From the 3AW web-site:
Essendon face AFL and Anti-Doping Authority investigationPosted by: Michael James, Ellen Feely & Darren Boyd | 5 February, 2013 - 3:19 PM
Essendon Football Club will undergo a joint probe by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and AFL into whether players have taken supplements containing banned substances under their training regime.
Essendon chairman David Evans told a press conference that information gathered over the past 48 hours had brought to light questionable supplements used by the playing group last year.
The club have notified the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the AFL, inviting them to investigate the matter as quickly as possible.
"It's something that we need to get experts involved and move towards a clean bill of health as quickly as we can," chief executive Ian Robson said.
Sports Today producer and former sports lawyer Darren Boyd told Tom Elliott the revelation of questionable substance use has not taken everybody by surprise.
There has been recent speculation the substance in question is Human Growth Hormone peptides, however the club strongly denied its players had been taking performance-enhancing substances.
"Gerard Healy and I...have been following the rumours that have been swirling in this space about this story for some months," Darren Boyd said.
"It often happens that supplements that players take...(or) any athletes take...often contain substances and you're not aware fully of what they are.
"It's possible that might be the situation here.
"If (they) are proven guilty, there is a real chance that the Essendon Football Club won't be able to compete in the AFL competition...for a period of time."
Darren Boyd said there was a strong suggestion that a trainer at the club had asked players to sign a form agreeing to take the supplements and removing any liability.
After attending the press conference, 3AW sports reporter Alexandra Factor said a cloud still surrounded the type of supplements players had been using.
"In terms of these supplements, which is what (Essendon) are calling them, we haven't been told as to whether they are vitamins and minerals or in fact drugs and something more serious," she told Tom Elliott.
"They don't believe they've done anything wrong."
In a statement to the media, club chairman David Evans said the investigation was 'very distressing' for the club.
"We believe as a club that we have done everything to be compliant with the rules and regulations of the AFL and ASADA," he said.
"But, the integrity of the club is critical...and that is why we have moved quickly today to call the AFL and ASADA to seek a clean bill of health."
Speaking with Tom Elliott, drugs in sport expert Associate Professor Geoff Sussman from Monash University said under ASADA rules, any individual players found to have taken banned substances would be sanctioned.
"As far as ASADA rules are concerned, it is the individual that you would have to look at," he said.
"There are some sanctions against coaches or trainers who are in fact supplying banned substances as well.
"A few years ago, there were tests done on a number of supplements and about 35 per cent of them were found to have banned substances in them."
3AW Football commentator Mike Sheahan told Tom Elliott the Bombers had a 'marked fall off in their performance' last year.
"They were up earlier probably than any other club in the competition in 2012 and their decline was dramatic," he said.
"I don't know if I'm reading too much into that or not, but it seems like they were taking a pretty powerful force earlier in the season and that they may have dropped that later.
"The levels of fitness and form of their footy club tapered off."
http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breaking-news-blog/essendon-face-afl-and-antidoping-authority-investigation/20130205-2dw15.html
