Dont look now James...thats no Toblerone !!!

But I my players had been comprehensively found innocent on all charges by the AFL Tribunal.

Does anyone know what happens if EFC delay/refuse to nominate a CAS judge? Can they veto the Chairman?

The CAS rules state that each party to the dispute is required to nominate an Arbitrator from the global list of about 400 of CAS Arbitrators, of which about 40 are Australian. The third appointment, the Chairman of the tribunal, will be appointed if the two parties can agree on a candidate, but if this cannot be achieved then CAS appoints someone. In effect, both Essendon and WADA has a veto on the chairman unless CAS intervenes.

I understand if Essendon were to refuse to cooperate and refuse to appoint an Arbitrator, then CAS would step in and appoint one, or even a single Arbitor appointed by them. Either way, it would not be a good look for Essendon.

The CAS rules state that each party to the dispute is required to nominate an Arbitrator from the global list of about 400 of CAS Arbitrators, of which about 40 are Australian. They third appointment, the Chairman of the tribunal, will be appointed if the two parties can agree on a candidate, but if this cannot be achieved then CAS appoints someone. In effect, both Essendon and WADA has a veto on the chairman unless CAS intervenes.

I understand if Essendon were to refuse to cooperate and refuse to appoint an Arbitrator, then CAS would step in and appoint one, or even a single Arbitor appointed by them. Either way, it would not be a good look for Essendon.

Any Essendon Supporters amongst the 40 Australian arbitrators?

One thing I have learnt about this saga is that Essendon supporters are everywhere.

Eddy, of all people, appears to have waded in though ... WADA will be shaking in their boots now! ``Really? You think we are narky, Mr. McGuire? Oh, well, that makes a vast difference, of course ... ''

WADA's request for overseas hearing 'narky', says Collingwood president Eddie McGuire

This made me chuckle! The AFL et al must be getting desparate!

This is the same Eddie that has been totally silent for the last 2 years!

All of a sudden he is flying the flag (as none of the participants can be seen to publicly complain)

The extent to which AFL et al treat the public like fools and WADA with contempt is beyond belief...

...as if everyone can't see thru this 'Eddie' charade!!

The cynic in me wonders if Collingwood will get some favourable treatment down the track, in return for Eddie's support.

Fresh supplies of brown corduroys to Windy Hill me thinks........

Rich Young to lead the case for WADA against Essendon

who's Rich Young ? well....

from the australian

"The lawyer who brought down notorious drug cheats Marion Jones, Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong

will present the World Anti-Doping Agency’s case against 34 current and former footballers accused of

taking a banned peptide. "

"Richard Young, a US-based anti-doping expert who helped draft the original World Anti-Doping Code,

has agreed to prosecute the case against Essendon to be heard before the International Court of Arbitration

for Sport."

You may say that and that is why we have WADA and the CAS to surprise the smugness out of you.

You are a liar, a cheat and a human of the lowest possible standing. I have no respect for you and believe the world would be a better place without you.

Thats pretty strong MD.

While I agree that Hird and Little have lost any respect they may have earned, this sad and sorry exercise where they pushed the boundaries, to undertake a pharmacological experiment on their players to gain an advantage, doing whatever it takes, which has exposed them with the lowest possible standing, they have not been found guilty.

There is no evidence , they have not been found to have destroyed the evidence.

They probably believed that they were merely doing what every other club in AFL was doing (and they may have been right).

They have been supported in their delusion that the support of the AFL and a compliant media would make any transgression disappear.

Their protestation of innocence give an appearance of lying, but they may definitely not know and have been convinced that they did nothing wrong. I pity them for their arrogant disdain and distorted representation of the search for truth and for their failure to acknowledge the significance of their program. I am sorry that they did not have enough honour to acknowledge their wrongs and accept the penalties.

Without them and their actions however the revelations of lying and cheating and the ramifications of performance enhancing and other drug use would not have attained the notice it now has.

Australian sports people including scientists, support staff, administrators etc will now ensure protocols and standards are enforced to ensure no drugs in sport.

If Essendon were allowed to maintain the "there are no records and we did nothing wrong" approach it would indeed be a black day for sport.

Fresh supplies of brown corduroys to Windy Hill me thinks........

Rich Young to lead the case for WADA against Essendon

who's Rich Young ? well....

from the australian

"The lawyer who brought down notorious drug cheats Marion Jones, Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong

will present the World Anti-Doping Agency’s case against 34 current and former footballers accused of

taking a banned peptide. "

"Richard Young, a US-based anti-doping expert who helped draft the original World Anti-Doping Code,

has agreed to prosecute the case against Essendon to be heard before the International Court of Arbitration

for Sport."

Actually 2014 I probably am like yourself expecting Essendon to come unstuck not in the end through anything other than running out of money Dare I say for the good of its members and the league in general the EFC as it exists must die. Like a Phoenix a new Windy Hill Bombers may arise and be most welcome....just leave the fwits at the door !!

I disagree. Rebadged and still playing is not the message that WADA need to send to sporting bodies world-wide. Would-be cheats need to know they destroy themselves and their team. Less than that, and the lawyers and spin-merchants will be reassuring everyone in no time; media lapdogs in tow, in full raptures and looking to the future...

I think we need to see Essendon gone; and people connected with Essendon left ashen-faced, with no second life to come once WADA have gone back home.

Tough, but unequivocal and non-rewriteable. WADA has to win, and be unambiguously still in control of the outcome ten years from now. This has to be a precedent that says you cannot just batten down and weather the clobbering, in the unfortunate event of your getting caught with a fistfull of syringes. I'm not sure how I see WADA's investigation precipitating that outcome - maybe opening the floodgates to damages claims, on the basis of their damning findings - but for me there's only one right end for a club that first ran and then top-to-bottom closed ranks around such a programme.

Then again Robbiefrom13.. A rebirthed Bombers will struggle for many years. They would be a permanent reminder to all....just what happens to those that err...Myself, I dont mind that.

Fresh supplies of brown corduroys to Windy Hill me thinks........

Rich Young to lead the case for WADA against Essendon

who's Rich Young ? well....

from the australian

"The lawyer who brought down notorious drug cheats Marion Jones, Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong

will present the World Anti-Doping Agency’s case against 34 current and former footballers accused of

taking a banned peptide. "

"Richard Young, a US-based anti-doping expert who helped draft the original World Anti-Doping Code,

has agreed to prosecute the case against Essendon to be heard before the International Court of Arbitration

for Sport."

This appointment alone tells me WADA are deadly serious about this case...I'd try to do a deal if I was the players....

no wait...

Thats pretty strong MD.

While I agree that Hird and Little have lost any respect they may have earned, this sad and sorry exercise where they pushed the boundaries, to undertake a pharmacological experiment on their players to gain an advantage, doing whatever it takes, which has exposed them with the lowest possible standing, they have not been found guilty.

There is no evidence , they have not been found to have destroyed the evidence.

They probably believed that they were merely doing what every other club in AFL was doing (and they may have been right).

They have been supported in their delusion that the support of the AFL and a compliant media would make any transgression disappear.

Their protestation of innocence give an appearance of lying, but they may definitely not know and have been convinced that they did nothing wrong. I pity them for their arrogant disdain and distorted representation of the search for truth and for their failure to acknowledge the significance of their program. I am sorry that they did not have enough honour to acknowledge their wrongs and accept the penalties.

Without them and their actions however the revelations of lying and cheating and the ramifications of performance enhancing and other drug use would not have attained the notice it now has.

Australian sports people including scientists, support staff, administrators etc will now ensure protocols and standards are enforced to ensure no drugs in sport.

If Essendon were allowed to maintain the "there are no records and we did nothing wrong" approach it would indeed be a black day for sport.

DP I reconsidered and removed my post.

It is a lie to say that they have been found innocent.

Their not guilty status is temporary. Hird took full responsibility and then denied any wrong doing. To say that they do not know what the players were given but it was not illegal and was good for them is an insult to the intelligence.

They are a blight on all Australian sports and sports people. Serious penalties need to be meted out and now I have no doubt that they will.

This appointment alone tells me WADA are deadly serious about this case...I'd try to do a deal if I was the players....

no wait...

yes that bus has left......too bad !!

yes that bus has left......too bad !!

Hard to believe they could have gotten away with 6 months backdated suspensions that would have seen them only miss 3 games.

Some players will be pretty [censored] at the advice they were given on that deal. Looks like a great deal now doesn't Jobe?

The honest souls who argue for a team in Tasmania have more right to play in the premier league than those Essendon cheats. Or whoever else - I say, Essendon have disqualified themselves. If the Essendon 34 are found guilty they will be so guilty as to be unacceptable anywhere - or so I'd hope. A Tasmanian team may struggle for a while too, likely enough - but we'd at least all be clear about drugs in sport.

But that's the least of this matter now.

I expect the whole world will take a very big interest in WADA's examination and findings. I am serious in hoping the AFL see sense and cut Essendon loose, expressing shock at having been so systematically lied to; because if the AFL scapegoat Essendon, I reckon their credibility has a better chance of recovering, and our game may escape being seen by the rest of the world as a cult-like cesspit of lawlessness and collusion in cheating. If Essendon are wiped out - lose their licence or however it can be done - it may help appease world hostility towards Australia as a sporting nation generally. That matters - there is now a whole lot more than just the Essendon crowd, or even the AFL crowd, facing world-wide image-destruction - it's become so much bigger than just the mess Essendon got themselves into. I don't think Australia can afford them any more.

Fresh supplies of brown corduroys to Windy Hill me thinks........

Rich Young to lead the case for WADA against Essendon

who's Rich Young ? well....

from the australian

"The lawyer who brought down notorious drug cheats Marion Jones, Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong

will present the World Anti-Doping Agency’s case against 34 current and former footballers accused of

taking a banned peptide. "

"Richard Young, a US-based anti-doping expert who helped draft the original World Anti-Doping Code,

has agreed to prosecute the case against Essendon to be heard before the International Court of Arbitration

for Sport."

Young knows what he is taking on as: '...no stranger to the case having previously advised ASADA throughout the investigations into suspected doping at the Bombers and Cronulla in the NRL, will prosecute the case against Essendon before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport...'

He must be very confident of success otherwise why would he risk his reputation on some two-bit group down under.

Its probably only just starting to dawn upon a lot of people as to how serious a case this is. This now carries WADA's #1 priority . They arent mucking around, well , they never were , it was only our lame system of dealing with things that mucked anyone arond.

As it goes...TISM. WADA are pushing for absolute neutral ground for CAS to hear this. They will in all likelihood be granted exactly that and have it heard in Lausanne. . Any one that gets called can do so via video if need be, especially those that might not normally even be allowed into Switzerland !!

CAS wont muck around either. They without doubt will pick very experienced arbiters ( one already ) and this Appeal will be given the time and space its due to arrive at a fair and reasoned outcome. WADA arent stuffing around either having convinced Rich Young to go into bat for them. Heres the guy that wrote the book . Hes the guy that takes down the big ones. He would be the very last person you would want to see opposite you in these cases. If I were an Essendon player Id be very, very worried. If I was Hird or Little .....but then Im not and never could be...they will get theres in due course.

If I were Jobe Watson Id just hand back my Charlie with a sincere apology. If I were Tim Watson Id just shut the fcuk up for ever more ( do the world a favour )

I still want to see a Royal Commission. Its the only way that the likes of Vlad and Ando can be brought to answer for events they are partly responsible for. Its the only way the likes of Gill the Dill can be made to explain the way the League have corruptly acted in all of this.It would also have the necessary powers to call ANYONE and theres a few who are flying under the radar currently that shouldnt be. This whole thing needs sorting...not just the Bombers debacle.

Young knows what he is taking on as: '...no stranger to the case having previously advised ASADA throughout the investigations into suspected doping at the Bombers and Cronulla in the NRL, will prosecute the case against Essendon before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport...'

He must be very confident of success otherwise why would he risk his reputation on some two-bit group down under.

lets just say hes a bit passionate about the cause in general

Then again Robbiefrom13.. A rebirthed Bombers will struggle for many years. They would be a permanent reminder to all....just what happens to those that err...Myself, I dont mind that.

thing is, BB, one day they'd win a game. From that moment on, they've gotten away with it.

Every time they won another game, their punishment would be fading, on the way to being finished and forgotten - WADA's judgment would become in effect a rallying cry for the team to unite against - an obstacle to triumphantly overcome. Every time they were happy after a game, they'd be rejoicing in that moment with a rejoicing tangled up in the knowledge that what WADA did to them didn't stop them. Wrong message.

We've had a lot of pain - you know it doesn't take too many wins to erase the pain. Read the board - supporters blow in the wind. Essendon would too - even after a WADA-scaled clobbering. It needs to be permanent to last at all.

NO PRISONERS!! NO PRISONERS!!

They probably believed that they were merely doing what every other club in AFL was doing (and they may have been right).

Not sure about that.

Was it the 2012 or 2013 pre season when Ess supporters were gloating about how huge their players had gotten in a big hurry?

I don't recall that situation for any other club ever.

I don't doubt that (most) clubs have dabbled with "borderline" supplements. Example: we were daft enough to get into bed with Dank, albeit unofficially and without approval, even after it was widely known that Dank was discredited.

But nothing any club has done was on the scale of Ess/Hird/Dank/Charters and co.

They are a blight on all Australian sports and sports people. Serious penalties need to be meted out and now I have no doubt that they will.

It's the hypocrisy that I choke on.

The 16 year old who lost her gold medal for taking a headache tablet? Tough [censored], kid.

The Chinese swimmers who we wanted to tar, feather, hang, draw, quarter, run out of town on a rail, etc? Coz we're Aussies who love a fair go and we don't like cheats.

But when Aussies do it! And an AFL team no less. No stone is left unturned to avoid the investigation, hamstring the investigation, discredit the investigation, discredit the investigators, mobilise the friendly media, on and on and on.

Who was the cretin the other day who said we don't need WADA because Aussies don't cheat?

Remember Warnie? (Although ... he's an Aussie, and by extension didn't cheat. He probably really did take that masking agent diuretic pill for his good looks.)

The things that's worries me is that there may be big bucks ready to protect the AFL's and Essendon's interests. I hope those who will be making the final decision are persons of true honour and integrity.

Not sure about that.

Was it the 2012 or 2013 pre season when Ess supporters were gloating about how huge their players had gotten in a big hurry?

I don't recall that situation for any other club ever.

I don't doubt that (most) clubs have dabbled with "borderline" supplements. Example: we were daft enough to get into bed with Dank, albeit unofficially and without approval, even after it was widely known that Dank was discredited.

But nothing any club has done was on the scale of Ess/Hird/Dank/Charters and co.

I still distinctly remember them when they first come out and thought they were huge. Even remember BT (ugh) praising "The weapon" for his work on the team.

this wouldnt be the new Belgian bloke by any chance ??

He always finds the culprit.

When was the last time anyone unwittingly took methadone for back pain? Ryan Crowley, must have been to see Mr Charters.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/fremantle-tagger-ryan-crowley-unwittingly-took-methadone-for-back-pain-20150519-gh5a9q.html

He has had a positive test: Saad got, what, 2y. Crowley is guilty , has been unbelievably stupid, and surely cannot expect one minute less. Where the hell did he get the stuff? Total brain fade, or, deliberate flouting of the law.

Fresh supplies of brown corduroys to Windy Hill me thinks........

Rich Young to lead the case for WADA against Essendon

who's Rich Young ? well....

from the australian

"The lawyer who brought down notorious drug cheats Marion Jones, Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong

will present the World Anti-Doping Agencys case against 34 current and former footballers accused of

taking a banned peptide. "

"Richard Young, a US-based anti-doping expert who helped draft the original World Anti-Doping Code,

has agreed to prosecute the case against Essendon to be heard before the International Court of Arbitration

for Sport."

Wow. WADA are getting really serious. Do EssUndone read the news (other than that which flatters / excuses them)? This guy is the #1 prosecutor and would not have taken on a dud case. Can't wait.

Roy Masters: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essendon-bombers/australia-may-not-have-representative-at-cas-hearing-into-essendon-case-20150520-gh5tbz.html Some quotes ( in itallics):

In a nutsell:

- "Essendon may even struggle to find a non-conflicted Australian advocate to appear in the court and argue their defence."

- Essendon are struggling to find a judge to be one of the three arbitors who will make the decision.The gall and hubris continues: "...In order to guarantee the presence of one AFL-minded person in a jurisdiction of European lawyers, legal sources claim Essendon have suggested a recently retired Australian High Court judge, Justice Ken Hayne, as their nominated judge on the three-person panel. Justice Hayne is an Essendon supporter and is hugely respected for his independence and clarity of thinking.

However, he is not on the CAS list so they simply wanted him added ie change the CAS rule so they can an Essendon supporter on the panel!!

-The venue is definitely in Switzerland: "CAS's Sydney office has been in contact with the Swiss registry in Lausanne asking whether the case would be held in Australia and the answer has been a definitive no".

If only they had not been so cocky and confident of WADA not appealing to CAS they would have had more time to get their ducks in order. Now they are doing everything on the run.

While WADA is looking very cool, calm and collected having nominated their defence counsel and their preferred panel member.

Who looks inefficient and incompetent now.

WADA are going after the AFL with all guns blazing!