monoccular

stuie - very different. All the others were allowed and in fact used full club facilities, support teams etc I suspect the answers to all are no, and the last at least with any teams that are affiliated with any ASADA / WADA affiliated competitions. Hopefully not even backyard basketball with Christian Petracca :-)

What a horribly conflicted body this is. Those who call it a trade union miss a salient point. What trade union is fully funded by the employer therefore 100 % dependent upon them for their funding? How can they seriously represent their players in such a situation. An excercise in tokenism and spin. Land how can they claim to represent the interests of over 15/16 of their members by basically supporting proven cheating by a minority?

I would doubt that TB-4 testing would comprise any part or a routine medical, but I guess maybe such things will have to become routine, sadly. Oh how I loathe the EFC for what they have done to our sport.

1. Essendon at that stage hoodwinked the whole football community 2. One shouldn't reward cheats, but this is exactly what the AFL are going to do. Top up players. Draft picks based on 2016 outcome. Salary cap changes and some even suggest assistance. Prime time scheduling, including ANZAC DAY. If that isn't rewarding cheating don't know what is.

Re Angus and Port - I guess that all clubs will now have to increase their due diligence regarding every new recruit be it from another club or even from junior levels, and ask specifically regarding prior supplement usage, and perhaps somehow have written into the standard contract some "divorce clause" in the case of their being subsequently exposed as being a user. Re the others - perhaps the clubs involved did take the risk into account in their decision making regarding these transferrees.

Once he wrote "the letter", so mysteriously lost by the way like the drug administration records, and it was not responded to his satisfaction, he had a moral obligation to resign his position. He chose instead to stay. He therefore failed his duty of care to the his patients, the players. Yet AHPRA do not appear to have shown any interest at all Saying he was sidelined yet sticking around was both gutless and unethical, IMVHO Certainly on face value it would seem very clear that whoever drew up the consent forms - and has that person been named by the way? - totally mislead the players involved. Have these forms ever been sighted (or even cited) publicly? I suspect that had they answered truthfully at the times they were asked by ASADA that yes, they had been given supplements and that the club had given them written assurances of their legitimacy, then this whole sorry saga would have been resolved, one way or the other, long ago. ASADA, WADA and CAS had it got that far may well have treated them far more leniently had they not lied regarding their supplement usage. What a joke that Golden Boy is even allowed to darken the portals of an institution carrying such a lofty title. Must be self named. PS http://www.ethics.org.au/about/what-we-re-about What a beautiful irony the The Ethics Centre was formerly know as St.James Ethics Centre. They must have felt compelled to remove the eponym due to the oxymoronic contradiction. :-)

This is a very poor analogy. Melbourne did what many had done before, and what was not and is not against any law or regulation of the AFL. What EssUndone did was and is contrary to the clearly oft stated rules of the AFL and virtually every sporting body.

If they can get their hands on "the good stuff", who knows??

Because the AFL continue to bend over backwards to gloss over this sordid episode, and to reward to cheating administration and staff at EssUndone. ANZAC Day continues, as do their pre time fixed-tures. I even heard today somewhere that they were talking of "compensating" the banned players! FCS talk about mixed messages.

We will certainly need to take this game very very seriously. Any supposition that they will be easy beats would lead to an absolute disaster.

stuie. Well said. A watershed moment. I doubt that players will blindly follow ever again what even blind Freddie would have seen as something questionable at the very least. ASADA and WADA have resources available for all (professional at least) sportsmen should they have any concerns. They chose, albeit under peer and staff pressure, to take the risk and were caught out.

Everything John Worsfold and Essendon touch will be under intense scrutiny for years ahead. Scrutiny has not been nearly so intense in the past. It will be most interesting to observe just what he can achieve from the residue of his playing list this year, and those who choose to return in 2017, in this environment.

Gill said there will be no (further) action by the AFL. But Hird will forever be condemned by the court of public opinion, and will surely never have any rôle in any AFL activity again. Were he to appear at any footy event he would be roundly booed by the vast majority, many Essendon fans included - it would make Adam Goodes feel universally loved by comparison. Maybe Syrian would be a better option?

Is he suggesting that he actually kept records down at Kardinia Park? Can we have an interpreter here please?

I thought that I read somewhere that only EssUndone will be rewarded for their {}#%^**+ with top up picks. Sounds very AFLish.

Gutless Gill. I pity the poor bugger who is the #1 pick this year, going to a tainted cheating club. I also pity whomever they picked up this year - forgot his name for now - that skinny guy who should spend a year or so building up his body but who will now be thrown in the deep end.

The 'draw' (=fixed-ure) is always compromised. There has been some attempts to improve it the last two seasons but the EssUndone farce makes games v them gifts especially as the season wears on and the add-ons wear out. Of greater concern to me - you can only play who you are scheduled to play - is the inequity in the prime time scheduling, something that can be addressed were the AFL to have any interest at all in equal opportunity for clubs to raise funds. EssUndone have been "rewarded" for bringing the game into disrepute with half a dozen or more prime time games in 2016. This will blow up in the AFL's face and their games will be as unpopular as Carlton's prime time games were in 2015. And as for ANZAC Day - the club that has shamed Australia's sporting reputation gets to play on our most sacred day. A bloody disgrace.

Until I read the bit about answering "no" to specific questions regarding the use of supplements from ASADA at routine testing, I did have some small amount of sympathy for the players concerned, but not now. Sure they were lied to by their club about what they were given and re the legality of that, but they are drilled regularly on the use of any substances and know they will be asked questions by ASADA - I am just disappointed that the top echelons at the club seem to have escaped any WADA / CAS sanction. Maybe it wasn't in their remit.

It was the same Bill Shorten who was asked if he agreed with something Gillard said....can't remember the detail...... his reply (paraphrased) "I don't know what she said but of course I agree with whatever she said" Needs to learn to engage brain before tongue - maybe there just aren't the synapses Clearly he didn't read (or maybe didn't understand) the bit about the players being asked if they had been given anything and answering "no" ........ or maybe having spent his life in Unions and Labor politics just doesn't believe that telling the truth matters

Exactly. It is not even as if it was in a season when he may not have been jabbed. There should be no discussion on this. More interestingly there should be serious discussions regarding Hird's Charlie - he has brought the game into disrepute by his own stubborn arrogant actions. Unbelievable for a "great of the game". How did he recover from his mystery foot injury??

But, as we know, AFL and Justice are not often used in the same sentence. Hird's obstruction is what has drawn this out, and his arrogance is what started it all. Reid failed in his primary duty of care to his patients. It is quite clear that his duty is to them and not to his employer / paymaster Horribly conflicted. The honorable thing would have been to resign It seems from the statement that they deliberately lied when asked about supplements at their regular ASADA testing. If so they are very lucky to get away with 2Y, with 1 already somehow served Maybe they have Nark Neeld as an advisor - " didn't see that coming ".

That is a hugely damning paragraph. So, they are asked whenever they are tested if they have taken and supplements and they said no! Did the AFL joke tribunal know is when they brought down their "finding"? If so, they, the tribunal (just joking calling them that) should all be taken out and shot, now...why wait till dawn?

Like King Canute (yes, I was very careful with the spelling) Maybe Slater and Gordon can resurrect themselves by running and winning a class action by the players against EFC How about Hird's Brownlow - he has brought the game into unimaginable disrepute.?

One could wonder though just how much mental scarring there will / could be. Certainly returning to play with full commitment at the club that "did this to you" (though not lessening their own responsibility as they were complicit themselves) would be extremely difficult. Hopefully the change of scenery will help him through. He could well use the year out for some psychological training to help him with the burden of being widely sledged as a drug cheat as well of course as getting himself superfit for day 1 of the next preseason, and avoiding back yard basketball. I hope his new club offers him this support although I guess it can't do so officially.

Flirted, maybe, but made a correct call. Totally different.