Essendon Football Club Drama

[Swansongster]

WADA: aod is a banned drug.
Jobe Waltson: I took aod.
AFL: jobe clear to play.

AFL: Hird banned for 2 years
Essendon: Hird did nothing wrong and has a contract extension.

Its a complete joke. If they are guilty lets run these mongrels out of the game.

I won't be surprised if there is more to come. These penalties are a negotiated convenience to return focus to football for September. I would say rightly so. They are based on an interim report. Once the full report is tabled, there will be additional evidence/information that opens up the opportunity for further sanctions from ASADA, WADA and perhaps even the AFL.

The fat lady has not yet sung. She is just warming up with a few arias in the first act.

[erica]

Hird gets extension on contract? Beggars belief. What a delusional club.

[Ludwig]

I won't be surprised if there is more to come. These penalties are a negotiated convenience to return focus to football for September. I would say rightly so. They are based on an interim report. Once the full report is tabled, there will be additional evidence/information that opens up the opportunity for further sanctions from ASADA, WADA and perhaps even the AFL.

The fat lady has not yet sung. She is just warming up with a few arias in the first act.

+1

1. The spin doctors are already at it. Hird claiming that he thought the players were only taking vitamins, which contradicts so much of the evidence, not the least including Dr Reid's letter explicitly listing AOD 9604. Why do you need vitamins injected into your stomach? Who would want such an idiot for a head coach? Why hasn't Dank been arrested for injecting potentially harmful substances into the players without the knowledge of the club's management?

2. Agree with Swansongster that this just gets the AFL past the finals period, limits the damage to Essendon to the minimum that can be absolutely proven until the final ASADA report. This next stage could be a long one which can exend well into next year before resolution. The cover-up suits both Essendon and the AFL, who also don't want the to see players charged with drug taking.

3. Despite reports that various clubs are interested in a number of Essendon players, it would seem irresponsible for any club to contract a former Essendon player before finality of ASADA's report. It will be interesting to see how this aspect of the saga transpires. I believe the players could have a claim against Essendon that the club's drug program effectively limits their freedom to move to another club as well as their long-term employment opportunities.

4. The penalty for Essendon was very light compared to Adelaide's. If you rate Tippett as a round 1 pick and Jesse White as a round 2 pick, then Adelaide effective lost 3 round 1 and 3 round 2 picks, roughly double Essendon's loss of draft picks.

5. The claim of lack of records showing substances that players took is absurd. Perhaps Dank kept the records and stole them from the club or the records were destroyed. But certainly Dank, the players and others would know who took what to better than a 90% accuracy without any records. As time goes on, Dank, disaffected players and perhaps others will spill the beans about what was actually going down at the club.

6. I think the Essendon penalties are fair given the final charge sheet and hope for the good of the game that players don't get charged for drug taking. But I also don't like the dishonesty coming out of the Essendon camp. I think almost everyone outside the Essendon camp knows they drug cheated and feels that if Essendon do not face additional penalties, it is we, the football public, that have been cheated.

[royboy42]

I heard this on radio and did not believe it, so I checked. Go to ASADA website , and click on 'check your substance'.
I registered as a male player of Australian football, and entered AOD9604 as the substance I was enquiring about.
It took me to ADT Booster apparently the group of substances AOD belongs to, and listed it as PERMITTED for use both in and out of competition.
Beats me, but check for yourself.

[hot potato]

Tanya Hird looks so completely over it.
She must wish she had married a plumber, journos outside her house for weeks as she goes about the essentials of taking kids to school .

[Ludwig]

I heard this on radio and did not believe it, so I checked. Go to ASADA website , and click on 'check your substance'.
I registered as a male player of Australian football, and entered AOD9604 as the substance I was enquiring about.
It took me to ADT Booster apparently the group of substances AOD belongs to, and listed it as PERMITTED for use both in and out of competition.
Beats me, but check for yourself.

An ADT Booster is a vaccine used for Diptheria and Tetanus. It has nothing to do with AOD9604, which must mean that AOD9604 is not on any prohibited list and therefore would come under S0, if any.

- - - Updated - - -

WADA statement on substance AOD-9604

April 22, 2013

Following a number of inquiries regarding the substance AOD-9604 available on the Internet ?black market? and possibly elsewhere, WADA has issued the following statement:

AOD-9604 is a substance still under pre-clinical and clinical development and has not been approved for therapeutic use by any government health authority in the world.

Therefore, under the 2013 Prohibited Substances and Methods List, the substance falls into the S.0 category which states:

?S0. NON-APPROVED SUBSTANCES

Any pharmacological substance which is not addressed by any of the subsequent sections of the List and with no current approval by any governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use (e.g drugs under pre-clinical or clinical development or discontinued, designer drugs, substances approved only for veterinary use) is prohibited at all times.?

For more advice and information regarding medication or supplements, athletes are advised to contact their national anti-doping organization or international federation.

[DK_]

Hird gets extension on contract? Beggars belief. What a delusional club.

Here's a few choice quotes on groupthink - anything familiar here?

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the "ingroup" produces an "illusion of invulnerability" (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the "ingroup" significantly overrates their own abilities in decision-making, and significantly underrates the abilities of their opponents (the "outgroup").

Symptoms:

Type I: Overestimations of the group ? its power and morality

Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking.
Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions.

Type II: Closed-mindedness

Rationalizing warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions.
Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, biased, spiteful, impotent, or stupid.

Type III: Pressures toward uniformity

Self-censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus.
Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement.
Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty"
Mind guards? self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

Caues:


High group cohesiveness
deindividuation: group cohesiveness becomes more important than individual freedom of expression
Structural faults:
insulation of the group
lack of impartial leadership
lack of norms requiring methodological procedures
homogeneity of members' social backgrounds and ideology
Situational context:
highly stressful external threats
recent failures
excessive difficulties on the decision-making task
moral dilemmas

[Ludwig]

This is Essendon's new, under construction, $25,000,000 High Performance (Enhancing Drug Injection) Centre at Melbourne Airport (to reduce the transportation costs between import and injection).

20130313_hpc_1.jpg

Whatever it takes!

[ShockOfHair]

Whatever the legalities, the club was guilty of medical recklessness, wasting everyone's time and general stupidity. This could have been settled in April. The penalty really rewards them for their recalcitrance, but the alternative was to drag it through the courts for 18 months. At least they've been wiped out for this year. Let's hope we get some kind of medical code of conduct for clubs and players' right to be informed about medical procedures.

[Ludwig]

Whatever the legalities, the club was guilty of medical recklessness, wasting everyone's time and general stupidity. This could have been settled in April. The penalty really rewards them for their recalcitrance, but the alternative was to drag it through the courts for 18 months. At least they've been wiped out for this year. Let's hope we get some kind of medical code of conduct for clubs and players' right to be informed about medical procedures.

They probably could have settled with the AFL much earlier, except for the problem that the AFL signed up to WADA and however inadvertent, most likely subjected a substantial number of players to WADA prohibited substances. Given the zero tolerance, and that no player had tested positive, the best strategy was to try to cover it up and hope for the best. They could not confess, because then they would be cooked, because there are no acceptable excuses. They've gotten through the first hurdle, having taken a bit of a hit, but the Sword of Damocles will hang over the club for many years to come.

There is bound to be a million dollar "tell all" book deal awating some delisted Essendon player that was at the club during this period. Perhaps the title will be: "What really happened at Essendon 2011-2013: The Inside Story"

[Triple B]

I reckon Kyle Reimers is one such loose cannon who may be ready to speak again. The last time he spoke he was sort of howled down and I'm not sure everybody took him seriously. Would like to hear the interview again, or a new one, in light of all the extra information we have all been privy to...

[royboy42]

An ADT Booster is a vaccine used for Diptheria and Tetanus. It has nothing to do with AOD9604, which must mean that AOD9604 is not on any prohibited list and therefore would come under S0, if any.

- - - Updated - - -

WADA statement on substance AOD-9604

April 22, 2013

Following a number of inquiries regarding the substance AOD-9604 available on the Internet ?black market? and possibly elsewhere, WADA has issued the following statement:

AOD-9604 is a substance still under pre-clinical and clinical development and has not been approved for therapeutic use by any government health authority in the world.

Therefore, under the 2013 Prohibited Substances and Methods List, the substance falls into the S.0 category which states:

?S0. NON-APPROVED SUBSTANCES

Any pharmacological substance which is not addressed by any of the subsequent sections of the List and with no current approval by any governmental regulatory health authority for human therapeutic use (e.g drugs under pre-clinical or clinical development or discontinued, designer drugs, substances approved only for veterinary use) is prohibited at all times.?

For more advice and information regarding medication or supplements, athletes are advised to contact their national anti-doping organization or international federation.

Fair enough Ludwig and thanks for that. Maybe ASDA need to tidy up their website cos searching for aod9604 takes you straight to that ADT booster..deceptive and likely to cause more confusion..not everyone has a Ludwig to set things straight.

[Ludwig]

Maybe ASADA need to tidy up their website cos searching for aod9604 takes you straight to that ADT booster..deceptive and likely to cause more confusion...

This was probably how James Hird determined AOD-9604 was okay.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Don's penalties turn out to be even weaker than at first appearance Dons warned on axing
Essendon allowed to draft into the first two rounds of the next two drafts, AND in the 2014 draft they will be given a selection at the end of the first round. No wonder some Crows fans are feeling miffed http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl...-1226706056542

[Swansongster]

Peter Fitzsimons nailed my frustrations at the "settlement". I hope ASADA takes it further than the AFL.

AFL's darkest day is just a whitewash