Yes.
Lots.
3 Likes
AFL internal review into Essendon investigation leaves biggest questions unanswered, says Mark RobinsonMARK ROBINSON, Herald Sun
30 minutes agoKNOCK us all down with a feather.
The AFL’s internal review — written by a bunch of highly-paid AFL executives — has given the AFL a huge tick in its handling of the Essendon investigation.
It sounds like the report was treated like the office birthday card — say something nice and pass it on, thanks champ.
The AFL on Tuesday couldn’t even tell us the names of the number of authors of the report, but want us to fully accept its findings.
We take it Andrew Dillon was involved. And Gillon McLachlan. And Travis Auld. And probably the tea lady, the intern and the after-hours cleaner.
We’re being smart arses because how else can we react?
Because what’s the odds of tabling a fair and transparent assessment of the AFL’s conduct into the biggest scandal in football history when it’s the same people writing the report who were involved in the investigation?
As one club official said: “They won their own intraclub match.’’
The AFL must think regular footy folk are stupid and mindless.
At least in the Eagles investigation into infamous drug-taking decade, and revealed recently in the Herald Sun, the AFL hired a retired Supreme Court justice to do its investigation.
That the AFL didn’t any action against Eagles officials is another story, but there was a level independence to it
Not a lot, if any, independence in this latest offering.
It was flimsy as well.
The investigation was launched more than 1200 days ago and club chief executives and presidents received a copy of the eight-page summary at 6.30pm on Monday night.
A copy must have been sent to its favourite news organisation as well, for The Australian got the leak and wrote a piece which lacked any real critical analysis.
Anyway, there was eight pages all-up. At the height of this saga, the Herald Sun would run eight pages daily about the conduct of both Essendon and the AFL.
The report itself is big-picture stuff, the most important item being the CEO overseeing future investigations must be part of the decisions of the commission and that no commission member can be part of deal-making.
Surely that’s a subtle admission — or a gross omission — from the AFL that the role of Andrew Demetriou was compromised because he was both prosecutor and executioner, while also running a PR campaign against James Hird and Essendon.
It’s also an subtle admission _ or a gross omission _ that commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick’s drafting in of good mate and Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie to help strike a deal with then Essendon chairman Paul Little was wrong.
The summary doesn’t mention:
THE events surrounding ASADA’s interim report which could not be used by the AFL to help lay governance charges.
THE inducements offered to Hird, such as a study trip to Europe and Hird being paid while suspended.
ACCUSATIONS levelled at the AFL about the AFL wanting to “take bits out’’ of the interim report “that might compromise what we need’’.
The findings clearly do not address the intricacies of the AFL’s conduct.
Arguably, it’s a wishy-washy whitewash.
You wonder if former Essendon chairman David Evans — who was in the Bombers rooms post-match on Saturday night — was interviewed for the review.
He was talking and working with Demetriou from the outset, although Evans was adamant that Demetriou didn’t tip him off that Essendon was the club at the centre of doping claims.
History will tell us Evans self-reported, as acknowledged by the AFL in its summary.
“I am confident that when the history of doping in sport in Australia is written, our competition can say that the Essendon Football Club stood up and reported voluntarily, and the AFL acted swiftly to protect the integrity of the game and the health and welfare of the players,’’ Fitzpatrick wrote.
Now that Evans is back at the club in an unofficial capacity, and his health has seemingly improved, it’s time for Evans tell all Essendon supporters what really happened in those early days.
He has never spoken publicly about it, which adds to the mystique and propaganda surrounding this entire saga.
Here’s the first question:
What really happened in the days leading up to and on the Night of Crisis, February 4, 2013, when you took a late-night phone call from Demetriou?
You self-reported the next day, apparently of your own doing, starting a four-year circus.
The fans have a right to know.
100% on the money Robbo.
How bad does it look for the AFL to have had such a comprehensive review done by a retired judge on the West Coast debacle and now on the biggest scandal the game has ever seen they put together or at least only publically release a pathetic piece that reviews next to nothing.
The only way this ever gets scrutinized properly is via a royal commission. Somehow someday those kents have to be exposed for what they did in a forum that would see their reputations shredded and them penalised accordingly.
46 Likes
The PDF document does not constitute the review as such, but as described in Fitzpatrick’s covering letter, it is " … a final summary of the actions and learnings from the issue …"
From that wording, it may be that the clubs were consulted in drawing up the conclusions.
I read some of the summarised actions as implicit recognition that the processes followed were suss ; for example:
Ongoing discussions with ASADA and WADA on the challenges of investigation based doping offences and the application of ASADA processes to a team based sport within a regular season ;
Greater delineatiin of the powers of the General Counsel ( in some cases more or less exclusive) and the CEO, with less scope for meddling and media leaking by Commisioners and AFL officials ;
Statements to the effect that the Commision is bound by the principles of natural justice and recognition of the exercise of rights through the Courts.
While some may read the last piece as weasel words, in any future cases, the AFL could well be bound to deliver on those words according to Australian legal principles… That could raise further questions in the event that CAS does not deliver on those principles, seeing as how it is the AFL Code which delivers the players to CAS. it would also apply to charges of bringing the game into disrepute
Just some possible positives to set against the self-congratulatory rubbish.
2 Likes
All I got from that summary (that left out the bits we wanted) was that they admit to governance failures.
10 Likes
What I got from that article was that Robbo can write cogently. Or did he have a ghost writer?
Whoever would have thunk it?
5 Likes
He left a word out.
May even have been the word ‘left.’
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if Hird was the ghost writer for Robbo in that article.
14 Likes
Yeah, … we should really close this thread down ,… & we certainly shouldn’t be curious about or down on Evans, and should leave him in peace with his secrets, lack of transparency, and reluctance to address any of the issues surrounding his actions, … right??
Riiiiggghhht. Be fcked we should.
Nice article Robbo.
27 Likes
Was thinking that too.
2 Likes
I don’t care what some choose to think about Evans. I hold him the person most responsible for the damage to the club. I blame him 110% for letting the investigation be compromised by the AFL. I blame him 110% for not defending the club, its players & its staff & instead allowing the club to be laid bare for the AFL to rape at will. It was his responsibility to guide the club & he, no matter which way you choose to look at it, royally farked it up then walked away leaving a steaming pile of shyte. If some want to forgive him, in spite of the fact he’s never even explained let alone apologised for his actions, then good luck to them.
29 Likes
Evans was James Hird’s mentor also. And look how he betrayed him. With friends like him who needs enemies.
16 Likes
Aha…
9 Likes
Exactly my sentiments. Heppell may well find Evans a useful mentor. But he he should be careful because if Evans feels threatened he will turn on the person he is mentoring, just like he did to Hird.
Evans needs to come clean, tell the truth and not skulk in the corner of the change rooms seeking affirmation.
12 Likes
Evans is on the board of Seven West Media, and just look at what those slime balls are up to atm.
2 Likes
Evans being a mentor to Heppell is a very interesting concept. In what precisely would Evans be able to mentor Heppell?
It can’t be football, ethics, leadership, or responsibility. I am stumped as to what he can offer. Golf perhaps, but then again surely BJ would be a better mentor for that?
9 Likes
Eight. Pages. LOL.
Are there pictures to colour in too?
For the biggest issue ever to hit the competition, to release a report of 8 pages, with no one game to put their name on it, is just a joke.
Exactly what was expected.
Not even a full tin of whitewash here.
8 Likes
The AFL and the general football public chose James Hird as the main bad guy.
Blitz chose David Evans.
Personally, I’ve always been more a Stephen Dank man myself.
11 Likes
I didn’t whitewash anything
2 Likes
Being an ex cop, with or without inside knowledge, pretty much means having an attitude of guilty until proven innocent.
My father and brother were cops, both very decent people, but it comes with the territory, you make quick judgments based on limited information and then you act on it with total conviction that you are right and everyone else can go to hell.
There is a reason why cops don’t get to convict people in real legal systems. It relates to the attitude of those who perceive they have absolute authority over others, as evidenced back in the 70’s with the LA prison guard experiment.
8 Likes
Mentoring him in how to invest his money?
2 Likes