The decision by WADA to refer the Essendon case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport should be roundly endorsed by every sports loving Aussie (maybe with the exception of one-eyed Essendon fans).
We can’t let fatigue with the case be a reason to no longer pursue the right outcome.
Essendon have brought nothing but shame to our game and taken it down a route no one wants to see it going.
As a cycling fan, I see so many parallels to cycling in the late 1990s and early 2000s and quite frankly I think the AFL have missed the opportunity to make a definitive statement that they will not stand for this.
Cycling’s governing body the UCI was unwilling to expose its Golden Boy, Lance Armstrong, given the extraordinary commercial and sponsorship interest he was generating in the sport. The AFL is guilty of the same crime here and the long-term damage is real. As a lifelong footy fan, I’m completely disenchanted with the sport as a result.
Much like the EPO-tainted cycling teams of that era, Essendon indulged in a team-sponsored doping program that threw ethics and the welfare of athletes out the window. Remember Essendon felt their transgressions were serious enough to self-report in the first place.
The player group should have stood up and said we won’t stand for this – given everything we know about doping how can they have consented to being injected with a concoction of ‘unknown’ substances? Shame on them for going along with it and not having the courage to stand up against it. The cyclists of the 1990s did the same thing with EPO and it ultimately became systemic throughout the sport.
Let’s step back from the details of the legal process and just reflect on the fact that their captain won the award as the competition’s best player in that season (and has been allowed to keep that Brownlow Medal) fuelled by a concoction of who knows what. Ultimately the players have been cleared because there was no record of what substances they were administered. To the outside observer overseas it leaves our game as a laughing stock.
Well done to WADA for not standing by and letting this light-handed self-administered perversion of justice prevail. I look forward to an impartial decision that doesn’t involve some sort of negotiation with the AFL or Essendon or Paul Little or James Hird.
Cycling star Alberto Contador was initially cleared by the Spanish domestic authorities in his clenbuterol case and the rest of the cycling and sporting world looked on in scorn at the laughable attempt of self-interested parties to administer justice. WADA pursued the same channels through CAS and ultimately Contador was stripped of titles and suspended.
We all know Essendon were systematically doping. Let’s hope justice prevails here and Australian sport can hold its head up on the world stage again.
DB
Guest
Exactly PB, most of the commentary we get on the issue especially those from other codes seems to come from an anti-AFL agenda.
DB
Guest
I still don't know what the AFL did wrong, apart from perhaps tipping Essendon off (though not proven) in the first place.
Perry Bridge
Guest
btw - I do speculate that the AFL tribunal would have lost credibility had it provided a 'nice' outcome (as is normally the 'AFL' way via negotiated penalties and became the NRL-ASADA way). We didn't see the 'negotiated' outcome of the NRL-Cronulla case. That has zero credibility. And yet WADA didn't appeal it??? I do wonder though - had the AFL tribunal come to the conclusion that paralleled the NRL case would WADA have meekly accepted it too? That I doubt.
Perry Bridge
Guest
This article is more the joke. It totally misses the point that the AFL tribunal was correct process and followed and worked within the WADA framework. No different to what the CAS tribunal will do. Independent observers felt that the ASADA evidence had too many holes in it - and no sworn statements from key witnesses who later expressed dismay with how their unsworn statements were 'manipulated'. The members of the AFL tribunal including 2 retired country court judges and a barrister (ex player granted) - have had their integrity question by many on theRoar who in most cases seem to have no idea of who they are (surely people can at least google that first). The joke here is that the AFL wasn't trying to hide Essendon. The AFL worked with ASADA. And yet people are seemingly attacking the AFL as if they were side by side with Essendon in court??? The real serious questions still need to be asked of how ASADA thought their NRL-Cronulla resolution was appropriate. And my speculation is that WADA was not pleased at all by that and are riding ASADA all the way on this one.
AL
Guest
So Essendon had a spread sheet which they gave to ASADA and now Essendon dont have that spread sheet???? Hird and the AFL are a law unto themselves.
Mike from Tari
Guest
So French Law is not western law, you do know that French law is guilty until proven innocent, it's a good column, the AFL is the laughing stock of the western world.
Brendan Brown
Guest
I love the internet, because there is so much babble to read. Essendon hasn't covered itself in glory here - but has paid an extraordinary price for its failures - but grandstanding commentators in the media, and even layman opinion voicers on sports blogs, have come out of the affair looking worse. The manufactured hysteria involving the case has roused the average footy fan into lunacy. AFL is as much about hate as love - you love your own team, but hate every other. The narrative about an AFL power being a den of drug taking is just too irresistible. I don't blame so much the opinion givers in the media (who all know the main ones) because it's their job to help sell newspapers and be relevant. Ideally their over the top ranting would be see for what it is, and they'd lose credibility. But their audience loves the story they're pushing so much that this isn't happening. I wrote more about this here - https://www.ideapod.com/idea/54e8b58f776562575f7e0800
AR
Guest
Agree. No journo can possibly get every single word right 100% of the time, but Caroline Wilson has been excellent overall, and Robinson, Connolly et al have come across as mere mouthpieces for the EFC. Her piece yesterday about Hird's continued inability to acknowledge wrongdoing whilst twisting the facts ("the players were found innocent") was bang on.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Irrespective of the professional credibility and reputation of the AFL tribunal that heard the most recent hearing between ASADA and the Essendon players, it's not a good look for administering justice to have an organisational body with such vested interests in the outcome presiding over the outcome. I'm not suggesting the judges were influenced by the AFL, but the perception is not one of impartiality. So why is the process established like this? I agree with the comparison in this article to the Albert Contador example. It makes you wonder why the process is set-up this way to go through local, compromised channels first. The CAS is as impartial and independent as you can get in sport, so finally this case will undergo a transparent and impartial process. Not sure it will change the outcome, but I hope for the sake of integrity in football that it does. Either way, at least a fair, impartial and qualified hearing will ensue; only then can all parties accept the process and the result.
DJW
Guest
Wrong Harry, research "Comfortable Satisfaction" at what it means
Kevin
Guest
Duffster has a tour ever thrown out a big team ? Astana / U.S. postal / discovery / Cofidis etc for doping ? For mine the hideous nature of this is that the AFL tribunal were basically asked to cripple a team for two years with a positive finding .. That would have meant a devastating blow for the competition and AFL itself .. How can anyone with any Intelect above a peanut believe they ruled without bias ?
pjm
Roar Rookie
They're men not boys, parents can't do anything.
pjm
Roar Rookie
Another Law & Order fan boy.
WhereIsGene
Guest
Paying far more attention to the saga than you have by the sounds of things, or I'm simply not as biased as you are. Caroline Wilson has been one of the very few media commentators who's dared to consistently criticize Hird & Essendon. The majority - like sycophantic Essendon supporters Rohan Connolly & Mark Robinson - have been extremely timid in their assessment of the way Essendon has handled things, which has been nothing short of a disastrous as they've lurched from one failed PR strategy to another.
Gremlins
Guest
If EFC cannot (or will not) state categorically just what the injections contained, then I devoutly hope that either a) the players and/or b) their parents will sue the club for dereliction of duty and breach of care. These young men are being condemned to a lifetime of uncertainty. If the injections were totally innocuous, the player deserve to know just what they contained and that their future health is safe. It now devolves to WADA to ascertain just what went on ... if it can.
HarryHP
Guest
How can the author say "Let’s hope justice prevails here" - you are assuming guilt unless proven innocent. This is not how western society works. Irrespective of the horrible drugs and chemicals and god knows what else these players where injected with, if they can't prove they took a banned substance, and to my knowledge not one of the players has tested positive, then the appeal will fail. I personally think its grandstanding by WADA brought on by severe pressure from ASADA who are trying desperately hard not to lose face.
HarryHP
Guest
What a ridiculous statement. Aside from Caro the Chief Football writer at the Australian - Patrick Smith - has also stuck the boot in on many occasion. Only Robbo from the Herald Sun has not gone as hard, although I think that has more to do with the fact that his beloved Bombers are his team of choice.
mdso
Guest
There is no daylight where this bloke's head's has been. What utter tripe. Where is yours evidence???
AR
Guest
Ridiculous article. This is one line that caught my eye: "Cycling’s governing body the UCI was unwilling to expose its Golden Boy, Lance Armstrong, given the extraordinary commercial and sponsorship interest he was generating in the sport. The AFL is guilty of the same crime here and the long-term damage is real." It's a pretty outrageous comparison. First, the UCI was actually colluding with Armstrong to allow him to cheat and continue cheating. Second, to suggest the AFL was "unwilling to expose its Golden Boy" (in this case apparently, Hird), ignores the months of investigations into Hird, the fact that the AFL banned Hird and personally fined him, and the fact that Hird took the AFL and ASADA to Court to rule the investigation unlawful. The two parties were basically sworn enemies for 2 years. To claim that "AFL is guilty of the same crime" as the UCI is just pure fiction. I have no idea what investigation and process the Duffster has been following, but it's certainly not this one.
Brewin
Roar Rookie
I agree with the majority of this article. I think that the people that have dragged this through the mud are the media with their constant beat ups, but then again it sells, so why not. I personally would love an answer to the whole saga, not a guilty or not guilty built on the fact that there is almost no evidence. The fact that Essendon supporters constantly use this as a reason as to why their club is innocent frustrates me to no end. As to the blame of ASADA and to a lesser extent now WADA taking their rime with the whole process, maybe just maybe if there had been any records kept like Dank has continually said then there wouldn't have been any need for any of this because we would all know what had been injected into those players. Surely that pisses the players off. I have documents to prove what was injected into you but you can't have them. As there will probably never be an absolute verdict to this whole case I am probably pissing in the wind. A man can dream.