******* leave it alone! Nobody wants to go through this anymore.
I feel for the players at Essendon. But after the verdict, the smug faces of Ess mates, and then my kids telling me Ess didn't cheat, and then having to explain the difference between cheating and being found guilty of cheating. That made me sick.

While I am sick of Ess 'saga', it sickens me 100 times more that an organised illegal PED doping programme can take place and the club responsible (and players involved) can get away with it merely by saying 'gee we lost our records'. WTF? It shouldn't be reliant on records anyway as anyone half smart is not going to document illegal drugs anyway.

So I applaud WADA for having a crack. And I hope punishment is meted out to the players if they are found guilty. Otherwise no-one is going to respect the drug code and just say, 'oh I didn't know' and the coach/club will say, 'shit we don't know either, we lost the records'. Open slather for PEDs if that can happen.
 

immortalmike

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Posts
14,191
Likes
23,580
Location
West Footscray
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Chicago Bulls
#19
I am so over all of this bullshit.

I hate Essendon as much as the next guy, but ******* leave it alone! Nobody wants to go through this anymore.
Speak for yourself dude.
I was appalled at the last decision. Those involved should be punished, if that means we lose Crameri, it's unfortunate but if it's in the interests of having a fairer competition so be it.
 

timtamWB

Resident Biscuit
Joined
Jun 3, 2012
Posts
20,846
Likes
24,966
Location
Melbourne
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Gold City Royals
#20
I feel for the players at Essendon. But after the verdict, the smug faces of Ess mates, and then my kids telling me Ess didn't cheat, and then having to explain the difference between cheating and being found guilty of cheating. That made me sick.

While I am sick of Ess 'saga', it sickens me 100 times more that an organised illegal PED doping programme can take place and the club responsible (and players involved) can get away with it merely by saying 'gee we lost our records'. WTF? It shouldn't be reliant on records anyway as anyone half smart is not going to document illegal drugs anyway.

So I applaud WADA for having a crack. And I hope punishment is meted out to the players if they are found guilty. Otherwise no-one is going to respect the drug code and just say, 'oh I didn't know' and the coach/club will say, 'shit we don't know either, we lost the records'. Open slather for PEDs if that can happen.
Speak for yourself dude.
I was appalled at the last decision. Those involved should be punished, if that means we lose Crameri, it's unfortunate but if it's in the interests of having a fairer competition so be it.
Nobody wants to go through it any more was an unfair generalisation, but spoken on the behalf of me and those in my friendship group.

I completely understand why this needs to happen, and honestly I'd be all for it. But that would be if the media won't go on and on about it, and it wouldn't dominate the whole world of AFL, which it really doesn't need to until a decision is reached. And by decision, I mean punishment, because I'm also sick of my Essendon mates going around saying how they didn't cheat. Apart from the one who is realistic about the whole thing and hates what happened.
 

BRWB

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Posts
14,792
Likes
21,553
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#21
Nobody wants to go through it any more was an unfair generalisation, but spoken on the behalf of me and those in my friendship group.

I completely understand why this needs to happen, and honestly I'd be all for it. But that would be if the media won't go on and on about it, and it wouldn't dominate the whole world of AFL, which it really doesn't need to until a decision is reached. And by decision, I mean punishment, because I'm also sick of my Essendon mates going around saying how they didn't cheat. Apart from the one who is realistic about the whole thing and hates what happened.
Mate I doubt this goes much more than a week or two then will die off. Got another 12 months or so to wait for a verdict.

But the beautiful thing is, the cretins (AKA the AFL media pack), did not get a sniff of this appeal by WADA..So therefore WADA don't leak. So its not like Ess and ASADA leaking/co-operating with the AFL with some or all parties leaking shit everywhere like a busted dunny. This of course fed and greatly extended the media cycle.

Based on this, I can't see media overload happening this time.
 

Mingo

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Apr 8, 2006
Posts
7,262
Likes
3,424
Location
Western
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Melbourne Renegades
#23
I reckon we were just starting to see the best out of Crameri this year. Obviously this whole saga has been a huge weight on his shoulders. Will be interesting to see if his good form continues or he trails off :(
 
Top Bottom