Essendon drugs probe: AFLPA's fury at Bombers Caroline Wilson
The Age
August 9, 2013 The AFL Players Association on Thursday left Essendon's senior list in no doubt as to their grave disappointment in senior football staffers it believes failed its players.
While union chief Matt Finnis stopped short of threatening separate legal action at this stage against the club, he added "he had not closed the door" on that option.
Those staffers are understood to include football operations boss Danny Corcoran and coach James Hird, although the AFLPA was careful not to name names at Thursday's address to the players.
Fairfax Media has learnt that several Bombers players were left sobered by the meeting at the club with Finnis and his legal team.
The players' union's lawyer Brett Murphy and long-time legal adviser Bernie Shinners pointed out to the Essendon senior list that key senior personnel who helped oversee the "invidious" injecting regime had not all left the club.
It also emerged on Thursday that the AFL and ASADA were continuing to delve into the varying versions of events given in evidence by former high-performance boss Dean Robinson compared with those given by Hird and Corcoran.
AFL investigator Abraham Haddad, along with ASADA officials, on Thursday spent more than four hours with Robinson seeking context to some of the thousands of text messages he provided in evidence. It is not known whether Hird has agreed to provide all his telephone records dating back to late 2011, when Robinson and Stephen Dank joined the club.
Both ASADA and the AFL are still attempting to get to the truth of Robinson's claim that Hird spoke to him from overseas about a meeting with a New York doctor and a testosterone cream he recommended. Hird's evidence is understood to include an admission he spoke with a New York-based pharmacist regarding a cream that was never used by the Bombers.
The joint investigators were also told in evidence that Corcoran knew Dank was being investigated by ASADA when he joined the club. It is not known whether Corcoran has corroborated that claim.
It is also understood that no assistant coaches or staffers testified they had seen Hird injected by Dank, with Robinson claiming last week on Channel Seven that he had seen Hird injected only once. Hird's camp has claimed he was injected twice by Dank.
Finnis confirmed on Thursday night he had told the Essendon players there were ''no guarantees'' they would not receive infraction notices despite Essendon chairman Paul Little indicating in a letter to members on Wednesday that he remained ''confident'' his players had not taken performance-enhancing drugs. Little will address the player again on Friday.
''The report is interim but it is incredibly concerning,'' said Finnis, ''and paints a poor picture of the workplace these guys were working in and we don't think any players should be put in that position.
''We've told them [the players] there are no guarantees. It is an interim report - really a compilation of all the evidence and we've said they should not seek to be more optimistic as a result or more dour.''
The AFLPA chief, whose lawyers received the ASADA summary on Wednesday night, refused to divulge details of the conversation his legal team held with the Essendon footballers but confirmed he remained hopeful but not assured the players would escape sanctions.
AFL chief Andrew Demetriou continued to deny suggestions that his team had already set the wheels in motion to remove points and draft picks and also denied reports that the commission had scheduled a special meeting on Monday.
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