This article slipped by this week.

For me one of the things that has fascinated me about this whole saga is the reporting on it and the relentless pro Hird/EFC spin in the News Corp rags (amazing to think some people have claimed Hird has been hounded by the media).

One journo whose reputation has really suffered is Mick Warner, he of the spectacularly wrong cricket score analogies (how embarrassing that must be for him).

Further evidence of both pro Hird/EFC anti AFL/ASADA spin and Warner's reputation suffering can be found in this article:

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/internal-review-into-the-afls-handling-of-the-essendon-drugs-scandal-remains-a-mystery/story-fnelctok-1227245256270

A number of things come to mind;

1. The fact the AFL has not released its internal review yet is not a news story, it's not even news worthy. Its not as if the AFL had said it would be released by a certain date and that date has passed
2. As such it is an opinion piece and should be labelled as such (something Caro has been criticised for and has addressed)
3. it is disingenuous as it states that the AFL responds to a question about the review without stating that Warner asks the question (to be fair that is my assumption)
4. It is clearly designed to have a shot at the AFL and yet another dig at Demitriou (eg its use of quotation marks around template in this line: the “template” of future drugs probes ) which reinforces it should be an op ed piece
5. In relation to the above point it is completely unbalanced. For example it takes a Gillon McLachlan quote (“You wouldn't do it the same way”) and uses it out context to suggest he is admitting the AFL (and specifically AD) were poor in their handling of the matter but fails to note that Justice Middleton was effusive in his praise for the approach the AFL took (and by extension AD)
6. Again on the point of it just being a vehicle to whack the AFL masquerading as news it selectively highlights issues that the Newscorp hacks have previously criticized the AFL and AD for: 'backroom dealings between the former Gillard government, AFL executives and ASADA officials throughout the Essendon investigation", John Wylie "being drafted in, with the approval of Fitzpatrick, to help convince Hird to accept a 12-month AFL-imposed ban'',
   Hird being “offered a series of inducements including “an outstanding career development opportunity’’ in return for dropping legal action against the league'.
7. It is a classic beat up and lazy to boot

All about shifting the goalposts !!

the ONLY thing the afl and asada would do again is not let the govt hold a press conference announcing the investigation.

IT agreement whether begrudging or otherwise is welcome.

It takes less than one minute to find if a drug is banned.

https://checksubstances.asada.gov.au/

ASADA site -

Substances-

Sport-

Gender-

Role-

Thymosin Beta 4 X

PROHIBITED RESULTS

Athletes may at times need to use a prohibited medication to treat a legitimate medical condition. A Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) is an exemption that allows an athlete to use, for therapeutic use only, an otherwise prohibited substance or method (of administering a substance) which may be present during competition.

Visit www.asdmac.gov.au to determine your eligibility and correct TUE process for you.

Impressive. Wonder if Doc Reid used it. I'm not really asking.

https://checksubstances.asada.gov.au/

very very simple.

try it - it even gives you a receipt number for your query.

took me 30 seconds to put ventolin through and see if its ok.

Yeah but what about if you can't read or spell ?

the ONLY thing the afl and asada would do again is not let the govt hold a press conference announcing the investigation.

maybe the ACC might keep things to themselves, or only deal with bonefide gov agencies of merit......not shifty sporting organisation totally self absorbed !!

Don't be surprised, of course they kept meticulous records, this was cutting edge stuff. It would surprise me if they didn't have a placebo group as well. This was true experimentation using human guinea pigs. The lack of records is a real issue, for the players future health, work care and future litigation. Also I wouldn't be surprised if at some point they find some of those records.

Dank says he kept the records on the clubs intranet. If that is the case they can be recovered.

Dank says he kept the records on the clubs intranet. If that is the case they can be recovered.

thats always been my thinking.

If a decent IT dept. The incremental backups would probably be the place to look. Anyone being halfway clever would realise to physically ditch the drives any info was on.

Be asking if any server overhauls etc occurred soon after the brown goo hit the fan?

Probably too late now to find the old backups but id still be making representations to infotech....amazing what IT depts...and administrators know

thats always been my thinking.

If a decent IT dept. The incremental backups would probably be the place to look. Anyone being halfway clever would realise to physically ditch the drives any info was on.

Be asking if any server overhauls etc occurred soon after the brown goo hit the fan?

Probably too late now to find the old backups but id still be making representations to infotech....amazing what IT depts...and administrators know

... where all the stuff that doesn't exist is stored!

Yeah but what about if you can't read or spell ?

get your agent/girlfriend/team mate/doctor to do it for you

thats always been my thinking.

If a decent IT dept. The incremental backups would probably be the place to look. Anyone being halfway clever would realise to physically ditch the drives any info was on.

Be asking if any server overhauls etc occurred soon after the brown goo hit the fan?

Probably too late now to find the old backups but id still be making representations to infotech....amazing what IT depts...and administrators know

Recovering files works well when files are deleted. Not so well with drive failure, as I have painfully found out. I imagine there is an IT guru somewhere that was paid well to ensure certain items were not found. If he was a smart IT guru he would have his own copy somewhere. (cloud perhaps) This could be worth a fortune.

Dank says he kept the records on the clubs intranet. If that is the case they can be recovered.

don't count on it

I have a source somewhat close to this current discussion. As far as I can tell, at Essendon IT was backed up off site and the usual IT guys didn't go out to destroy these back ups at the time. I'll see if I can get further information.

Recovering files works well when files are deleted. Not so well with drive failure, as I have painfully found out. I imagine there is an IT guru somewhere that was paid well to ensure certain items were not found. If he was a smart IT guru he would have his own copy somewhere. (cloud perhaps) This could be worth a fortune.

Hence my saying the drives needed to physically disposed of. Forensically Id be enquiring as to how their Network was backed up then. To other drives, to dics/tapes maintained off site, to a cloud like farm etc

Interestingly enough its actually good practice for ridgy didge ( hence we excuse EFC ) companies and orgs to maintain annual increments for quite a few years...5 often.

So....if you only knew where to look.......

edit thanks DeanoX...confirmed my suspicions

not familiar with the interviewer...who is this nong ?

Say what you will about Dank et all bb, but don't knock "Headly Gritter" . He's been hosting that show for well over 25 years and has done a damn fine job.

Even listening to the start of the show now, I can't see how you'd go with the 'nong' monicker.

Hence my saying the drives needed to physically disposed of. Forensically Id be enquiring as to how their Network was backed up then. To other drives, to dics/tapes maintained off site, to a cloud like farm etc

Interestingly enough its actually good practice for ridgy didge ( hence we excuse EFC ) companies and orgs to maintain annual increments for quite a few years...5 often.

So....if you only knew where to look.......

edit thanks DeanoX...confirmed my suspicions

There are other places to look though you'd probably need a warrant (though that check on government powers is about to go out the window). For example, it would be informative to see all the emails google and yahoo etc have got from about that time.

As for backups, the incremental ones would probably not present a problem to those wishing to destroy all records and may not generate a suspicious gap depending on when forensic examination began. The absence of occasional full backups could be somewhat incriminating. Even if they wisely had 2 off-site full backups, if the IT staff set it all up and can get physically at the off-site media, they should have no trouble hiding stuff, but maybe not explaining the gap. But what if the IT staff squealed?

I recall the Yes Minister episode where Sir Humphrey continually 'regrets' the records lost in the great flood of 1964. Alas Minister....

Say what you will about Dank et all bb, but don't knock "Headly Gritter" . He's been hosting that show for well over 25 years and has done a damn fine job.

Even listening to the start of the show now, I can't see how you'd go with the 'nong' monicker.

cmon...played as a stooge to Dank....sorry doest rank high in my estimation

Say what you will about Dank et all bb, but don't knock "Headly Gritter" . He's been hosting that show for well over 25 years and has done a damn fine job.

Even listening to the start of the show now, I can't see how you'd go with the 'nong' monicker.

I thought he was a fawning sycophant.

cmon...played as a stooge to Dank....sorry doest rank high in my estimation

He's not [insert award winning journalist here]. He's the host of a midnight to 2am community radio 'party show'. Cmon.

He's not [insert award winning journalist here]. He's the host of a midnight to 2am community radio 'party show'. Cmon.

thats fine...Dank played him..Thats all. Dank likes to use venues...or shows without too much reason to fear from the host. The other bloke lapped it up also.

I thought he was a fawning sycophant.

how it sounded to me also...but apparently hes just a midnight jock....so hey

Shrug. That's the general manner in which he will engage his guests. I guess if he's not as indignant as required then he's a sycophantic nong.

to be fair, if i was interviewing Dank i would just let him say whatever he wanted and id "be on his side" so to speak.

the more the guy says the more he either drops other people or himself in it.

"approved somewhere in the world"

seriously

At some point some agency WILL get Dank into court...I'd buy a ticket

Shrug. That's the general manner in which he will engage his guests. I guess if he's not as indignant as required then he's a sycophantic nong.

He is probably well suited to the time and station. I may be harsh at times but i would expect at least one question like. If you really had any evidence to clear the players and free them from all the pain and anxiety and suspensions wouldn't you or any decent human release that information.