I used to work with a guy who was chairman of RVL till he was edged out after he tried to get one of his own horses into the Cup.
One of the most unethical blokes you’d ever meet. No sheila was ever safe from him, regardless of whether she said no a thousand times. Consensual, mind you, but a complete sleaze.
This was quite recent.
AFL Anti Doping Tribunal comments for your reading enjoyment:
“Many of the reasons provided by the ASADA CEO were contentious and lacked any proper evidentiary basis”
Danny Corcoran comments for your reading enjoyment:
“He told me that (league supremos) Gillon McLachlan and Andrew Dillon told him ‘James, you haven’t done much wrong, but we need to put a face to this as it is all about the optics’.”
Previous CEO ASADA Andruska’s notes made during a meeting with AFL CEO McLaughlin on 26 June 2013 for your reading enjoyment:
Take points off Essendon
We need all the detail to get through that
Problematic if not full report
Get outcome we need
Take bits out that might compromise what we need
Why cant our guys do the same???
Our guys couldn’t go to VCAT because they agreed to arbitration by CAS when they signed their AFL contract, even though the rules changed after they signed their contracts and I expect not one of them would have known what they were signing away.
WADA and CAS don’t want to be within cooee of a real court where it is expected that decisions are made on such things as evidence and if not then there is a proper appeal process.
…international focus at the moment.
Get onboard.
If you post it, ‘likes’ will come.
Danielle Roche is taking on John Coates for Prsident of the AOC. Early May vote.
Popcorn required…
She is emphasising Coates $700K salary being in contrast to it being originally a voluntary position. She points out how athletes struggle for funding and is offering to do the job for free so more athletes can get funded.
Showing up the gravy train, I like it.
My take is Danielle Roach is testing the waters for a more credentialed candidate at a later date - Doubt campaigning on Coates 700K stipend will do her any favors with the delegates.
Oh dear. Articles galore in HS on WC’s rampant drug culture and cover up be AFL and WC officials.
(6 page special on front/back of actual paper)
A distraction Woosha doesn’t need as he is certain to be copping a barrage from media on what’s been said.
KB calling for Eagles to be stripped of their flag and Cousins Brownlow handed back! SEN will be going ballistic today.
West Coast bombshell demands so many answersHerald Sun
March 21, 2017 2:00amA PREMIERSHIP should not be the only measure of success for a football club.
Even in the hyper-competitive world of professional Aussie rules, the AFL’s 18 clubs must also be judged on their performance as guardians of young men — and now women — talented enough to join their ranks.
Middle-aged coaches and club officials have a moral obligation to give players — even the immature and reckless ones — the best chance of growing into well-adjusted adults. Sometimes this requires a firm hand and discipline. Certainly, it can require putting player welfare ahead of onfield performance.
And the AFL, as the custodian of our great national game, has an overarching responsibility to ensure the clubs nurture their youngsters by following the rules and having the right culture on and off the field.
Today, the Herald Sun lays bare what happens at a club when those in charge fail this test. We have obtained the top-secret AFL report into the drugs crisis that shattered the West Coast Eagles in 2007.
It was written by former Victorian Supreme Court judge William Gillard, QC, the eminent legal figure appointed by the AFL as its special investigator.
It makes for confronting reading. It amounts to a devastating indictment of Eagles officials.
Counter to the public interest, the Gillard report has been kept secret by the AFL for nine years.
While the report was handed to the AFL and the Eagles in February 2008, its findings cannot be dismissed as simply a history lesson.
Because the consequences of the corrupted culture at the Eagles spanning more than six years until 2007 are more relevant than ever as the young men involved — albeit some of them arrogant troublemakers — can now be seen rotting in jail, battling drug addiction, financially ruined and pretty much broken. Among them are Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr and Daniel Chick.
Read the Gillard report — albeit written some years before these young men truly hit rock bottom — and it’s clear there is a direct line between the culture of the Eagles that not only enabled their rampant drug abuse but covered it up, and the destroyed lives of the former stars who perhaps would be in a healthier place today with some tough love.
All of these young lives were betrayed by the club that should have protected them from themselves; all in pursuit of a flag.
On page 43 of his report, Gillard states: “The culture could be described as the view held by players and the club, that if they were successful on the field, what they did outside the club was of little consequence … and if trouble resulted, the club would take steps to minimise the gravity of the misconduct and impose a fairly lenient sanction, especially if the player concerned was one of the better players.”
On page 59, Gillard states: “The club had sat on its hands for a period in the order of three years and probably longer where it did not take adequate steps to deal with a burgeoning drug problem.”
On page 60, Gillard states: “In my opinion, the evidence demonstrates that the club’s approach to discipline during the period 2001 to 2007 failed to instil a sense of responsible behaviour, and led to a culture which played a significant part in the scheduled conduct and illicit drug-taking. The club chose to ignore rumours and evidence of drug-taking which can be traced back to 2001.”
None of this is to say that Cousins and Kerr and others do not share some culpability for the decisions they made as young men.
But Gillard says: “The club, despite indications as far back as mid-2004 and probably earlier, failed to address a burgeoning drug problem.”
By failing to act, the West Coast Eagles betrayed the club’s young stars in the ruthless pursuit of on-field glory which ultimately came with a one-point victory over Sydney to claim the 2006 premiership.
And all of this happened on the watch of two significant football leaders: Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett and coach John Worsfold.
While the former players, in particular Cousins, are ruined, Worsfold and Nisbett have continued as leaders in the AFL; Worsfold now as coach of Essendon and Nisbett remaining at the helm of the Eagles.
Most damaging for the new Essendon coach, the Gillard report finds that he was warned of an illicit drug problem in 2002, but it was not until the Eagles were knocked out of the finals in 2007 that he really took a stand in front of the playing group. And by then it was too late.
Almost 10 years after it ended in tears, Worsfold must today confront some serious questions. It’s clear he didn’t do enough.
Similarly, Nisbett needs to take some responsibility for a catalogue of serious failings over several years.
The current board of the Eagles will surely have some tough questions for him.
As for the AFL, it stands condemned for not releasing this report in February 2008.
Both chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and CEO Andrew Demetriou — who have both now moved on — had an obligation to make it public. It’s clear from correspondence from Demetriou that the AFL was paranoid about it being leaked. Well, it’s taken nine years, but now it has been leaked. And that’s a healthy thing.
The Gillard report flagged that there were major problems with the drug-testing regime and called for the formation of a truly independent body to deal with player misbehaviour. The AFL failed to act, only tightening drug testing recently.
And what of the Eagles’ 2006 premiership?
While Gillard does not conclude Eagles stars played during the season or finals while high on illicit drugs, it’s difficult to believe — given the weight of the evidence — that they weren’t.
Did this improve their performance?
This is no doubt a question many fans concerned about the integrity of footy’s greatest prize will be asking today
The full Gillard report here—>
http://www.media.heraldsun.com.au/PDF/x21032017/x897908jkfhdgjhfdughfdughlpkjmain_report.pdf
Top-secret Eagles report urged AFL to establish independent body to probe misconductMichael Warner, Herald Sun
March 21, 2017 2:00amTHE AFL was strongly urged to establish an independent body to deal with serious off-field misconduct as a result of the Eagles drugs scandal.
But nine years on, the AFL Commission, supported by the league’s integrity unit, remains the game’s ultimate disciplinary authority.
The AFL has faced criticism over its handling of several major investigations — including the Essendon supplements saga, Melbourne tanking affair and Talia brothers leaking probe — since former judge William Gillard completed his secret report in February 2008.
“I think there is much merit in having a separate body, independent of the AFL Commission and the clubs, to deal with serious misconduct,” Gillard concludes in his report.
“It should be chaired by a person who has substantial experience in trial litigation, assisted by a former player and a former administrator.
“There have been a number of criticisms concerning the way clubs, not only the West Coast Eagles … have dealt with player misconduct in the past,” Gillard writes.
“The first criticism is that players are dealt with differently, depending upon how long the player has been at the club, his ability and the importance of the player to the success of the team.
“It is noted that a more valuable player is usually dealt with more leniently than a less valuable player.
“Putting it bluntly, players at the top enjoy leniency and those at the bottom are given their marching orders.
“The second criticism is that one club may deal with a particular set of misconduct with a certain penalty, and another club will deal with the same form of misconduct differently and with a lesser penalty. This breeds resentment.
“Thirdly, there is always a temptation in every club to cover up, to distort what happened and to put a version to the public which seeks to minimise the gravity of the conduct. Those criticisms are regularly aired and provide good reasons for a change.”
Gillard also calls for a tightening of the AFL’s contentious three-strikes illicit drugs code and heavier fines and suspensions for those caught.
“There are strong and powerful arguments that testing should be 365 days per year and the secrecy of positive readings reduced to the second reading,” Gillard says.
The AFL moved to a two-strikes system last year, but summer hair tests still do not count as strikes. Upon receiving the top-secret report from the retired judge, then AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said the league would consider his recommendations: “We thought the report was thorough and tough.”
But the AFL determined in March 2008 not to release the explosive 87-page report and enforced extraordinary conditions to keep it secret.
Ben Cousins fronts the media after being recruited by Richmond in 2008.
Documents obtained by the Herald Sun suggest that the AFL gave only one copy of the report to the club, and demanded the names of all Eagles directors and legal advisers given access to it.Gillard was appointed as a special investigator in November 2007 — a month after the Eagles sacked star midfielder Ben Cousins.
He completed his probe three months later, having interviewed 47 people.
The extent of the Eagles’ drugs crisis was kept secret from the footy world, including Richmond, which recruited Cousins at the end of 2008.
Imagine there was an independant tribunal established as a result of this WC issue well before the EFC saga occurred.
The players and Hird would not been denied natural justice by the AFL as they have been.
More ammunition now for a government enquiry into the way ASADA & AFL conduct themselves. Should be a royal commission.
10 years is long enough for them to be “independent” in name only. The AFL would have assimilated them by now.
Oh look, another afl season, another essendon coach hounded in the media over drugs.
On a side note - what’s the statute of limitations for these type of offenses? Assume it is 10 years hence why it is coming out now?
I haven’t read the report, but skimmed through it. Noticed that on page 84-85 a player’s name is blanked out (not in the original, but in the PDF).
I wonder who they are protecting, and why?
Oh seriously, unless they take coke on matchday (as it can be a PED), who the fark cares about illicit drugs!? Such bullshit.
