Play Nice WADA v Essendon 34: Guilty, 2 Yr Susp. (backdated to Mar 2015). Affects 17 current AFL plyrs.

[CoggaRules]

Have they commisioned the bronze statues to be placed around the "Hangar", for the legends, Hird, Thomson, Reid, Robson and Evans? The 5 amigos with sombreros to commerorate the whole thing.....whats funnier is that the new you beaut "amabassador" of whatever the f**k he is, Sheeds has been deafening by his silence...lets take a guess...i call on all bummer supporters to stick together...lmaoooo....ummmm....#standbyhird...

 

[Mootsy]

Its both

It is? Well then that's how it should be..

 

[cartwright]

Timmy on SEN basically saying the CAS outcome was decided before the hearing began. Essendon simply do not understand strict liability or comfortable satisfaction. Who ever has been advising them has done a terrible job of educating them. Mind you they have media mouth pieces like Robbo who can't even get the basics, like how many tribunal members there were, right.

Even when Middleton crucified them, they still went on with it.

They have surely been the dumbest club to walk the AFL earth, they even turned on the AFL, who was their only ally in any of this and whom was actively seeking to gerrymander the outcome in their favor.

They don't want to understand it.
Not now.

Not sure if it's dumb, or just arrogant.

 

[CoggaRules]

Timmy on SEN basically saying the CAS outcome was decided before the hearing began. Essendon simply do not understand strict liability or comfortable satisfaction. Who ever has been advising them has done a terrible job of educating them. Mind you they have media mouth pieces like Robbo who can't even get the basics, like how many tribunal members there were, right.

Even when Middleton crucified them, they still went on with it.

They have surely been the dumbest club to walk the AFL earth, they even turned on the AFL, who was their only ally in any of this and whom was actively seeking to gerrymander the outcome in their favor.

They paid squillions to some agency to navigate a way out of this didnt they? lmaoooo....ooops they got it wrong...they wont use that agency again..

 

[compact72]

Timmy on SEN basically saying the CAS outcome was decided before the hearing began. Essendon simply do not understand strict liability or comfortable satisfaction. Who ever has been advising them has done a terrible job of educating them. Mind you they have media mouth pieces like Robbo who can't even get the basics, like how many tribunal members there were, right.

Even when Middleton crucified them, they still went on with it.

They have surely been the dumbest club to walk the AFL earth, they even turned on the AFL, who was their only ally in any of this and whom was actively seeking to gerrymander the outcome in their favor.

Well they needed a nice wakeup call.

If you look at the overall picture, and step outside of the AFL saga cloud (so not connected to the saga in some way). It really looks like a big mess, and the players got what they deserved. From the outside, they have copt no whack as players (except an emotional toll)

 

[Linda_Lovelace]

The AFL was their ally? If this were true this shit would have been settled a long time ago.

Yep, the worst outcome was a ban of 34 players in 2013 which would have left them stuffed. The AFL delayed, sought to do deals to get the players token bans like Cronulla. The AFL sought to minimize the damage to the game because they love dollars and were always going to try and ensure the players kept playing.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

How come Hird was convinced that all the other clubs were doing it and were ahead of Essendon? Delusional paranoia?

 

[Armchair Critic]

I just read the first 35 pages of this thread again . Only got half a chubby when I seen the Guilty verdict, disappointed.

 

[Linda_Lovelace]

Well they needed a nice wakeup call.

If you look at the overall picture, and step outside of the AFL saga cloud (so not connected to the saga in some way). It really looks like a big mess, and the players got what they deserved. From the outside, they have copt no whack as players (except an emotional toll)

I think the whole AFL needed a wake up call. Injection programs were active at numerous clubs, its was only a matter of time until someone over stepped the mark so there for the grace of god...........

I am no fan of Vlad but he did complain about 'witch doctor' sports scientists before this all blew up (I suspect at that point he knew about Dank). The problem for the AFL is that Govt bodies got wind off it before it was shut down.

 

[sherb]

Yep, the worst outcome was a ban of 34 players in 2013 which would have left them stuffed. The AFL delayed, sought to do deals to get the players token bans like Cronulla. The AFL sought to minimize the damage to the game because they love dollars and were always going to try and ensure the players kept playing.

The AFL is far more interested in money and its image than the integrity of the competition. Of that there is no doubt.

 

[Taylor]

How come Hird was convinced that all the other clubs were doing it and were ahead of Essendon? Delusional paranoia?

Because they are.

People running 40km a week don't put on 10kg of lean muscle in a year, except in the AFL.

 

[CoggaRules]

Just dont get how the AFL is going to go ahead with the Anzac day and Dreamtime games which includes a club that has been found GUILTY of being drug cheats...like get the f**k outta here with that shit....ban them from these games for the next 20 years..

 

[compact72]

I think the whole AFL needed a wake up call. Injection programs were active at numerous clubs, its was only a matter of time until someone over stepped the mark so there for the grace of god...........

I am no fan of Vlad but he did complain about 'witch doctor' sports scientists before this all blew up (I suspect at that point he knew about Dank). The problem for the AFL is that Govt bodies got wind off it before it was shut down.

It's pretty disgusting the treatment of the AFL now. They are making it look like that it's ok to dope.

If the AFL said yesterday that Jobe needs to hand back the brownlow, people would be over it today and the world will keep spinning. To allow Jobe to fight for the medal is a joke in the code.

To also pay the players for doping is disgusting

 

[Wolftone]

McLachlan, Anderfson and Fitzpatrick should fall on their swords. They are all guilty of collusion with the Essendon football club and covering up a scandal. The AFL has been negligent to the players and has sought a whitewash all along. The Kangaroo Court attests to that attitude. As far as I'm concerned not only essendon but the AFL Commission, the CEO and Operations Manager have sought all along to make this go away rather than correctly judge this issue. The players have been badly mislead by the Essendon Football Club, the AFL and the AFLPA. McLachlan, Anderson and Fitzpatrick should all resign. Marsh should resign as CEO of the AFLPA immediately.

The players have always been guilty under the WADA/ASADA code. They were given extremely poor advice and should have fallen on the mercy of the court.

 

[alpC]

If I'm reading this correctly, and I hope I am, does this mean there could be further penalties handed out the the "entourage"

Hopefully WADA ban Hird for life..........





From the Herald Sun this morning

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...c3e4ffb661f909c389b432a08#load-story-comments

“Be very, very careful who you hired to administer any programs relating to the health of athletes,” he said. “It’s the entourage that has to be reviewed very specifically.

“It’s not just in AFL. If we look at examples in the cycling world you can see many examples of the entourage being responsible for determining programs that are wrong. You’ve got to be very careful in selecting those individuals.”

Sports scientist Stephen Dank, who was in charge of Essendon’s supplements program in 2011-12 and received a lifetime AFL ban, has said he plans to sue the AFL and ASADA to go along with the 24 legal actions he currently has pending against various media outlets.

Howman said WADA’s revised rules allow for offending entourage members to be punished. But in bad news for Bombers fans, he doesn’t think the CAS ruling represents the end of the matter.

“What we’ve been able to do in the last revision of our rules is to ensure the members of the entourage who might be responsible for leading to such decisions are also subject to the sanction process,” Howman said.

“I think the end of this matter has not yet been reached. I think the individual who introduced the program at the club is appealing some of the issues he was dealt with — and until that’s complete it’s not over.”

 

[Draft Bored]

I thought I'd be satisfied after hearing the news yesterday but the way the day played out I'm not. I'm furious.

The AFL and their affiliates in the media are corrupt. Nobody should be defending Essendon or their players. Nobody should be questioning the sanction. There are 17 other teams who've had their code dragged through the mud. There are teams who've done far less and been penalised far worse. There are fans from all 18 teams that have been let down, particularly Essendon's. Don't talk about the players wages being paid while under sanction, instead offer Essendon's members a refund.

 

[nobbyiscool]

It's a different level in that this is a team sport, players do follow coaches instructions.
I am not in any way excusing the players, but Lance Armstrong was the only one in charge of his destiny.
The players are guilty, sure, but the blame does not lie with them imo, it lies with Hird and co.

This isn't entirely true - Johan Bruyneel, his sporting director, was heavily involved in influencing Armstrong during his early TDF wins at US Postal, when he first got involved with Michel Ferrari. We know he was at least an influence because Floyd Llandis and Tyler Hamilton (among others) have told us that they were influenced by Bruyneel as much, if not more than Armstrong.

Cycling is a team sport too - people just don't quite understand that, or perhaps they forget that because Armstrong was "the winner" and was the figurehead. But US Postal were clearly influenced by their coaches too.

I just can't buy this sympathetic approach to players - as I said earlier in the thread, to say these guys were just doing what they were told, for Gillon to talk about "team culture", for Paul Marsh to talk about the WADA code not suiting team sports all assumes that football players are either too spineless to say no, or too stupid to ask "what is this, and if you can't tell me then **** off." We've seen enough of guys like Jobe Watson, Dustin Fletcher, Mark McVeigh et al to know that these guys aren't idiots, and even if they're "just" spineless they're still entirely culpable. (We also know they're not idiots because, as I said, they knew enough to not write it down and not tell anyone, including Reid.)

I feel bad for the younger players who needed leadership from player colleagues - but it doesn't excuse them or remove their culpability, because even those young guys have grown up in the era of Lance Armstrong, Chinese swimmers, Ben Johnson, Balco/Marion Jones etc and they should've known better.

We have to give these people some credit for having a brain, and therefore they are just as responsible for their own punishment. Hird, Thompson, Robson etc are idiotic pieces of shit who've ruined their club, and who should've known better - but to my knowledge none of them held a gun to anyones head.

 

[Boba Fetta]

The AFL and their affiliates in the media are corrupt. Nobody should be defending Essendon or their players. Nobody should be questioning the sanction.

As an outsider looking in (born and raised in QLD, living in Melbourne for a decade now), I'm amazed by the "free pass" that large sections of the media have given the players.

The non-disclosure alone shows that there was more to it then "we thought it was all above board".

I know that other codes wouldn't get the same leniency when it came to this. Look at the way Australians have complained about other countries Olympians in the past.

Even Caro, who is more direct than most, has really flogged the players with a feather in her articles.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Because they are.

People running 40km a week don't put on 10kg of lean muscle in a year, except in the AFL.

So that's why the Bulldogs players look smaller than other teams - they can't afford a dodgy drugs supplements regime .

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Because that's do to with recreational and not sports science supplements, obviously. Bit of a difference.

Wrong....I'll say it again, Wrong

 

[TheMightyEagles]

Timmy on SEN basically saying the CAS outcome was decided before the hearing began. Essendon simply do not understand strict liability or comfortable satisfaction. Who ever has been advising them has done a terrible job of educating them. Mind you they have media mouth pieces like Robbo who can't even get the basics, like how many tribunal members there were, right.

Even when Middleton crucified them, they still went on with it.

They have surely been the dumbest club to walk the AFL earth, they even turned on the AFL, who was their only ally in any of this and whom was actively seeking to gerrymander the outcome in their favor.

Is he seriously suggesting that the former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court is corrupt and deciding cases at the direction of WADA? It's incredible how delusional some of the Essendon camp have become.

It's also mind-boggling how our airways are constantly filled with people affliated with Essendon telling us how hard done by the players are. It's like that line in the movie Shawshank Redemption, where Red points out that there are no guilty men in Shawshank - just ask any of the prisoners. Essendon is in this position because nobody has been willing to take any responsibility until now.

 

[Baltimore Jack]

Is he seriously suggesting that the former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court is corrupt and deciding cases at the direction of WADA? It's incredible how delusional some of the Essendon camp have become.

It's also mind-boggling how our airways are constantly filled with people affliated with Essendon telling us how hard done by the players are. It's like that line in the movie Shawshank Redemption, where Red points out that there are no guilty men in Shawshank - just ask any of the prisoners. Essendon is in this position because nobody has been willing to take any responsibility until now.

Has anyone at any time at Essendon stood up and said "I am responsible"?

 

[DazzaTys]

I thought I'd be satisfied after hearing the news yesterday but the way the day played out I'm not. I'm furious.

The AFL and their affiliates in the media are corrupt. Nobody should be defending Essendon or their players. Nobody should be questioning the sanction. There are 17 other teams who've had their code dragged through the mud. There are teams who've done far less and been penalised far worse. There are fans from all 18 teams that have been let down, particularly Essendon's. Don't talk about the players wages being paid while under sanction, instead offer Essendon's members a refund.

I must have got out of bed this morning and can't believe I'm agreeing with a Crows supporter but you are absolutely spot on and I agree with you.

 

[Ari]

How about a 12 mth all expenses paid holiday

All expenses paid? So I just give you my bank details and bam?!

 

[compact72]

Is he seriously suggesting that the former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court is corrupt and deciding cases at the direction of WADA? It's incredible how delusional some of the Essendon camp have become.

It's also mind-boggling how our airways are constantly filled with people affliated with Essendon telling us how hard done by the players are. It's like that line in the movie Shawshank Redemption, where Red points out that there are no guilty men in Shawshank - just ask any of the prisoners. Essendon is in this position because nobody has been willing to take any responsibility until now.

Nobody still wants to take responsibility.

It's funny how the tables have turned, as they were also telling people about the 'independent tribunal' and they shouldn't be underminded