Prepare yourself for all sorts of interested parties putting in their two bob's worth to save the 18 team competition so that the competition's financial resources can be shored up.

Anything to avoid a hearing into whether anybody was given banned drugs. The AFL is in trouble.

Stuart Crameri says thanks.

I still find this hard to believe

"Players association calls for ASADA to show evidence"

Is it so hard to believe that they would not issue show cause notices or pursue sanctions unless they knew they had enough backing it?

Clearly the club has worked that out, hence going straight to the Federal Court and hoping for a technicality rather than answering the show cause notices.

The rules of engagement for ASADA and WADA I think are are different to usual legal processes whereby you get charged, are shown evidence and have it tested in court.

Instead, ASADA issues show cause notices and your have to respond to prove your innocence. You can probably challenge it later but it probably has to work that way to stop, say athletes issuing legal procedings in order tha they can compete at the Olympics for example. Its possible if this were the not case that you could compete at the Olympics by tying up WADA in legal battles for years until your running career is over and you have already run at the olympics. Then it won't matter.

There was never a deal with ASADA, McLachlan insists

Anyone with half a brain can work out what's going on here.

A certain party with a vested interest in discrediting the ASADA process has leaked certain information through its media flunkies while others in the industry (hello Peter Gordon whose club bought a pup called Crameri) and outside it have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Fact of the matter is that if ASADA doesn't get the EFC, Hird, Dank and any player who ingested banned drugs, then WADA will. In the meantime, we will soon become the laughing stock of world sport.

Anyone with half a brain can work out what's going on here.

A certain party with a vested interest in discrediting the ASADA process has leaked certain information through its media flunkies while others in the industry (hello Peter Gordon whose club bought a pup called Crameri) and outside it have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Fact of the matter is that if ASADA doesn't get the EFC, Hird, Dank and any player who ingested banned drugs, then WADA will. In the meantime, we will soon become the laughing stock of world sport.

i wouldnt even call it "Certain information".

id call it deliberate mis-interpretation.

"the players CAN be given no punishment if it was found there was no fault"

ie in the case of that athlete who was given EPO on the operating table. whilst unconcious.

they signed wavers with the drugs listed on it!

i wouldnt even call it "Certain information".

id call it deliberate mis-interpretation.

"the players CAN be given no punishment if it was found there was no fault"

ie in the case of that athlete who was given EPO on the operating table. whilst unconcious.

they signed wavers with the drugs listed on it!

Deliberate misinformation, I would suggest.

The pro Essendon camp is so determined to knock this on the head without a proper hearing of the facts that they will stoop to just about anything to muddy the waters and deflect from the fact that a massive programme of injecting supposedly unknown substances in the bodies of these players was carried out in 2012. Bring on the hearing I say.

Anyone with half a brain can work out what's going on here.

A certain party with a vested interest in discrediting the ASADA process has leaked certain information through its media flunkies while others in the industry (hello Peter Gordon whose club bought a pup called Crameri) and outside it have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Fact of the matter is that if ASADA doesn't get the EFC, Hird, Dank and any player who ingested banned drugs, then WADA will. In the meantime, we will soon become the laughing stock of world sport.

I am just staggered that Peter Gordon, who should know his law rules has even said this...!

my sides are splitting

http://bomberblitz.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1486-volunteers-required-2pm-this-saturday-backourboys-campaign/

Anyone with half a brain can work out what's going on here.

A certain party with a vested interest in discrediting the ASADA process has leaked certain information through its media flunkies while others in the industry (hello Peter Gordon whose club bought a pup called Crameri) and outside it have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Fact of the matter is that if ASADA doesn't get the EFC, Hird, Dank and any player who ingested banned drugs, then WADA will. In the meantime, we will soon become the laughing stock of world sport.

Oh, now I get peter Gordon... Crameri

Anyone with half a brain can work out what's going on here.

A certain party with a vested interest in discrediting the ASADA process has leaked certain information through its media flunkies while others in the industry (hello Peter Gordon whose club bought a pup called Crameri) and outside it have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Fact of the matter is that if ASADA doesn't get the EFC, Hird, Dank and any player who ingested banned drugs, then WADA will. In the meantime, we will soon become the laughing stock of world sport.

WJ do you think all of this trial by media on ASADA will just make them even more determined to hammer Essendon to the wall in every way possible? I would if I worked at ASADA and have spent hours and how many $$$ on the investigation but I'm petty and vindictive ...

You don't see the same stories coming out of NSW about Cronulla.

my sides are splitting

http://bomberblitz.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1486-volunteers-required-2pm-this-saturday-backourboys-campaign/

backourboys? What happened to standbyhird?

my sides are splitting

http://bomberblitz.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1486-volunteers-required-2pm-this-saturday-backourboys-campaign/

love to see a poster.....would be real George Orwell stuff!!

WJ do you think all of this trial by media on ASADA will just make them even more determined to hammer Essendon to the wall in every way possible? I would if I worked at ASADA and have spent hours and how many $$$ on the investigation but I'm petty and vindictive ...

You don't see the same stories coming out of NSW about Cronulla.

I don't think the Bombers and their media acolytes are doing anything to improve their position but by the same token, from what I've heard about Ben McDevitt, he's a very shrewd customer and will continue to push ahead regardless till he gets his man (men) irrespective of the nonsense going on.

Meanwhile, there's nothing new under the sun

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou rubbishs reports of a deal with ASADA to reduce bans on Essendon

... pick the ignoramus - Bombers may never know what they took but neither will ASADA: Chemist

So they were happy to inject players with a substance without knowing what it was... Surely that breaches every duty of care law in existance

well ..who else is enjoying the hilarious side show that is the "Essendon tries to divert blame and attention to anything game "

This lot have no shame whatsoever, morals having been ushered out the door years ago

"In terms of speculation about deals, about what supplements were taken, speculation is one thing but the facts are another thing," Hird said.

"Our players right now have not tested positive for one performance-enhancing drug, I think that's important for people to know.

"The NRL and Cronulla have their issues like we have our issues and we'll let them handle those.

"The Essendon Football Club invited ASADA and the AFL to come in and investigate our club and we've been fully co-operative with that investigation."

Sooooo many laughs

No laughing matter for people like former ASADA CEO Richard Ings Drugs body should share evidence with players: Richard Ings

Ings suggests that ASADA should provide the players with the evidence it has against them to enable them to assess whether they should accept the deal that might be on the table. While that might achieve a speedier resolution to the matter, I don't know if ASADA should or could do that in terms of the procedures available to it and in the context of the process it started by issuing the Show-Cause notices. Perhaps an outline of the evidence might be enough to persuade them.

Ings also observed, "While we cannot know the advice that people like Rich Young have given in this particular case, we do know that in using the advice of an international expert like him, ASADA has accessed the best possible advice available."

Little

We are not guilty because our players did not take banned drugs.

Little again

We don't know what the players took, neither do ASADA

They are cooked

I recently spent some time in New York and whilst there I went to a show on Broadway. Stayed at a hotel near Times Square and it must have been the proximity to the theatre district that inspired me to write a play which I'm entitling "Nima, the Musical". It's about a deaf, dumb, blind compounding chemist who sure cooks up a mean soup of peptides but because of his physical condition is unable to locate the recipe.

As a matter of interest can the EFC be sanctioned by ASADA if the players are indeed sanctioned? I know the AFL sanctioned the club last year but can the body charge them as well? Isn't there a clause that states that if 2 or more players are sanctioned then the club is penalised as well?

Also Work Cover haven't shown their hand yet. What penalties can be expected from them?

As a matter of interest can the EFC be sanctioned by ASADA if the players are indeed sanctioned? I know the AFL sanctioned the club last year but can the body charge them as well? Isn't there a clause that states that if 2 or more players are sanctioned then the club is penalised as well?

Also Work Cover haven't shown their hand yet. What penalties can be expected from them?

ASADA can certainly do just what it has a mandate to do, irregardless of the AFL and other codes wishing to run and hide. The league (s) know this and are just a bit concerned, hence all the 'propaganda " being trotted out by their lackies

Darren Kane in the SMH - Bombers, James Hird in game of high-stakes poker with Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority

Well, we've known for some time that this tangled web strategy involves high stakes in terms of financial and emotional cost, the effect on on field performance, the risk to coaches jobs, the club and players being suspended and the disruption of future seasons etc but all these seem to be risks that Essendon is prepared to take to protect itself.

There's also another consideration that will have an impact in the coming weeks and months while the Federal Court action plays itself out.

How do the Bombers prepare themselves properly for the trade/draft period that could overlap the time in which the litigation is occurring?

Essendon has put itself behind the 8 ball in this regard:-

* draft sanctions from August 2013 have ruled it out of what would have been its normal first round draft selection (currently standing at around pick 10);

* with Essendon and Hird urging players not to pursue the discounts available for co-operation which might see them miss only the remainder of season 2014, they automatically limit the club's scope in trade/free agency calculations. In effect, the Bombers' ability to trade players would be severely impacted. No other club would want to pick up a player who might not be available until 2017 and where does this leave players aged 26 or above?

* how will Essendon deal with players subject to Show-Cause (or more properly by then, Infaction) Notices. If the club cuts the umbilical chord and allows a player or players to go, how does it know such players won't turn on it - there have been plenty of recent examples of the damage disgruntled ex-employees can inflict on clubs.

In other words, if the matter isn't brought to an early conclusion, Essendon's entire recruiting and list management strategy for the future will be severely disrupted.

I wonder if the Bombers have taken these matters into consideration when undertaking their strategy and I wonder if an ASADA, cogniscent of such factors, might adopt an attitude of allowing the proceedings to drag out to allow them to stew in their own (chemically compounded) juices?

Then of course, during this period James Hird's suspension time would be over and he would be back coaching ... oh, wait a minute.

As a matter of interest can the EFC be sanctioned by ASADA if the players are indeed sanctioned? I know the AFL sanctioned the club last year but can the body charge them as well? Isn't there a clause that states that if 2 or more players are sanctioned then the club is penalised as well?

Also Work Cover haven't shown their hand yet. What penalties can be expected from them?

WADA CODE:

11.2 Consequences for Team Sports

If more than two members of a team in a Team Sport are found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation during an Event Period, the ruling body of the Event shall impose an appropriate sanction on the team (e.g., loss of points, Disqualification from a Competition or Event, or other sanction) in addition to any Consequences imposed upon the individual Athletes committing the anti-doping rule violation.

I am just staggered that Peter Gordon, who should know his law rules has even said this...!

then again...maybe Im not...

WADA CODE:

11.2 Consequences for Team Sports

If more than two members of a team in a Team Sport are found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation during an Event Period, the ruling body of the Event shall impose an appropriate sanction on the team (e.g., loss of points, Disqualification from a Competition or Event, or other sanction) in addition to any Consequences imposed upon the individual Athletes committing the anti-doping rule violation.

Given the EFC situation is unprecedented and the flow on impact any player infractions will have on the club I would think ASADA and WADA would largely allow the AFL to apply club sanctions that do not further damage the league. I could not see WADA stepping in to ban the entire club from the competition.