i wonder if Essendon's offer to pay the player's legal fees would also cover the legal costs for players who sue the club?

ASADA is an under-resourced shambles and anyone who thinks the public service is over-staffed and over-resourced should stop and think of the tiny team there trying to handle huge, complex, high-stakes cases all while being pilloried in the media and under political pressure from ministers in two different Commonwealth governments and plenty of interested state governments.

As someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, ASADA's funding is being cut significantly in this budget. Remember it.

Just like everyone needs to remember that organisations like the child protection agency are routinely the first area cut by new governments trying to 'stop the bloated waste'.

All I'm saying is, if you vote for those cuts, you don't get to complain about failures. You get to raise your hand and say 'sorry, my fault'.

Come to think of it, I wonder how ASADA's total budget for handling the Essendon saga compares to Hird's salary for sitting quietly out of the way?

i really like this post. especially this bit:

If you vote for those cuts, you don't get to complain about failures. You get to raise your hand and say 'sorry, my fault'.

After 16 months, we still dont know if Essendon Bombers used banned drugs

"Mr Alavis evidence and that of his lab manager, added to the testimony of club players and officials given to ASADA and AFL investigators, raises the possibility Essendon players were injected with an unknown form of Thymosin without the peptide being tested."

Geeeezus

New ASADA Chief Ben McDevitt at the Senate Estimates Committee 3/6/14

I am hopeful that ASADA will issue show cause notices within weeks.

Didn't specify the code but after reading Chip Le Grand's piece in today's Australian (which appears to have been sourced directly from the EFC and contains the basis of the Bomber's defence), I'm more convinced than ever that it will involve the AFL.

Le Grand sounds like de facto publicist for the Essendon cause but I'm not convinced that they will be able to successfully defend enough of their players to avoid some bans.

I reckon there's a compounding pharmacist out there who might have some issues to deal with as well.

Richard ings twitter feed tonight very interesting!

Among plenty of others:

FYI the last senate estimates committee ASADA revealed they had the AFP in to investigate leaks.......and found none

Richard Ings @ringsau · 2h

ASADA Legal "the fact that a club has received a sanction does not impact on individual sanctions"

Richard Ings @ringsau · 2h

BM "the investigation into ASADA leaks was conducted by the AFP"

Richard Ings @ringsau · 2h

JH "the clubs are not bound by the same confidentiality requirements that we have Senator"

Richard Ings @ringsau · 2h

DN "so you say the players have not been cooperative" BM "some have and some have not" DN "any code" BM "I am not prepared to go there"

Richard Ings @ringsau · 2h

BM "I am hopeful that ASADA will issue show cause notices within weeks" Yep...he said that

Richard Ings @ringsau · 2h

BM "where you have people forthcoming, inquiries run their course more quickly than where people dont give full responses"

Just reading this article highlighting that the bombers legal fees wont fall under the salary cap.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-06-06/dons-legal-fees-off-the-table

Very dissapointing result, the club should not get any help out of the mess they made

All this discussion by the AFL and Essendon over payment of legal fees, leads one to the conclusion that Infraction Notices are a certainty and their issue now a mere formality.

I particularly liked the last line in that article: "ASADA’s new boss Ben McDevitt has said the Essendon case will be finalised in weeks, not months."

will someone please wake me up when asada finally pull the trigger

I found it interesting that Demetriou on Footy Classified just last week all but said that the media conference was a "stunt". He didn't use that word and he was very careful with what he said, but if I recall correctly he said something like "the media conference didn't end up the way we (the sports CEOs) thought it would". I'm actually surprised his comments didn't get much (or perhaps any) subsequent media coverage.

I found it interesting that Demetriou on Footy Classified just last week all but said that the media conference was a "stunt". He didn't use that word and he was very careful with what he said, but if I recall correctly he said something like "the media conference didn't end up the way we (the sports CEOs) thought it would". I'm actually surprised his comments didn't get much (or perhaps any) subsequent media coverage.

I noticed that too, it seems to me that the CEO's were more worried about gambling.

I want the ASADA stuff to be over, so they can bury the EFC

will someone please wake me up when asada finally pull the trigger

that almost imperceivable sound you nearly hear is the barrel rolling over with a full chamber !!

Just reading this article highlighting that the bombers legal fees wont fall under the salary cap.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-06-06/dons-legal-fees-off-the-table

AFL desperate.....flogs

Federal police investigation found no ASADA leaks

Kabooooooom ...

will someone please wake me up when asada finally pull the trigger

It's frustrating to all that the matter has taken so long to reach a conclusion but, catching up on some reading, I note the quote at the end of this article:-

New ASADA boss says show cause notices could be issued 'within weeks'

Mr McDevitt said he had read a report on the AFL and NRL cases completed by retired federal court judge Garry Downes, which was handed to ASADA on April 28.

But he said he was yet to digest the "enormous amount of material" gathered in the investigation, which included more than 300 interviews running as long as nine hours each, and 150,000 documents, some of which were up to 200 pages long.

That amounts to a substantial body of potential evidence in a case against the clubs and the players involved. I'm not surprised that an understaffed organisation looking at two codes is taking its time. Most of the criticism around ASADA's process appears to be unwarranted.

Strangely enough, Essendon which always maintained that the truth would come out doesn't appear to have been particularly co-operative. The investigation would surely have reached a much sooner conclusion had the Bombers and their agents, staff and drug suppliers not lost, misplaced or forgotten the contents of whatever was injected into their players.

Stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes and yell lalalalalalalalal I can't hear you!!!

hah, the old 'Plan B'... works every time.

All this discussion by the AFL and Essendon over payment of legal fees, leads one to the conclusion that Infraction Notices are a certainty and their issue now a mere formality.

well, if so, its one way of wreaking havoc on they're season, without actually stripping their points.

I'm still skeptical if any player will be found guilty at all. looking forward to the bad staff going down the shyte presser.

will someone please wake me up when asada finally pull the trigger

yes, if they wait much longer they could derail the bummers run at this finals series.

will someone please wake me up when asada finally pull the trigger

Amen to that dc!

Federal police investigation found no ASADA leaks

Kabooooooom ...

I think that might indicate where the leaks bombed from. Also that investigation within ASADA provides yet another reason why ASADA has taken a long time. Easy to impatiently criticise them but it is clear that had a mammoth task with piddling resources.

Essendons cooperation will serve them well in the end .

will someone please wake me up when asada finally pull the trigger

Farcical. The Nuremberg trials were quicker than this. No joking.

Farcical. The Nuremberg trials were quicker than this. No joking.

Have a read of the articles listed above and you'll see it is reasonable that it takes a long time, though maybe both governments could throw more resources at ASADA. Imagine your reaction if it was all done quickly and the result was 'nothing to see here, move along'.

Was it Kate Lundy who gave the "we'll catch you" speech? The only poor bastard who got caught was Ahmed Saad whose crime was to choose the wrong energy drink in a seven eleven fridge. Meanwhile, James Hird is studying in France courtesy of the AFL and despite admissions from Essendon players, no action has been taken against the setting up of an off site injecting room to inject prohibitive substances. Nothing will come of this. No, my apologies, in order to ensure nothing comes of it, Asada will be found to be compromised, which they probably are.

Have a read of the articles listed above and you'll see it is reasonable that it takes a long time, though maybe both governments could throw more resources at ASADA. Imagine your reaction if it was all done quickly and the result was 'nothing to see here, move along'.

Sue, my gut feel is that we are being sold a pup. Hopefully I'm wrong but I suspect I'm not.