Once again Bruce, you have nailed it. I don’t know the stuff about the Coach but the rest of it.
I can’t speak for the other supporters or members of this once mighty and great club. A club I have supported for almost seventy years and I am a member of, I am ashamed of the EFC, the way the club has been tarnished.
Mike Fitzpatrick comes out again and has five minutes of fame. Now no longer as the Chairman of the AFL but once again, sticks his big thumb on our heads collectively and puts us back into our box. I wonder how the players and their families feel? I know how I feel and what bites into me, is the club’s silence and the club’s pretence.
The club does of good job of pretending and protecting the silent ones. They’ve been doing it so long its almost second nature. Every time they think this saga’s dead in the water up its rises again. It will never be over until the truth comes out and is heard. Whatever the truth is? I can take it, I want to hear it, I won’t try to cover the truth up. I want to be free and I never can be, until I know. Then, we all can begin to walk the road together as this club becomes great again.
Unfortunately, the club was not silent, given what Tanner said about the AFL looking after us when we were in deep trouble. Or, was that just a personal view?
And the club was not silent when Hird was banned from the Chrighton, when he was welcome back but not yet, or when it made known that it was putting out the welcome mat for Evans reappearance at the club.
I still would like someone to push Chip further to see if he thinks the AFL was or SHOULD have been aware of the problems regarding Robinson & Dank at the AFL run club the Gold Coast Suns before Essendon was in the picture.
The question was partially answered but not specifically about Bock & the issues the Suns had & if the AFL could have simply advised Essendon (phone call to Evan’s from his pal Vlad) to say stay away when they got wind that they were looking at/had hired Robinson.
I am unsure of the timeline of how this played out but I seem to remember that when Vlad was advised of what had happened at Essendon (I think in a private meeting with ASADA) that he said something along the lines of “I’m not surprised” as if he was already aware of issues surrounding Robinson? Or do i have this wrong… forgive me, like everyone else my memory is fuzzy on all this stuff now
Chip has stated he knows no reason (including any non-prosecution deal) why the AFL and *ADA haven’t acted re: Robinson/Bock.
Obviously such a deal was done but no one on either side of the deal is going to speak of it. The confessions to the AFL Tribunal being ignored/excused is bizarre stuff. The answer we’d like as to whether this was known before Essendon took on Robinson (or even before Gold Coast did so) is unlikely to be answered, because/even though it’s the most likely reason such a deal was made.
Id hazard a guess and say of the million supporters we supposedly have around the country, that maybe 5% of those would have heard Tanners comments. Nobody fkg cares. Talk to your average Essendon persona and they probably wouldnt even know who Lindsay Tanner is, or what role he plays at the club.
And can you identify something that the AFL has done specifically to Essendon over the past 2 years that you, anyone, disagrees with?
Seriously its time to just get the ■■■■ over it all.
Spot on. I don’t think Blitz realizes sometimes how far from the ‘median Essendon supporter’ they are. We are a fanatical outlier on the graph of EFC support (and I gladly count myself as one too!)
Suspect you’re going to get lots of responses to this question, but how about releasing the steaming pile of horse ■■■■/8 page review that effectively exonerated itself of any serious wrongdoing in it’s handling of the saga. Here’s a few snippets of media at the time:
Outgoing AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said the AFL investigation had been tested and challenged by external courts, and the processes had withstood those challenges.
“The AFL acted within its rules, and with respect to our commitments to the WADA and ASADA framework,” Fitzpatrick said.
The AFL investigation has never been tested or challenged by an external court - not yet anyway. ASADA’s, yes, in the Federal Court Case, but the AFL wasn’t a party to that case.
Just wether joint investigation legal or not, nothing to do with their general conduct which was utterly disgraceful and nothing aligned with supposedly being a model litigant
Well, the AFL did look after some ex-EFC people like Gunston, Goodwin and Hamilton …
And, set up arrangements for top-ups to enable Essendon to field some sort of team ( nothing to do with broadcasting revenue)
Did not object to Tanner’s appointment and found a coach for the club.
Shipped Clothier off to the IAAF
Could have had a hand in the departure of Kerr, McKenna and Neeld.
Surely that can be balanced against stripping Jobe of his Brownlow.
And maybe Lindsay knows of other good works by the AFL to us.
[sarcastica font for all of the above]