Absolutely - and to be fair that's what you have $1000 a day lawyers for

Try $5000 a day, which is what a silk like Burnside costs

What Xavier said makes no sense in the light of Watson's comments and the fact that WADA DID provide all players with this brief.

It's just part of their ongoing, pathetic attempt to smear ASADA and now WADA and portray themselves as innocent victims. You have to admire their propaganda machine; despite the facts that contradict their ludicrous claims, rusted-on Hirdites will nonetheless lap up their club's comments.

The head of WADA, David Howman, is coming to Australia in October: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/wada-boss-david-howman-coming-to-australia-20150806-gitahj.html He is coming as a Speaker at a 2 day conference at the MCG that was arranged about a year ago. Timely nonetheless...

WADA wouldn't say how long he will be here or what else he might do while here. However, the article says: "In forecasting his intention to fully review the recent and highly damaging episodes in Australian sport, Howman also affirmed his absolute faith in the efficacy of the WADA code in a team setting."

Read into that what you will!

I doubt he will breaking bread with Hird, Little or McLachlan!!

The head of WADA, David Howman, is coming to Australia in October: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/wada-boss-david-howman-coming-to-australia-20150806-gitahj.html He is coming as a Speaker at a 2 day conference at the MCG that was arranged about a year ago. Timely nonetheless...

WADA wouldn't say how long he will be here or what else he might do while here. However, the article says: "In forecasting his intention to fully review the recent and highly damaging episodes in Australian sport, Howman also affirmed his absolute faith in the efficacy of the WADA code in a team setting."

Read into that what you will!

I doubt he will breaking bread with Hird, Little or McLachlan!!

Howman would not be coming here unless there is a major issue. WADA regards Australia as a critical test case. He cannot, and will not, ignore this situation, I have the utmost faith that WADA will get this job done...

did you really mean to "like" your own post?

So, Essendon is doing a review of its Football operations! http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-reviewing-football-program-20150806-gitib7.html

So transparent!

We know it is code for let's find a way to get rid of the coach! But they might need a crow bar or two.

Or a few more $mill.

But it adds another bit of theater to this saga that just keeps on giving!

Even if they don't remove Hird they will certainly look to clip his wings!

Maybe they are hoping he will have a 'crash landing'!

Howman would not be coming here unless there is a major issue. WADA regards Australia as a critical test case. He cannot, and will not, ignore this situation, I have the utmost faith that WADA will get this job done...

It seems he is coming for a conference that was arranged a year ago...nothing to do with the EFC thing initially. You don't need to put mayo on the situation, EFC have already dug the hole 'Dees2014'.

In years gone by, this saga would've belonged to the MFC. God knows how we've dodged this one.

And to think some people wanted to go legal about the tanking issue....we didn't have the balls etc etc MFC pushed around again etc ect ...just imagine how that would have gone

Try $5000 a day, which is what a silk like Burnside costs

Not even close. Try $8-12k...

Not even close. Try $8-12k...

or $0k per day if you are fighting myki

To add to this post. http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/wada-reportedly-find-abnormal-levels-of-tb4-in-samples-from-two-essendon-players/story-e6frf3e3-1227471708250

Extract from article: "Club great Tim Watson and father of skipper Jobe said he had known of WADAs apparent evidence for four weeks, and thought it was confidential...I dont know how significant it is, because it was buried in WADAs submission...Having had a discussion with (lawyers) after they read the submission I said OK, is there anything in there that youre concerned about, and they said their levels of confidence in the players being cleared again of there being sufficient evidence to charge the players with anything, that hasnt changed at all".

The '4 weeks ago' tallys with the first week of July and the July 5 St K game debacle and Jobes maybe retiring from football.

I wonder why would Tim Watson be talking to lawyers?

Yes, an interested father but could it be that one of the 2 players is Jobe?

Maybe that explains the 'shoulder' injury and getting as far away as possible.

Maybe he knows his Brownlow will be taken away.

Tim Watsons role in all of this is extremely compromised for many reasons, not the least being hes an absolute nong !!

So, the father of one of the players, who also happens to be "an EssUndone legend" knew of this but thought it was confidential. And was happy to talk about it on radio!!! How can it have been confidential if he knew of it? All sounds very incestuous and typical of EssUndone's handling of this whole sad sorry sordid saga.

Small article from The Age, but I think it's interesting:

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essendon-players-frustrated-by-leaks-dons-boss-says-20150806-git1ym.html

"In a recorded interview on the club website, Xavier Campbell said some of the players had found out WADA's claims for the first time through the media."

So Tim Watson knew about the 2 abnormal results 4 weeks ago, he has stated as much.

Some PLAYERS didn't know until today.

It seems to me that the club has intentionally left some players in the dark about this. I would assume that there will be some VERY angry calls from players to the CEO today.

Oh and the good ol' captain is sipping beers at the Ashes.

Leadership.

Certainly designed to get the players to give their all for the club, isn't it ! Not !!!!

And what hypocrisy to say that the players are frustrated by the leaks....at least some of which have undoubtedly come from the club.

So, the father of one of the players, who also happens to be "an EssUndone legend" knew of this but thought it was confidential. And was happy to talk about it on radio!!! How can it have been confidential if he knew of it? All sounds very incestuous and typical of EssUndone's handling of this whole sad sorry sordid saga. Certainly designed to get the players to give their all for the club, isn't it ! Not !!!!

And what hypocrisy to say that the players are frustrated by the leaks....at least some of which have undoubtedly come from the club.

I can't see the problem. Tim Watson hears about it presumably because he and his son talk to each other. Watson Sr keeps it quiet because he's asked to keep it confidential and only speaks about it publicly after the story leaks from somewhere else. Why do people keep looking for conspiracies when there are reasonably obvious alternative explanations?

It seems he is coming for a conference that was arranged a year ago...nothing to do with the EFC thing initially. You don't need to put mayo on the situation, EFC have already dug the hole 'Dees2014'.

The Essendon saga has been going on since 2012, and WADA have had their eye on it from the beginning, plenty of time for Howman to schedule his visit. In fact I doubt if he has been in office that long, but he sure has rightly given it high priority since he has.

I can't see the problem. Tim Watson hears about it presumably because he and his son talk to each other. Watson Sr keeps it quiet because he's asked to keep it confidential and only speaks about it publicly after the story leaks from somewhere else. Why do people keep looking for conspiracies when there are reasonably obvious alternative explanations?

So, Tim also thought that Jobe's increased muscle mass during 2012 was due to the "very" late onset of puberty?

On SEN this morning Tim claimed he had got his info timeline wrong! Quite a tap dancer is Tim!

Red and black flogs the lot of em!!

The Essendon apologists certainly scratch around. That bloke on Radio National AM was at it again. I admit I wasn't listening carefully, but I think he was saying the fact that only 2 players had a 'bad' result indicated it was innocent because all of players would have had the same result. But I thought this was a result of a random test which surely would not be done to an entire team at once?

I am a huge fan of the ABC and especially the Radio National, but with the Essendon Saga they have got it consistently wrong across all media.

There are very good reasons for it though. Tracy Holmes is the sporting news editor in both radio and television for ABC News, and she if anything is more biased than Robbo if that is possible. So when the Essendon saga comes up as a news item you can rely on them to produce one of Hird's tame "academics" to provide "expert" commentary, courtesy of our Tracy. Her partner, Stan Grant, I understand is also a mad Essendon man.

I am a huge fan of the ABC and especially the Radio National, but with the Essendon Saga they have got it consistently wrong across all media.

There are very good reasons for it though. Tracy Holmes is the sporting news editor in both radio and television for ABC News, and she if anything is more biased than Robbo if that is possible. So when the Essendon saga comes up as a news item you can rely on them to produce one of Hird's tame "academics" to provide "expert" commentary, courtesy of our Tracy. Her partner, Stan Grant, I understand is also a mad Essendon man.

not so sure those a "good reasons", d2014 but it is the abc and they are heavy users of tame academics

not so sure those a "good reasons", d2014 but it is the abc and they are heavy users of tame academics

Fair point. Let's say it is an explanation, albeit a very unsatisfactory one. Holmes is a lightweight, and has no journalistic principles IMHO, in many ways worse than Robbo because she works for the most credible news organisation in the country, and yet she quite shamelessly drives her own prejudices into her news judgements. The only way she gets away with it is because her supervisors know nothing about this particular issue, and are forced to "trust" her judgement.

Very un-ABC, to its considerable discredit.

Always said that Essendon was very lucky to have so many spin doctors in and around the media who could be relied upon to come out and muddy the waters on this issue. The best one from this week is the story about how TB4 exists in the body naturally so finding unnaturally high levels of TB4 in the urine samples of a couple of their players means nothing.

Always said that Essendon was very lucky to have so many spin doctors in and around the media who could be relied upon to come out and muddy the waters on this issue. The best one from this week is the story about how TB4 exists in the body naturally so finding unnaturally high levels of TB4 in the urine samples of a couple of their players means nothing.

Agreed, a bit like how testosterone naturally occurs too so any level is fine really ;-)

well if they are saying it is natural for essendope players to have elevated levels of tb4 then i can agree with that

Dees1897... etc posted this link a while ago on another thread: http://www.heraldsun...v-1227475396992

It probably has a bit of relevance here. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Bomber's position, what's extraordinary is the style of attacks on him by the faithful in the comments section. I thought Demonland was the natural home of the ad hominem but they make us look like vagrants.

AFL Anti doping judgement . . .

http://media.heraldsun.com.au/multimedia/2015/aug/project/pdfs/Judgement.pdf

AFL Anti doping judgement . . .

http://media.heraldsun.com.au/multimedia/2015/aug/project/pdfs/Judgement.pdf

Damn, 180 pages.

Damn, 180 pages.

Well worth the read . . couple of my favorite bits . .

on why McKenzie interview with Dank was discounted . . .

212. Given the circumstances in which the alleged admissions were made and the lack of

any opportunity for cross-examination, to which must be added Mr Dank’s lack of

credibility and reliability, the Tribunal is far from being comfortably satisfied that

statements made by Mr Dank relating to TB4 in the course of his interview with Mr

McKenzie were true. Nor is the Tribunal comfortably satisfied that what was

described as the follow up call constituted any admission on Mr Dank’s part as alleged

by the ASADA CEO.

on why TB4 was not proven . . .

515. Reference has been made to Mr Xu’s statement to the ASADA investigator about GL

Biochem. The Tribunal has accepted his statement that he supplied TB4 to Mr

Charter. However, the statement about the company is self-serving. Mr Xu is

responding to an investigator about the supply of substances by his company, which

are the subject of an investigation. In these circumstances, it can be expected that Mr

Xu would wish to portray his company in a favourable light. In the Tribunal’s view,

little weight can be attached to his statement about the company and his assertion that

what in fact was supplied was TB4.

516. Further, if there was a certificate of analysis of the TB4 purportedly supplied, it might

be expected that Mr Xu would refer to it in his discussion with the journalist and the

investigator. It is something of significance. He did not produce any documents to

ASADA and told the investigator he had provided all the documents that his company

still had on hand to the journalist. However, no reference is made to a certificate in

the newspaper article. Having regard to the purpose of the article, it can be inferred

from this that no certificate was supplied to the journalist by Mr Xu, which tends to

support a conclusion that there was no such certificate.

Well worth the read . . couple of my favorite bits . .

on why McKenzie interview with Dank was discounted . . .

212. Given the circumstances in which the alleged admissions were made and the lack of

any opportunity for cross-examination, to which must be added Mr Dank’s lack of

credibility and reliability, the Tribunal is far from being comfortably satisfied that

statements made by Mr Dank relating to TB4 in the course of his interview with Mr

McKenzie were true. Nor is the Tribunal comfortably satisfied that what was

described as the follow up call constituted any admission on Mr Dank’s part as alleged

by the ASADA CEO.

on why TB4 was not proven . . .

515. Reference has been made to Mr Xu’s statement to the ASADA investigator about GL

Biochem. The Tribunal has accepted his statement that he supplied TB4 to Mr

Charter. However, the statement about the company is self-serving. Mr Xu is

responding to an investigator about the supply of substances by his company, which

are the subject of an investigation. In these circumstances, it can be expected that Mr

Xu would wish to portray his company in a favourable light. In the Tribunal’s view,

little weight can be attached to his statement about the company and his assertion that

what in fact was supplied was TB4.

516. Further, if there was a certificate of analysis of the TB4 purportedly supplied, it might

be expected that Mr Xu would refer to it in his discussion with the journalist and the

investigator. It is something of significance. He did not produce any documents to

ASADA and told the investigator he had provided all the documents that his company

still had on hand to the journalist. However, no reference is made to a certificate in

the newspaper article. Having regard to the purpose of the article, it can be inferred

from this that no certificate was supplied to the journalist by Mr Xu, which tends to

support a conclusion that there was no such certificate.

Which Journo? Wouldn't it also be just as plausible that the Journo his the certificate, or ignored it, or didn't realise what it was? After all the evidence was thrown out because the Journo didn't write about it in their story, not because it didn't exist.