Looks like dopey Mark McVeigh has dumped Essendon in it by forgetting he said one thing back in February and then changed his story on that Ch 7 panel after the Robinson interview..
Exactly who was in Essendon drugs meeting? by: Patrick Smith
From: The Australian
August 03, 2013 THERE is increasing confusion about which senior officials were present at a crucial meeting in January last year when the Essendon playing list was briefed on what drugs the footballers would be administered during the upcoming season.
The drug regime discussed at the meeting is the subject of the six-month investigation by ASADA after allegations the Essendon footballers were given substances banned under the WADA code.
The players were addressed by high-performance manager Dean Robinson and sport scientist Stephen Dank, that much is clear. Both men have since left the club. Dank was not re-employed at the end of the 2012 season and Robinson, stood down by the club on February 5 this season, resigned last Friday.
Essendon went to ASADA in February to ask the anti-doping agency to investigate its drug and supplements use after claims that some substances may have been in breach of WADA protocols. Former Essendon player Kyle Reimers, delisted at the end of 2012 but present at the pre-season meeting, said on Melbourne radio Triple M in February the players were told the program "was right on the borderline what they are giving us".
Reimers's version was quickly contradicted by Mark McVeigh, a veteran Essendon defender and good mate of coach James Hird, who said on SEN the next day there was nothing untoward about the meeting, the drugs used in the regime, and that Hird and club doctor Bruce Reid were present when consent forms were signed.
"I knew 100 per cent that it was within the WADA and the AFL doping regulations," McVeigh said at the time. "Players got (consent and confidentiality) forms in front of the doctors - Dr Bruce Reid who has been at the club for 30 years, coaches - and everyone knew that this had been ticked off. The doctor had told us it was fine, we trust (him) with everything, and James Hird, who we trust, we signed it, then that would give them consent (for us) to be able to have these tablets."
However, on a panel show that followed the Seven Network interview with Robinson last Wednesday, McVeigh - unprompted and emphatic - said that neither Hird nor Reid were present at this meeting in which the Essendon supplements regime was described to the players for the first time. He said he thought Reid might have been at his private practice away from the club. He said nothing about Hird's whereabouts.
To a simple inquiry by The Weekend Australian whether Hird and Reid were present at what has become one of the most significant meetings in the club's history, Essendon released a terse and guarded reply. "The club has provided and disclosed all relevant information regarding the 2012 season to ASADA and the AFL as part of their investigation. Until the findings are handed down, the club is not in a position to comment any further," a club spokesman said.
If Hird and Reid were not at the drug briefing then it would be easier for Essendon to paint Dank and Robinson as rogue operators. But if Reid and Hird were at the meeting - as McVeigh initially contended - then it puts the club coach and doctor right in the thick of the supplements program.
McVeigh also had a different version of how the meeting came to take place. In February he said: "When we were told we would be taking certain supplements, and having certain injections, the club and the players asked not that we would have a waiver form - let me stress it wasn't a waiver form - it was a consent form that the players asked for," he said. "Everything we would be taking, we were going on a different program to what we had been on before, we had never really gone into some of the supplements we were taking, so we asked for a consent form that WADA and the AFL doping code would make sure that it was ticked off and within the regulations," he said. But on Wednesday night he gave another version, denying Robinson's suggestion it was the high-performance manager who called the meeting to inform the players of the detail of the drug regime.
"That did not happen," McVeigh said on Wednesday. "Jobe Watson and myself actually spoke to James Hird about the program in early January (2012). The injections did not start until early February.
"Orally, there were tablets - vitamins, we were told - and they were put into our lockers. I was concerned about the level, it had gone up, we had never done it before, it was a new frontier. We went to James Hird saying we need a bit of clarification around what we are having, why we were having it and what it was doing in terms of our rehabilitation and vitamins and how it is making us better."
After meeting with the six-man leadership group, McVeigh said Hird agreed for a presentation to be done. Former premiership coach Leigh Matthews, who was also on the panel last Wednesday, challenged McVeigh that it was odd that Hird would not then be at such an important meeting arranged to explain the controversial program as well as calm player concerns about the drug program.
Matthews said: "I find it quite strange that the senior coach was not part of that briefing. He runs the football department, it's the sell, it's legal, it's OK and I support it. Steve and Dean, you explain it. I would have thought the senior coach was part of the sell."
The ASADA findings into Essendon's supplements and peptide program could be announced as early as this week.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/exactly-who-was-in-essendon-drugs-meeting/story-e6frg7uo-1226690468703
