Sorry Saga - “It’s actually quite funny people thinking they know more than they actually do”

Yep and let’s not forget that Kelly (was) Jobe’s manager. :confused:

2 Likes

Some manager. he put him in front of the firing squad and personally pulled the trigger. If he’s such a good friend of Gil’s surely he could have argued that Jobe deserved to retain his medal at the very least.

6 Likes

‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave* . When first we practice to deceive’ !

Seems the whole shonky saga has been a game of smoke and mirrors .

4 Likes

if Jobe ever got his Brownlow back, I would pay good money to see the look on Mitchell’s face when his gets taken off him

2 Likes

Gil was also good friends with Tania Hird, that didn’t help her much.

2 Likes

They studied the same course I think. Not necessarily friends, more aquaintances I would think. She’s not from the land.

1 Like

Is there a separate article of leaked email exchanges between Kelly’s office and the AFL?

The AFL Commissioners and Club Directors stay silent when Gil gets a gift to his private property from AFL sources,when Gil intevenes in visas for his personal interests, when Gil gives Peter Gordon a legal retainer, when Gil gifts Craig Kelly AFL concessions, when GIl flogs shares in his brother’s company before the company goes belly up, when the AfL flogs the Footy Record to Hutchy without evidence of tender for sales …

21 Likes

Wondering now, after reading this about the EFC player’s counsel, if the players were naïve and perhaps were given inadequate or the wrong information by both the club and the AFLPA.

That’s a very good question, exactly who was Tony Hargreaves working for? The legal team for the players in hindsight were probably under resourced and inept. The players legal team were certainly not match for CAS and their “leqal eagles.” When looking at the incestuous connections, the leaks could hardly be plugged. Where was the right to privacy? There was no protection for our players and the staff who supported them.

6 Likes

It was NOT in hindsight. Some of us were saying at the time the players’ lawyers were inept and/or following t he instructions of the people paying them rather than the people they were paid to represent.

6 Likes

Aaaahh, WADA and Russia, a match made hell for both:

Swiss prosecutors are investigating whether Russian agents tried to hack the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Office of the Attorney General said on Saturday, broadening the scope of alleged espionage against institutions in Switzerland.

Criminal proceedings were launched in March 2017 on suspicion of political espionage, the OAG said in a statement.

“As part of these proceedings the OAG, in cooperation with the Federal Intelligence Service, was able to identify two individuals,” it said.

“The aforementioned criminal proceedings …refer to criminal proceedings being conducted by the OAG due to a cyber-attack against the World Anti-Doping Agency,” it added.

The OAG said the individuals concerned were the same pair identified by the Swiss intelligence service which on Friday said it had foiled a Russian plot targeting a Swiss laboratory used to test nerve agents such as Novichok.

The OAG said it would give no further information on the case, which it has not revealed until now.

Swiss media on Saturday said the WADA offices and International Olympic Committee in Lausanne had both been targeted.

Both organisations in recent years have been investigating widespread doping of Russian athletes, which has led to dozens of competitors being banned and the country being barred from international events.

The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported that Russian agents travelled to a meeting of the IOC, while the Russian military intelligence agency was suspected of carrying out the hacking attack on WADA.

The Russian Embassy in Bern on Saturday described the reports on the alleged WADA hacking as fairy tales, and an attempt to derail the reinstatement of Russia’s own anti-doping authority.

“It is noteworthy that these publications, which include adjectives like ‘suspected’ and ‘presumably’ has appeared immediately after the World Anti-Doping Agency Compliance Review Committee issued a recommendation to lift the suspension of the Russian Anti Doping agency,” the embassy said in a statement.

“It is hard to avoid the impression that’s why the latest the latest fairy tales about Russian hackers attacking WADA were so necessary right now.”

On Friday, WADA’s independent Compliance Review Committee recommended the reinstatement of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) when WADA’s executive committee meets next on Sept. 20.

Both WADA and the IOC were unavailable for immediate comment on Saturday.

On Friday a Swiss and a Dutch newspaper reported that authorities from Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland had teamed up in an operation which resulted in the Netherlands expelling two suspected Russian spies in March.

Citing unnamed sources, the Tages-Anzeiger and NRC Handelsblad reported that the suspected agents were heading for the Spiez laboratory near Bern which analyses chemical and biological weapons, including nerve agent Novichok.

Britain says Moscow used Novichok to try to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury in early March and last week charged two Russian men in absentia with attempted murder.

3 Likes

My take on it is that in February 2013, Evans & Demetriou did a deal with Andruska to get the players off and offered Hird , Thompson, Corcoran and Reid as the scapegoats. But the real purpose of the deal was not to protect the players but Evans & Demetriou (and the AFL).

So that when the Coalition was elected, McDevitt appointed as ASADA CEO and the deal fell apart, Hargreaves task was to protect the AFL. If his job had have been to serve the players he would have seriously challenged the sham of the WADA/CAS ‘legal system’ that Demetriou had signed all AFL players up to. Also he would have made much of the AFL’s negligence in regard to player welfare. But as we know he did neither. He basically accepted the WADA/CAS rules and allowed the players to be done over.

16 Likes

And of course, future assurances of further work forthcoming.

1 Like

I think you maybe right we were called tin foil hatters for suggesting this years ago but it would seem it is the only logical conclusion now!! I always wondered who the legal team was really working for as they used none of the arguments or even looked at other scenarios that people brought up at the time …truly sold down the river no wonder so many of them were cheesed off

1 Like

I feel sorry for the players because they play for Essendon. Not so much AFL players in hole. It seems to me in regards to the AFLPA they only really look at the $ amounts and chose to ignore the constant conflicts of interest. For example.
witnessing that leech from AFLPA going on a junket with Vlad, proceed to come out strongly telling the players to take a deal, then get a cushy job at Stkilda. How leading players in the comp didn’t call an end to the farce there and then I wouldn’t know. I’m guessing their just waiting for their turn to eat from the troth.
Am I being to harsh?

3 Likes

After WADA chiefs doctor a compromise to re-instate Russia, the athlete representative on the WADA compliance committee resigns. WADA gets to vote on Russia re-instatenent on 20 September. Which way will Australia’s representative - Bridget McKenzie or her delegate - vote? Will she take counsel from Howman, who played a role in Russia’s substantial voluntary contribution back in 2013.?

3 Likes

He who pays the piper calls the tune. While the players accepted anything from the AFLPA especially legal counsel they were never ever going to have their interest put 1st. I still cannot understand how any lawyer still licensed to practice in this country could have allowed the players to even face the CAS under the circumstances they did. The contracts every player signed did not have provision for a de novo appeal by WADA to the CAS, this was only added to the WADA code for 2015 after the infraction notices were issued & after the case against the 34 had begun. You can’t simply alter the conditions of a contract & move the goalpost like that especially when some of the players had already left the AFL system therefore their contracts had been completed. The process that the players were subject to as a condition of their contracts was supposed to be the Tribunal they were cleared by with the option of an appeal to the tribunal from either party. Then & only then the appeal options were to the CAS but only on a point of law (like our narrow options to the Swiss court of corrupt former Nazi kents). This very clear breach of contract & abrogation of the players common law & employment law rights should have at the very least been taken before an Australian court.

I have long believed the players were very poorly informed & represented through the whole process. “Keep quite & we will get you cleared” was obviously the early message & the players never seemed to come close to gaining ownership of their own fate.

25 Likes

The players’ lawyers never wanted, much less tried, to step outside the WADA/CAS confines.

They accepted that TB4 was banned, they allowed ASADA to by pass an Australian appeal, they accepted a de novo trial before CAS and all in all abandoned the Australian legal rules of evidence.

It would be hard to argue the interests of the players were their primary concern.

14 Likes

… or of ANY concern.

2 Likes

Didn’t the barrister for 32 protest at the CAS rules applied and got told they would run the hearing without the players? A bit like Little complaining and being told EFC could lose their licence- it might not happen but it would make you think again.

1 Like