My understanding was that the club didnt ask for the forms, the senior players wanted assurances that the club and the club doctor were accountable to ASADA's regulations especially considering this program was cutting edge, so they asked for the new supplement program to be compliant and they wanted it in writing and by signing it the players were agreeing to the program on the basis that what they were given was compliant under the regulations.
If this is true then the players are bigger "dills" than I thought. If they wanted in writing assurances that everything was compliant and then not one of them bothered to investigate the compliance levels themselves they are complete morons.
They were clearly concerned, clearly, so why didn't someone, anyone go off to the ASADA or WADA website themselves and bloody well check? Rather than saying to the Club you check and put it in writing and will sign off on it. It isn't hard to research these things yourself.
If the club and the doctor have supposedly done all the checks then you would think you'd be safe.
Essendon have 2 doctors BTW but more on that later.
But as I said above if you have concerns then invesitgate it yourself. They had concerns and what did these "dills' do? They just said "tell us it's compliant and that'll do us". Please give me a break
Secondly as Mcveigh has already explained that the supplements issued were all listed so there wasn't any secret to any of them in what they were taking.
That's certainly not what he said Ch7 a couple of weeks back. He said he found out in his interview that he'd been given things that he didn't know about. So which is it? Sadly, when it comes to McVeigh and his comments on this I don't listen as he blames eveyone else (the rogue element) but himself and the Club
If you can't trust your employer or the club doctor who can you trust?
As a professional sportsmen and knowing the penalities regarding taking drugs in your chosen professional I would think you trust yourself first and others 2nd. And lets not kid ourselves using your scenario they didn't trust their Club or the wouldn't have asked for the assurances
I'm not sure a player manager would have as much insight as a club doctor either.
I never said the player manager would know more than a doctor. But a player manager would have the answers to the question I raised about these forms. Not only that it is a plater manager's role is to look out for the best interest of his client, informing him means he has a duty of care to look into these matters on his clients behalf
What I found interesting from Jobe's interview last night was that he clearly mentioned both the club and the club doctor had given the assurances that the program was safe and compliant under the current rules at the time.
What's even more interesting is the deafening silence of the club doctor in all this.
The letter of concerns he supposedly wrote nobody can find. Why didn't he email it to some people?
The media haven't mentioned him at all as accountable other than stating how esteemed he is in the industry.
The club stuffed up big time and should be seriously punished by the AFL.
The club doctor was inept if this was allowed under his supervision. He should never be allowed near a sporting club again.
Just to pull you up here.
Essendon has 2 doctors. One is a their long standing one Dr Reid. He is the one who wrote the letter and it was indeed emailed to people, Evans their chairman has confirmed this. 2 people who it was emailed to are no longer at the Club, Suggest you ask them what happened to the letter and why they didn't infomr the board.
Secondly, it was Dr Reid who went to the EFC board over this and raised his concerns about what Danks was doing.
It has also been reported that a number of the injections happened off site without a doctor being present, which in itself is a serious breach of WADA/ASADA rules. Players have confirmed this and said Club doctors were not present
So I am not sure how you can whack a doctor for something he didn't know about. When he found out he did something about it
Want to go about whacking people whack the golden child Coach who gave Danks unlimited freedom despite the concerns of the chief medico (again reported and not denied by anyone within the EFC)
I don't think it's that easy to blame the players in all this as I think in hindsight its easy to say what you would do but at the time trust plays a big part in it all.
How many current players ask their club doctor what they're injecting each time they are injected? Or do they ring their managers first to get permission so the doctor can do his job?
Re your final comment, I never said anything about getting a players managers permission to partake in the program. What I suggested is if as a player or a parent of a player you had any concerns then you could contact the manager and find out of this sort of program was the norm in the industry. Massive difference
We are not talking to about getting jab for pain, we are not talking about getting a legal tablet to treat a cold or headache. We are talking about a program that was "cutting edge" and involved doing things that are not stock standard in the industry (eg going off site for injections without a doctor present). You have a right to ask questions. You should be asking questions. You fail to do that then you have to face the consequences of your actions or more to the point your stupidity
The players must take responsibility here rather than saying I did nothing wrong. Because on the surface they did do something wrong.
