Governance failures were not the cause of the anti-doping sanctions but were exploited for that purpose. Apart from the governance issues, the club’s handling of the doping connected issues - and subservience to the AFL - contributed to the outcomes for the 34+3.
Crameri is the only one still playing who has talked of the impact.
I would not expect anyone still playing with Essendon to dump on the club or for that matter the AFL.
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What if Evans was in on the fix as early as July 2012?
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Sorry that is the most tin foil of comments I have read here. What was there to fix in July 2012? Vlad was happy sweeping an potential issue under the rug until the ACC implicated the AFL.
Are you arguing that the club’s “governance”, or in plainer terms, “lack of reasonable care and professionalism” in relation to the running of the supplements program or the management of its staff, shouldn’t be a reason for Jobe feeling let down by the club?
I’m agreeing that this was exploited and distorted out of all proportion by the other key parties and further mismanaged by the EFC administration, but that was still after the event of the reality that shouldn’t have been so mismanaged.
If you are going to run a supplements program that is intentionally skating on thin ice at the very forefront of what is legal / permitted and not legal / permitted, then you would want to make sure that the safeguards that Hird specified were properly supervised and enforced.
Despite the fact that it is questionable if anything illegal occurred, Jobe has every right to feel disappointed that drugs were administered without proper double checked and signed medical records of administration. Instead we know they were administered by people who weren’t even qualified to give an injection (at least in many cases where Dank injected them himself).
If the drugs were properly securely stored with proper records that would exist in a medical clinic and administered, checked and recorded according to normal medical and nursing procedures, then it is doubtful there ever would have been a problem, provided all the substances were not prohibited.
I believe that the attempt to put Doc Reid in charge of the process was intended to bring this about, but it is not what happened and that is why Jim and Bomba knew Robinson should have been sacked and Dank gone at least by mid 2012. The point being EFC knew something was wrong before anyone had to tell them from outside.
Again I agree this was turned into a hangable offence for the innocent, and that was the more heinous crime, but it is not where the problem started, and victimisation by ASADA and WADA was always a possibility if you are identified as trying to outsmart them, and we definitely weren’t smart enough.
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I have not taken issue with what Jobe said.
Just to note on who was qualified to give injections, the AFL did not bring in the no needles policy ( requiring doctor authorisation) until after the event.
The club did in fact bring in the rule at some stage in 2012 that injections must go through the medical staff. Robinson and Dank knew, but ignored it and the players were not told of the new rule.
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We are in agreement except I was indicating that at no point should it have been reasonable for a non medical/nursing person to be administering injections.
There is a difference between rules and qualifications.
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I reckon it wasn’t the governance that was appalling.
The governance was standard.
It’s the standard that was appalling.
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One of the surprising things to me that came out of the saga was the role and main purpose of ASADA and WADA. I always assumed anti-doping was designed to catch the dopers and ensure sport was a level playing field. But the reality is they cannot get close to doing this. They don’t have the technology, expertise, funding or support from within sport which would be needed to identify the cheats, and they have admitted this.
So they play their part by catching a small % of cheats, sometimes prosecuting the innocent given limitations in their method, and hoping this acts as a deterrent. ASADA went to the AFL ADT hearing with a case constructed around 5 hurdles to jump over (starting with the supplier through to the player) and failed spectacularly as the evidence was weak. At least this outcome was fair, even though McDeviat operated across the full spectrum of unethical behaviour- lying, bullying, negligent levels of misunderstanding, persecution etc.
WADA’s case was corrupt in its misuse and misrepresentation of information, and they succeeded given that CAS has a similar view of the anti-doping world ie they can only prosecute a small number of cases so they need to make sure the results more often than not support their primary reason for being; that is they don’t always adjudicate based on the evidence of the individual case before them.
From their point of view you can see the temptation of creating a precedent where an entire team is rubbed out with no positive analytical tests. It sends a message to the sporting world that we can get you even without evidence.
McDeviat, Young (I assume he developed the cable strands strategy), Belloff & the CAS panel, as well as the AFL and the media, would see themselves as heroes fighting the anti-doping cause with insufficient resources, and in reality within a broken system. Whenever governments and their agencies, corporate and media organisations violate human rights, as they did here to the E34+3, they use this argument of the greater good as their justification, but the real reason for their actions is self-interest or their own bitterness and insecurity which they project onto others.
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The whole experience was a very sorry SAGA.
Here we are, years after the event, starting to hear from fine people such as Jobe and Hirdy (and Bomber + Crammer’s) the true human impact. Just scratched the surface on this topic.
The SAGA keeps coming back, its an endless loop.
Shame on the AFL and the folks at EFC who were trusted to do their jobs and do the right thing.
I hope one day the truth comes out and some peace can be found for the E34+3.
I hope justice finds the people it needs to.
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What is the right thing? It was certainly right for the AFL, ASADA and their cronies and the turn coats. May karma warm your cockles nightly.
It has turned out to be an endless loop or a roundabout of negativity and sadness for the players and their friends, family, the staff and the supporters of this once mighty club. One thing is for sure the remnants of this saga will not wash away.
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The global anti-doping system is constructed to chase down cheats. But when people who did not cheat come out with their suffering arising from that system the system is not working.
When anti- doping agencies funded by governments suspend a 14 year old for borrowing a drink from a fellow competitor that contains a WADA banned substance; when a fifty something amateur bike rider gets pinged for a supplement.
These people are not sports cheats.
The IOC has a stranglehold on the global system,from the rules through to sanctions and adjudication. The IOCclaims to be independently financed , but governments fund its activities, including the facilities for the major events. The same goes for the likes of the IAAF.
Governments fund 50% of WADA but voting rights are limited. Further, governments spend mega bucks on their anti-doping agencies which act as the servants of WADA.
Governments have accorded legitimacy to that system through the UNESCO treaty, but are bystanders . The majority of sports competitors have nothing to do with the Olympics. Yet they have no say in a system constructed on the basis of their obligations…
The Olympics lurches from corruption scandal to scandal, supported by governments.
Back in Australia, Tracey Holmes is one of the few to address these issues. Our government appoints someone from inside the global system to review sports integrity here.
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I would imagine there are things he isn’t allowed to talk about if he signed some sort of gag clause with the afl re compensation …which is why he seems to skirt around things he may believe some of the narrative because I doubt anybody but those who have since left the club know exactly what happened …most of us have just pieced it altogether from the information available, I’d say the players didn’t delve too deep as they were in it & just reacting to all the external pressures
Technically, all sports were implicated. It was only the AFL & the NRL that took the bait to go public. We will never know if the others were investigated because that is how the system is supposed to work.
All we do know is that no other sport had anyone suspended. So maybe if the NRL & AFL had just shut the hell up & didn’t try to manipulate the aftermath of the “blackest day in sport” fiasco , we wouldn’t have had the last few years of turmoil.
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ASADA with its emphasis on intelligence, now has a phone hacking device. In regard to assistance to athletes, it now has a program advising on supplements. The clubs are probably ahead with testing of supplements. The AIS has guidelines for elite athletes. But what amateur and semi- orifessional athletes have the capacity to work their way through that system? It is the likes of Canberra junior base ballers who get caught and lose their capacity to play or belong in their sport family. To what purpose?
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NADO’s expertise is in busting weekend warriors those amateur athletes who may win $200 in a crit. This should never be the purvey of WADA.
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Or maybe if they left EFC alone it would be far far darker day for the AFL, as ASADA zoomed in on the real cheats and the real acts of Governance incompetence.
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not sure if serious.
The way it is set up sounds a lot like the AFL, the VFL and the country footy leagues.
Its remarkable how similar they are in numerous ways. Everybody else pays.
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From the 4 major banks to the Government of the day to the Justice System to the AFL, its remarkable how similar these organisations all are.
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Governments are propping up these corrupt systems and the corrupt people who feather their nests through those systems.
The government should be held accountable for its role in that corruption.
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