Hird laments loss of trust in doping saga

The following is the full text of Dr Reid's letter to James Hird. Damning stuff. http://m.afl.com.au/news/2013-08-21/full-text-of-dr-bruce-reids-letter

Hird is the guilty party, he was in charge and the buck stops with him, he brought in Dank,Robinson and Charters he should have a lifetime ban from entering a sporting environment. That said, i do believe the whole outcome has been controlled right from the start, the AFL knew Essendon were guilty but could not afford a 17 team competition or to punish 34 players at once as the competition would have been compromised and third party agreements such as the tv rights and sports betting torn up, having it drag out for 3 years has minimised the effects so that only 12 players are still at Essendon and only 17 in the competition. Esseandon and Hird have been made out to be the bad guys here and rightly so but its better than having them kicked out of the AFL. They may be able to win the odd game much like GWS and the Suns in their first years, people still watched and bet on their games. It will be a long rebuild but it will be better than a 17 team competition.

It seems very strange that in a case about TB4, it should be mentioned in the evidence doesn't it.... LOL

He could have mentioned the injections on any or all of the 30 occasions he was asked by ASADA, during routine testing, whether he'd had any medicine or supplements lately.....

He isn't one of the 34 suspended players, but he still received injections at EFC, and after 15 months since he began proceedings has not been told the contents of those injections. Not curious at all.

And I say again, the ISG test is pointless in healthy adults unless you're planning to introduce a HGH or HGH inducing peptide program. Why do you have so much trouble understanding that the fact that this test was run on athletes who should never have needed it is simply a strand in the cable? The doctor who testified saw it, WADA saw it, CAS saw it. There's no misrepresentation - they're all seeing the same thing. A test that you would only run if you were about to mess with players HGH levels.

In mentioning the test, CAS refers to TB-4, I already gave you the location: para 120iii. I've noticed this a few times in the judgement, WADA and/or CAS manage to mention TB-4, when the original evidence, doesn't mention TB-4 at all. It's an obvious contrivance - it's as if WADA and CAS have sat down together and worked it all out. How do we get round the fact that there is nothing relating to EFC which mentions TB-4? We'll somehow make a mention of TB-4 even if the original evidence doesn't, and we'll make sure we repeat it often enough in the judgement so that it looks like there was always a connection between TB-4 and EFC.

Bingo.

I ask again, where did WADA say that this test was about TB4? This test was about making sure the players were okay to take a course of growth hormone related peptides. Why, if you''re not about to engage in an illicit program, run those tests at all?

northerner we might all agree it looks sinister, and we might all agree that skull duggery was afoot, but CAS says this is an execrise recommended for peptides like TB-4. Recommended by who? Did this info come from an expert witness or has WADA just shoved those words in because it makes it look worse for the players, because they are trying a little too hard to link this sinister activity directly to TB-4. One thing is for sure - despite what many people think there are none or virtually no references to TB-4 which can be linked directly to EFC, but interestingly, WADA has managed to do precisely that, throw in references to TB-4 and they are trying to make look as if the term TB-4 is linkable to EFC - it is a contrivance, it's a bit of a trick on the part of WADA, and CAS being what it is, has happily let it go on. So these tests, yes, look sinister, my word, but WADA throws in a reference to TB-4, one which actually does not exist in the original evidence, and all of a sudden, they create the impression that there is a direct link between TB-4 and EFC, when in fact, there never was one.

@ Northerner, i agree skulduggery was certainly a possibility, but my real point is that CAS took down everyone who signed for thymosin is just plain obvious guess work, whatsmore if the players did take TB4 they certainly were not aware of it and by my reckoning if doped were duped.

@Dok - I'll try again. IGF is something normally found in the human body. The test is to determine whether the levels are abnormal. That test is normally only done on people who have some sort of hormonal issue (ie dwarfism) or people who are about to be sent on a growth hormone session. Now since none of the AFL players seem to have suffered from dwarfism, the conclusion would reasonably be that something else was on the cards, like, say, an illicit doping program.

It seems quite clear to me. WADA and ASADA both claimed that Essendon was doing extremely unusual tests on healthy adult sportsmen. De Morton said those tests were sinister, because the test is something he'd only used once in his career and couldn't think of any other explanation. CAS said, that those tests are used on healthy adults when you're about to engage in a GH program. In other words, those tests were only undertaken because skulduggery was afoot.

Hird's explanation stinks of someone who was naive and had no idea what they were doing, which is about right considering that the extent of Hird's coaching and managing experience before he was appointed senior coach, was a great playing career and writing some media columns. Essendon and Hird can point fingers at the AFL, ASADA and WADA all they want, the mess they are in is of their own abject decision making.

It appears WADA and CAS are one in the scheme of things, the fix is in on a rather large scale, would love to see this overturned, especially for the bloke who was not even injected. All this goes right over the top of the normal footy fan, he could not give a flying you know what, he is just happy someone got to pay for this mess, Essendon is a hated club, feels good to knock them down, meanwhile Robinson got a million $ payout and Robson is the boss at Australia's biggest soccer club.

You're right, I haven't quoted properly - these are the exact words (120iii): "All players had blood tests before the administration of the injections commenced, and exercise recommended for peptides like TB-4..." - and they refer to Dr De Morton - but - at no stage does Dr de Morton say anything about TB-4. Where has this bit come from? It does not appear to be attributable to any expert witness. A bit of embellishment from WADA? Is it appropriate for WADA to be introducing these little embellishments without it seemingly being introduced as real evidence? And why is the CAS accepting these little WADA embellishments?

Tracey Holmes is interviewing James Hird tomorrow night on ABC News 24, live before an audience at The Ethics Centre in Sydney. (The irony of all the possible venues!) It's on at 7.40pm AEDT , and also simulcast on ABC News Radio..

You can't see what has happened ?. 120 (111) from the CAS ruling states ... all players had blood tests, an exercise recommended for TB4, for no other purpose than SINISTER ( dr De Morton ) could identify. But in the initial ASADA investigation Dr De Morton said it was not for TB4, the tests were for IGF-1, and it was IGF-1 was SINISTER. not really hard to follow. The whole vibe is bad, CAS must suspend !!.

@MF - I don't see where WADA told CAS that Dr. Morton tested for TB-4, at least not in the CAS judgement. Did I miss something?

Funny how the definition of 'supplements' has changed these recent years. I recall the days when the term would quite innocently be referred to as ordinary vitamin and mineral supplements you would buy at the supermarket. Now when people use that term it has a darker meaning.