Essendon affair

[ScottH]

I'd love to ask Ahmed Saad what he thinks about all this.

[Plugger46]

What I don't understand with all of this is simply how long it has all taken.

ASADA is your answer. Appalling organisation.

[YvonneH]

Is it a coincidence that on Talking Footy last night Tim Watson said Justice Middleton's decision could come down this week (AFTER Essendon bowed out of the Finals) or am I reading too much into that?

Another conspiracy theory perhaps?

[ScottH]

Is it a coincidence that on Talking Footy last night Tim Watson said Justice Middleton's decision could come down this week (AFTER Essendon bowed out of the Finals) or am I reading too much into that?

Another conspiracy theory perhaps?

No.
Just "well timed"!!

[undy]

Hird and Essendon cases dismissed.

[CureTheSane]

They had better not be offered a 6 month deal again.
Perhaps 9 months now if they decide to take a deal.

[stellation]

I wonder if Ryan's manager is on the phone to the Bombers?

[ScottH]

We could be playing a VERY, Very weak Bombers side in Round 1 next year.

[barry]

Personally whilst I think drugs have no place in sport it's time for us to move past this episode in the games history. I do agree with roos that we shouldn't have a three strike policy but I don't think there is anything more to be gained by dragging on the essendon drama any longer

The issue has many folds.

Firstly an orchestrated program by the club which got a limp penalty by the AFL. Hird is still coach.
Then the lack of any penalty for players who allowed injecting of unknown substances into them, breaking every rule in the book.

But more importantly is the fact that essendon have shown how to get away with drugs... destroy the evidence. The matter goes away. AFL sanctioned cheating.

To "put it behind us", is to let the guilty walk free. I hope asada appeal, but if they dont it will only be because of lack of powers to gather evidence .

[barry]

Barry, now that our contract is at an end, there is no need for us to stick the boot into the craphole in Homebush.

There was a poor crowd. But I think more people boycotted the game because they only serve midstrength. You are flogging another one of your stable of dead horses.

The two issues are totally seperate.

But even i am suprised by the indifference to drug cheating on display at RWO, by some posters.

[AnnieH]

The two issues are totally seperate.

But even i am suprised by the indifference to drug cheating on display at RWO, by some posters.

Well, they actually haven't been charged with drug cheating, and until they actually are, you are making a mountain out of a molehill.
The verdict from the AFL was that there was not enough evidence... and every good lawyer knows, without evidence, you have nothing.

[Dosser]

The two issues are totally seperate.

But even i am suprised by the indifference to drug cheating on display at RWO, by some posters.

Nobody here is indifferent to it. It is just that by boycotting Swans games when we play them only makes the AFL think that the Swans cant pull a crowd, not that there is some sort of (extremely subtle) grass-roots movement.

[Ludwig]

But even i am suprised by the indifference to drug cheating on display at RWO, by some posters.

I don't think we are indifferent to the use of drugs in sport. I think we are just accepting the reality of the situation and what can be done within the current framework.

I would like to make several points about this issue:

1. Many Essendon players engaged in a program that almost certainly involved PEDs.
2. The players were duped by their employer to engage in this program, but should have been more diligent.
3. There was one person, Stephen Dank, primarily responsible for promoting this program.
4. Hird and several other Essendon employees were at the very least complicit in this program and have been found so and penalised.
5. Essendon have been penalised for this program, albeit perhaps not to the extent that many believe they deserved.
6. It was difficult for ASADA to make their case given that their 3 key witnesses could not be compelled to testify.
7. The players, although not suspended, have been traumatized by the length of the process, and will continue to be so, since they are not sure what drugs they were given.
8. It would be unfair to the competition, the Essendon players now on the club not involved in the drug program, the Essendon fans and others earning a livelihood through the Essendon FC to allow the actions of a few people, i.e. Dank, Hird and few others, to continue to bring the game into disrepute.*
9. Sometimes you just have to move on when you don't get your desired result.

* That role should be returned to Eddie McGuire, where it belongs.

[Matt80]

I had the opportunity to meet Hird and Tania at a corporate function years ago. He was terrific company and was interested in the people around him that he was speaking with. Tania was equally delightful. He was not arrogant at all.

I believe that like so many great people in life that Hird fell in with the wrong people. The situation reminds of a high achieving teenager who meets a new friend, who is a bad influence and ends up heavily dependent on recreational drugs.

Hird trusted Dank. He is an experienced sports Doctor. Doctors are the most trusted people in society. Why would you not have trusted Dank at the time? The results of the players were also impressive, which encouraged Hird to keep things going.

My heart went out to him when he was booed at ANZ. All people on Red and White have friends and family members who have fallen in with the wrong crowd with adverse consequences. I felt for him at a human level.

[dimelb]

Excellent summation Ludwig.

The only point where I differ is No. 2. It still seems to me that a footballer has the right to say to ASADA, "I'm not a biochemist and I'm certainly no expert on drugs, so I checked with the club doctor and got the OK." At that point he's done his due diligence and in my view the matter should then be taken up with the doctor, the coaches etc.

True, in other sports, notably (I think) in athletics, it seems the athlete is obliged to go a lot further. But as a footballer, if you're relying on the doctor and the club nutritionist, and avoiding illegal drugs of any description, that ought to be enough.