Essendon face AFL probe/Players found Guilty by CAS

[Penelope]

Essendon have a history of deceit and sculduggery.

I had some posts bookmarked from the old Big Footy detailing how essendown shafted north by reneging on deal when North first wanted to enter the VFL. (lost the bookmarks when they changed software  )

An old mate who is was an essendon supporter told me once how essendon took a dive against footscray ( the players were all given expensive watches or something) in a game to determine whether footscray would be allowed into the VFL. They subsequently belted Footscray in the first game of the season after they were admitted.

[(•))(©™]

17 clubs and their supporters will have hatred in their hearts. 

Think a number already do

Most clubs are not happy with what the Bombers are doing.

They are treating the entire competition with contempt.

Which means by extension they are treating all the other clubs, players and as importantly the fans with utter contempt

Any ounce of respect I had for the EFC and its players is now completely gone

They are quite frankly an absolute disgrace and blight on this game that I love

There are a number of people responsible for the initial wrong doings,however it is now one man (i use the term "Man" loosely) responsible for the continuation of this saga.

James Hird has behaved as a delusional, frightened, financially confident rabbit with no regard for his so called friends and colleagues and less for the organisation that governs 17 other brands, which in turn cater to the survival of both families and individual livelihoods.

If this were a society case that was to eventuate in him being convicted and jailed,
he would be referred to as a "rat" or "dog" by inmates and most likely placed in protective custody, ironically for his own well being.

Whilst some factions of the media have described him as resilient, time has exposed the cold, hard fact that he is a coward hiding behind his minders.
A drowning soul scrambling over the less guilty, in a quest for personal longevity.

Reputedly an articulate man of high intelligence and honor, who now appears a stark contrast to the obviously feigned appearance that was once his legacy.

Disappointing, James.....

[one-eyed]

Essendon Football Club has invited parents, partners and players from the 2012 and 2013 season for an update on the ongoing ASADA investigation next week.

Contrary to media reports, this briefing is part of the Club's commitment to keep the parents, partners and players up to date with the status of the investigation.

It is also an opportunity for the parents and partners of the players to be officially introduced to new chairman Paul Little for the first time.

Tea, scones and Hexarelin will be provided.

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2013-08-16/player-parents-meeting

[Judge Roughneck]

yeeees oe 

[(•))(©™]

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-evidence-backs-bombers-mexico-link-20130816-2s1u1.html

Today, Fairfax Media published comments that Essendon lawyer Tony Hargreaves made on Thursday and which challenged earlier reports that some players had been given an unknown supplement sourced in Mexico from a man with a muscle wasting disease.
Advertisement
Mr Hargreaves said he had made his Thursday comments after he had spoken to the patient in question and had been told that supplements were sourced from a neurosurgeon in the United States.
But this afternoon, Mr Hargreaves said he had received fresh information today.
"The information I based the request for a retraction on was based on a conversation I had [with a party closely involved in this matter] on Thursday. Since that time, further information has arrived that cast some doubt on whether what I was told was accurate.’’

[Tigeritis™©®]

17 clubs and their supporters will have hatred in their hearts. 

Think a number already do

Most clubs are not happy with what the Bombers are doing.

They are treating the entire competition with contempt.

Which means by extension they are treating all the other clubs, players and as importantly the fans with utter contempt

Any ounce of respect I had for the EFC and its players is now completely gone

They are quite frankly an absolute disgrace and blight on this game that I love

There are a number of people responsible for the initial wrong doings,however it is now one man (i use the term "Man" loosely) responsible for the continuation of this saga.

James Hird has behaved as a delusional, frightened, financially confident rabbit with no regard for his so called friends and colleagues and less for the organisation that governs 17 other brands, which in turn cater to the survival of both families and individual livelihoods.

If this were a society case that was to eventuate in him being convicted and jailed,
he would be referred to as a "rat" or "dog" by inmates and most likely placed in protective custody, ironically for his own well being.

Whilst some factions of the media have described him as resilient, time has exposed the cold, hard fact that he is a coward hiding behind his minders.
A drowning soul scrambling over the less guilty, in a quest for personal longevity.

Reputedly an articulate man of high intelligence and honor, who now appears a stark contrast to the obviously feigned appearance that was once his legacy.

Disappointing, James.....

Excellent post. 

[Francois Jackson]

i am so sick of Robbo/Jabba and his essendon biased crap.

Honestly he is as dillusional as every other Bomber supporter that i have ever listened to.

[one-eyed]

Bomber SOS targets Sheedy

   Caroline Wilson
     The Age
    August 17, 2013

Four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy and recently departed Collingwood football director Geoff Walsh have emerged as two pillars of the Bombers' behind-the-scenes plans to rebuild the club beyond its drug scandal.

And one of the Bombers' most powerful supporter groups has made an overture to Paul Roos, urging him not to consider a return to coaching before talking with Essendon should James Hird be forced to resign.

Fairfax Media understands Hird was told of an Essendon approach to Roos and this, in part, strained the relationship with his long-time friend and former chairman David Evans.

However, the approach was made by a member of the powerful coterie group, the Red and Blacks, as a contingency plan not sanctioned by the board.

Walsh, who walked out of Collingwood last month, was contacted by an Essendon intermediary on the day of his resignation. That intermediary told Walsh he was calling on behalf of the club's interim chief, Ray Gunston.

Sheedy, whose negotiations to remain at Greater Western Sydney have not been resolved, has been approached by another powerful coterie, the Essendonians.

The as-yet-unofficial offer, which the board is aware of, involves an ambassadorial and morale-boosting role as the club works to rebuild its damaged brand. Sheedy was told the potential job would see him working in part inside the Bombers' football department.

Walsh would step straight into the role of football operations head next season should he accept the job. While current football chief Danny Corcoran has chosen to fight the misconduct charges laid against him rather than resign, the prevailing view is that Hird's long-time sidekick is unlikely to remain at the club next season.

The Essendon board regards Corcoran as more culpable for the corporate governance failures over 2011 and 2012 than club doctor Bruce Reid or senior assistant Mark Thompson, both

of whom have chosen to contest misconduct charges rather than resign with blemishes on their reputations.

Walsh, who has also been approached by Melbourne and North Melbourne, told the Bombers he would not consider any offers for some months, if at all. He refused to comment to Fairfax Media.

Roos, who has also been offered the senior coaching roles at the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne, would command about $1.5 million.

Hird is understood to command about $1 million and has remained determined not to stand aside as he faces charges of allowing the administering of banned substances to his players.

Thompson returned to the Bombers from Geelong on a contract worth an estimated $650,000 a year.

The Bombers have continued to fire legal salvos at the AFL, refusing to accept charges involving banned substances.

The club faces massive insurance issues along with potential legal disputes involving players and staff. Should the banned substance charges stick, the club could also lose major sponsors, including its $3 million-a-year partner Kia.

Essendon did not return calls from Fairfax Media on Friday night.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bomber-sos-targets-sheedy-20130816-2s2cv.html#ixzz2c9R2Hkx8

[one-eyed]

Patrick Smith gives Hird a rightful massive whack! 


Heroes can be fallible but James Hird shapes as the fool on the Hill

    PATRICK SMITH
    The Australian
    August 17, 2013

Compare that clarity and stark sophistication [of Voss] to Hird's behaviour. On February 5, as the story of Essendon's uncontrolled supplements program broke, he told the world that he would accept full responsibility for what happened in his football department. Since that moment, he has carefully manoeuvred himself so that he has accepted not one dollop of culpability for what his club's own review revealed was chemical chaos within his high-performance program.

Rather, he has maintained that nothing at Windy Hill was amiss and that all would be made clear when the ASADA-AFL investigation ended. The truth will out was his mantra. Well, ASADA has filed a report on its findings of the Essendon investigation and now moved on to Cronulla in the NRL and its alleged use of banned substances.

On Tuesday, Essendon's Four Aminos -- Hird, club doctor Bruce Reid, senior assistant coach Mark Thompson and football manager Danny Corcoran -- were charged in general with bringing the game into disrepute. Specifically, in the first of some 20 supporting charges the Four Aminos are accused of either allowing players to be administered with banned substances or being unable to demonstrate what substances they were given.

Damning evidence, of course, for Hird and his stance is that the club called a meeting of parents to explain what happened. It was explained that the club -- the Four Aminos included -- could not definitively say what drugs the players had been administered or what specific long-term health concerns might therefore be in play.

Hird should have stood down then. That is if he was to take full responsibility -- hell, any responsibility -- for what happened to his players in season 2012. He didn't and from that moment Hird placed himself above both his club and the game. Essendon and Hird's lawyers are desperate to avoid any hearing or public release of the charges they face. The truth will win out?

The defence of faithful but emotionally compromised supporters bellows that every one of the Four Aminos is a fine and noble person. And it is true. Reid is a highly regarded doctor who has been at the club since 1987, Hird has been touted as a future AFL commissioner, Thompson is a much respected premiership coach and player and Danny Corcoran is one solid individual.

But that does not mean they don't make mistakes, errors of judgment, don't take things for granted, don't bow to people on reputations alone, don't get swallowed up by hype and hubris. It doesn't intrinsically save them from chasing their lofty goals and in their huff and puff trample proper process. Nor does it give them the right to think they are above being held to account.

Hird's belief that he has done -- and cannot do -- no wrong is hurting his reputation and that of his club by the day. It could have been so different.

There were obviously governance issues at Essendon in 2012. Hird said he would take responsibility for them. Had he done that, accepted whatever penalty that came with his admission of fault and apologised then he would have been seen as a man who saw a failing, could recognise and then remedy it.

Hird has a problem. Heroes can look flawed and fallible. A dropped mark here, an errant kick there. But heroes don't look stupid and engorged with arrogance. History's judgment might be that Hird is no hero, just the fool on the Hill.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/heroes-can-be-fallible-but-james-hird-shapes-as-the-fool-on-the-hill/story-e6frfkp9-1226698782053#ixzz2c9W9u3pZ

[one-eyed]

Doping probe at risk of collapse

    by: CHIP LE GRAND
    From: The Australian
    August 17, 2013

THE Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's six-month investigation into the alleged systematic use of peptides at AFL club Essendon and Cronulla in the NRL is at risk of collapse if lawyers acting for James Hird succeed in challenging the legality of ASADA's decision to involve the major football codes in its search for evidence of doping.

The Weekend Australian can reveal the NRL reluctantly agreed, under pressure from ASADA, for one of its officials to be present during player interviews at Cronulla. The presence of the NRL's newly appointed integrity boss, Nick Weeks, during last week's interviews of Sharks players is modelled on the role played by AFL investigator Abraham Haddad during interviews of Essendon players and officials.

Weeks, a respected lawyer and administrator, and Haddad, a former UN investigator, bring impressive credentials to the ASADA probe.

Haddad's presence during the Essendon interviews allowed investigators under AFL rules to seize the mobile phones of Essendon officials, including Hird.

However, ASADA's decision to conduct joint investigations with the AFL and NRL into the use of peptides in their respective codes has exposed ASADA to the possibility that it is operating in breach of its own Act and the National Anti-Doping Scheme.

Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/doping-probe-at-risk-of-collapse/story-fnca0u4y-1226698786742

[(•))(©™]

WTF!!

[one-eyed]

WTF!!

It's just a lot of wishful assumptions (ifs, possibilities, maybes, hinges on whethers, ...) added together by some Hird camp legal rep.  .


"if lawyers acting for James Hird succeed in challenging the legality of ASADA's decision to involve the major football codes ..."

"ASADA's decision to conduct joint investigations with the AFL and NRL ... has exposed ASADA to the possibility that it is operating in breach of its own Act ..."

"Hird's primary case against ASADA hinges on whether ASADA broke its own act by including the AFL as an investigative partner and whether its 400-page interim report contravenes the confidentiality provisions of the National Anti-Doping Scheme."

"If Hird succeeds in his legal challenge against ASADA, all material other than the Switkowski report would be inadmissible as evidence."

"Martin Hardie, an administrative law expert with Deakin University now advising Cronulla and Essendon on the complexities of anti-doping codes"
Ed. So this article is based on the views of the Hird camp. Surprise surprise it tries to dismiss the ASADA investigation and AFL charges.

"Where ASADA is meant to conduct its affairs with strict confidentiality, its investigation of Essendon has leaked like a faulty burette. As Hardie said: "Information is not being kept confidential. Whoever is leaking this, whether it is the AFL or the cops or ASADA, is subject to two years' jail.""
Ed. what about the leaking from the Hird and Essendon camps 

"The AFL this week confirmed that on the evidence gathered by ASADA, no Essendon player has an anti-doping case to answer. Now for the case against ASADA."
Ed. Ummm .... once again a media report that incorrectly says the Essendon players are in the clear. They have only not received infraction notices at this stage.

[Judge Roughneck]

Ah, the lance Armstrong defense 

[Chuck17]

I want our players to be probed for today's performance

[Loui Tufga]

I want our players to be probed for today's performance

Users are losers