ManDee

It's about Danks ego. Banned or not he will never get another AFL gig. This man has serious issues, and in my opinion he will not be with us for long.

His excuse, “a family member is in hospital with a life-threatening condition’ Old age is a life threatening condition, tonsillitis, appendicitis, tooth abscess, untreated ingrown toenail etc..... The guy is a joke.

I think it did.

DC, the new library is magnificent, sometimes we need to bulldoze the old to make way for the new. We have had NBN wifi for ages in sunny outer Mansfield, inner Mansfield suffers with broadband?

Is this the first time the club has accepted responsibility and apologised? "The club takes responsibility for placing Jobe in this position and unreservedly apologises to him and his family." Lindsay Tanner No apology to the AFL & football public.

AFT

Sounds great

Beeb, I had even applied the italic tongue in cheek code! But you can be given something against your wishes and without your knowledge. Do not give me anything illegal or dangerous. Then they administer something illegal or dangerous without telling you that it is illegal or dangerous, just vitamins Jobe. Edit:- Still guilty by the way. No Brownlow Gil.

Jobe knew nothing about taking PED's, they were administered against his wishes without his knowledge, he is the innocent victim in all this. Still can't keep the medal Jobe, you have been found guilty of drug cheating. Wake up AFL make a decision. Animals without backbones are called invertebrates. They range from well known animals such as jellyfish, slugs, snails, mussels, octopuses, crabs, shrimps, spiders, butterflies and beetles to much less well known animals such as flatworms, tapeworms, siphunculids, ticks and AFL CEO's.

So Gil, let's imagine Caleb Daniels grows 30cm this year and muscles up to weigh 101kg and next season becomes the best CHF the game has seen kicking 152 goals. He goes on to win the Brownlow and Coleman medals, years down the track after he explodes on dancing with the stars, his biological passport is retested to find he has been using NASA-9064, a synthetic not approved for human use rocket fuel. Because he was not banned during the season does he keep his medals? Come on Gil it is not a trick question, does he keep his medals?

Ron you disappoint me, the last thing I expect from you is to be the voice of reason, but I have to agree, get it done Dees.

It is fairest and best player. Neil Roberts winner in 1958 said he would hand back his medal if fairness was removed. You could have a separate award for the most drugged up player and give it to Jobe, Benny & Dane on alternate years.

Acknowledging the formidable brief before it, the Tribunal is deeply critical of Essendon’s deplorable lack of record keeping regarding the injecting program, noting that had the club fulfilled its obligations as a responsible employer it’s highly unlikely these proceedings would have been necessary. Those elements combined to ensure the prosecution couldn’t meet the threshold of comfortable satisfaction for a doping violation to be sustained. Jones describes ASADA’s investigation as extensive and comprehensive and identifies the task of the tribunal as an intellectual and dispassionate function made more difficult by the absence of key witnesses. “It follows from the conclusions the Tribunal reached, it is not comfortably satisfied that the first element or link in the chain of reasoning relied upon by the ASADA CEO to establish that a violation by each player has occurred has been made out. It follows that it cannot be comfortably satisfied that the second link has been established.” From:-http://www.foxsports.com.au/breaking-news/asada-failed-to-prosecute-bombers-due-to-mystery-over-prohibited-drug-thymosin-beta-4/news-story/e276a27935c28da589084a9ab2c58ce6 They were then not able to proceed with examining further evidence, a problem with comfortable satisfaction as seen by the tribunal.

They fell over on legal technicalities, they were unable to give all the evidence.

Thanks Topaz, only ten pages to go, interesting reading. As I have said, the players are guilty, Jobe should give back that medal.

I think (I have no knowledge on this) that the players may have lied by saying Dank was not at away matches, when perhaps he was.

ASADA chief executive Ben McDevitt slammed the players for failing to know better and for being “complicit in a culture of secrecy and concealment”. “This unfortunate episode has chronicled the most devastating self-inflicted injury by a sporting club in Australian history,” he said. “The players had received anti-doping education through the AFL and ASADA, and were well aware that they are personally responsible for all substances that entered their body. “Unfortunately, despite their education, they agreed to be injected with a number of substances they had little knowledge of, made no enquiries about the substance and kept the injections from their team doctor and ASADA. “Of 30 ASADA testing missions during the period in question, none of the 18 players tested declared the injections, despite being asked each time whether they had taken any supplements. “At best, the players did not ask the questions, or the people, they should have. At worst, they were complicit in a culture of secrecy and concealment.” The CAS decision outlined the failure of the Bombers involved to disclose key pieces of information to investigators, including what “supplements” they believed they had been administered and when and the presence of Stephen Dank at away matches. Edit:- attribution - http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/essendon/essendon-drugs-saga-players-only-have-themselves-to-blame-says-asada-chief/news-story/33ab716e80b0ab7de1f37572a68bfb46

Saty, they lied to ASADA on multiple occasions. All of them lied. How can anyone suggest that they were not complicit?

I agree completely with the sentiment OD but the AFL rules re the Brownlow (wikipedia not the real rules- they are missing?) and it appears the eligibility is referenced to AFL tribunal bans during the home & away season exclusively. Legally the AFL may have a problem, I would think a shame campaign against Jobe may be required. wikipedia - The fairest component of the medal is achieved by making ineligible any player who is suspended by the AFL Tribunal during the home-and-away season. An ineligible player cannot win, place or be classified in the final Brownlow Medal rankings, regardless of the number of votes he has received.

Iva, Jobe was the club captain, I have no doubt that younger players came to him and asked his opinion on what was going on. As a leader he has great responsibility and throughout he maintained the club line. Did he ask questions? Before he gave leadership did he make personal inquiries about the program, did he check with ASADA (it takes about 2 minutes online) Did he check with specialist medical practitioners? Both Watson and Armstrong are listed as drug cheats. I agree the club got off lightly, I too feel for the younger players in particular. But Jobe was their leader, and at best he has failed in that role, or has been complicit in our countries biggest sporting scandal. During that time he won the counties highest AFL sporting honour. He lied on multiple occasions to ASADA testers. If he had any sense of morality he would apologise and return his ill gotten gain.

It beggars belief that the AFL requested submissions. Did Chris Grant or Corey McKernan get to make a submission? Did James Hird, Michael Voss or Robert Harvey have to make one? This smacks of an inability to make a decision by the AFL, the very body created to make decisions on the game for the game. Jobe Watson found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs in the very year that he won the Brownlow & having exhausted all appeals is now officially labelled a drug cheat and currently a Brownlow medalist. What is the difficulty here? Jobe joins the ranks of Lance Armstrong. The AFL must make a decision, we do not need another month, that is rubbish, surely they realised that a possible outcome of the CAS appeall was that the players would lose. I'm sure that someone at AFL house understands contingency planning, it would appear they don't understand integrity, probity and honour.

Nice argument bioptic. I will keep you in mind next time I need representation.

Oh, whoops, all 34 of us forgot to mention that stuff 30 times. What a coincidence! But we were duped, no seriously.