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We will never get the whole truth, that’s the problem.Not Until the Truth Comes Out
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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
We will never get the whole truth, that’s the problem.Not Until the Truth Comes Out
AD might have some serious issues here. If he did tip off Essendon as was alleged by Hird and he is asked under oath he is in strife no matter which way he answers.
Will it never end.
Essendon court twist: Bulldogs president Peter Gordon acting for AFL supremos
Michael Warner, Herald Sun
7 minutes ago
Subscriber only
THE Essendon drugs saga has taken another twist with lawyer and Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon acting for AFL supremos Gillon McLachlan and Mike Fitzpatrick.
It emerged this morning that Gordon’s law firm, Gordon Legal, had been retained by McLachlan and Fitzpatrick as separate legal advisers to the AFL’s in a Supreme Court case alleging misleading and deceptive conduct by the league during footy’s greatest crisis.
Global law firm K & L Gates will continue to lead the AFL’s defence in the case brought by Melbourne lawyer Jackson Taylor.
The involvement of Gordon’s firm will add significant costs to a case that has run since last year.
In an affidavit filed with the court in February, lawyer Mark Dobbie for the AFL estimated the league’s costs in defending the matter would likely top $700,000.
McLachlan last month described the case as a waste of money.
Taylor is being represented by human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, who represented James Hird during his own fight with the AFL.
Taylor’s legal team has also been bolstered, with top commercial lawyer and Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin signing on as lead solicitor this week.
Peter Gordon (middle) with Gillon McLachlan after the AFLW Grand Final. Picture: Mark Stewart
The legal teams fronted Supreme Court Justice John Dixon at a directions hearing this morning to set out the next procedural steps in the case.
An argument over a deed of release between the parties signed in 2015 will be heard later this year.
McLachlan and Fitzpatrick were represented in court today by commercial barrister Georgina Costello.
Gordon is also acting for the AFL in a sexual harassment and racial discrimination case brought against the league by ex-Gold Coast Suns player Joel Wilkinson.
The Dogs president was embroiled in his own bitter stoush with the AFL in 2016 over the league’s handling of an investigation into the club’s elimination final narrow loss to the Adelaide Crows.
Bulldogs chiefs informed the AFL they had obtained “independent corroboration” of allegations that disaffected Dogs defender Michael Talia leaked parts of the team’s game plan to his brother, star Adelaide backman Daniel Talia, in the days before the match.
The Talias, who have always maintained their innocence, were cleared by the AFL after a 63-day integrity unit investigation.
“There is a clearly sufficient basis for the AFL to find that there was an improper communication of confidential information,” Gordon asserted in the club’s damning submission to the league.
Gordon also issued a statement on behalf of 17 club presidents as the AFL’s war against Essendon reached fever pitch in August 2013.
“We resolved to unanimously express our support for the integrity of the AFL Rules and the need for those rules and the integrity of our competition to be preserved,” he said.
“In our view, it is of paramount importance that every effort be made to resolve these matters within the AFL industry.”