Essendon face AFL probe/Players found Guilty by CAS

[one-eyed]

Former Bombers, Ryder and Monfries, to sit out of Port's first two NAB Cup games.

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Paddy Ryder will not wear the Port Adelaide jumper in official battle until the NAB Challenge summer Showdown with Adelaide on March 21 — and that is on the proviso the new headline act at Alberton is not banned by the AFL anti-doping tribunal.

The Advertiser has confirmed Ryder and fellow Power forward Angus Monfries are among the 34 current and former Essendon players subject to a provisional ban from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

This sanction applies until the anti-doping tribunal rules on the Bombers doping saga in mid-March.

By that time, Port Adelaide will have played two NAB Challenge games — against West Coast at Norwood Oval on March 8 and Richmond at Lavington on March 14.

The Power could seek exemptions from the AFL Commission for Ryder and Monfries to play in the pre-season trial games.

But this option carries the risk of Monfries and Ryder losing the chance to backdate any possible ban from the anti-doping tribunal.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/port-adelaide-is-forced-to-delay-unveiling-of-recruit-paddy-ryder-because-of-afl-anti-doping-tribunal/story-fndv8s6g-1227209447716

[mightytiges]

Just further signs that the players themselves are expecting suspensions.

[one-eyed]

Pre-season break for former Bomber Stewart Crameri looms

  Jake Niall
     The Age
    February 7, 2015

The Western Bulldogs are seriously considering removing Stewart Crameri from the NAB Challenge to avoid losing the opportunity of an undisputed backdated penalty.

The Bulldogs seem unlikely to apply to have Crameri's provisional suspension lifted for pre-season games. This follows Port Adelaide's decision to let Paddy Ryder and Angus Monfries sit out the first two games of the NAB Challenge while the ASADA tribunal case is running.

Under the rules, players are provisionally suspended but can apply to have the suspensions lifted. This step however could compromise any penalty if the players are found guilty, or a potential deal.

Essendon's situation is far more complicated because of the number of players with provisional suspensions. They may need top-up players to field a team in the pre-season if the club opted not to apply to have the bans lifted.

There are 17 or 18 listed Essendon players who are under provisional suspensions as a result of infraction notices issued in November.

If the players are given suspensions of six months, which would include discounts for co-operation, much of this could be backdated from the time when infractions were issued.

The AFL set a precedent by allowing Jobe Watson and Dustin Fletcher to play in the international rules series against the Irish, only days after the 34 current and former Essendon received infraction notices.

The players' legal team has been increasingly optimistic the players will beat the charges but the case still has some weeks to go and will not conclude until shortly before the home-and-away season.

Port Adelaide is hoping the case will be settled before their final NAB Challenge on March 21 against Adelaide.

The Bulldogs do not have the same concerns about confidentiality as Essendon.

Cramer and ex-VFL player Brent Prismall were happy to have the ASADA tribunal case open to the public, but the 32 other Essendon players and their legal representatives wanted the hearing closed.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/preseason-break-for-stewart-crameri-looms-20150206-1386u5.html

[one-eyed]

Richmond chief Brendon Gale says Essendon would be foolish to pull out of NAB Challenge

Michael Warner
Herald-Sun
February 07, 2015

RICHMOND chief executive Brendon Gale says Essendon would be “foolish” and “shortsighted” to pull out of the NAB Challenge.

The Tigers boss weighed into the doping saga on Friday, saying he doubted the entire Bombers playing list would make good on their threat to sit out the pre-season competition.

“I don’t think they’ll go on strike,” Gale told SEN.

“I think it would be shortsighted and a bit foolish.”

The Bombers are waiting on the AFL to rule whether a group of 20 players serving provisional suspensions will be permitted to run out for NAB Challenge matches.

Talks between AFL legal counsel Andrew Dillon and Essendon were held on Thursday.

If cleared to take part, the players are also demanding a league guarantee that future doping suspensions can be backdated to last year.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has told the AFL it does not support a special NAB Challenge deal.

ASADA yesterday submitted its final submission to the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal where 34 former and current Essendon players are accused of using a banned peptide in 2012.

A verdict from the tribunal is due in late March on the eve of the premiership season.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-chief-brendon-gale-says-essendon-would-be-foolish-to-pull-out-of-nab-challenge/story-fndv8t7m-1227210871795

[🏅Dooks]

B-B-B-B Benny and the Jets

 

[Yeahright]

If the players are given suspensions of six months, which would include discounts for co-operation, much of this could be backdated from the time when infractions were issued.

Would be a complete joke . Been training this whole time (apart from the break everyone gets) and will be back by round 5(?). Would have to be an unprecedented fine put onto the club to make it seem even remotely fair otherwise all they get is a slap on the wrist.

[one-eyed]

Essendon 34 won't play in NAB Challenge

   Jake Niall
      The Age
      February 11, 2015


The remaining Essendon players who are facing doping charges at the tribunal will not seek to have their provisional suspensions lifted to play in the NAB Challenge.

The Essendon contingent – which Fairfax Media believes consists of 17 of the 34 players from 2012 who received infraction notices – thus will not play in the AFL's pre-season competition for at least the first two games of the NAB Challenge while the tribunal deliberates. But the AFL and the Bombers are still working through  whether the club will field a team in the NAB challenge at all and how this could be managed.

Source confirmed that Essendon players will not seek to have their provisional suspensions lifted because ASADA is unwilling to exclude the pre-season games from any backdated penalty. The players would potentially risk missing more "real" home-and-away games if they play pre-season games and are found guilty by the tribunal.

In effect, the Essendon players are taking the same position as Port Adelaide's Patrick Ryder and Angus Monfries, who have withdrawn from the NAB Challenge for at least the first two games – while Bulldog Stewart Crameri, too, is unlikely to seek to play in the pre-season competition. Ryder, Monfries and Crameri are the only ex-Essendon players still in the AFL system with infractions.

Essendon will require top up players to field a team against StKilda on March 7 – with its VFL team likely to be first port of call to  make up the numbers.

Essendon has 45 players on their senior and rookie lists, of which an estimated 17 are facing the tribunal – the 34 evenly divided between those at the club and those who have left. It has a further eight from 2012 who did not receive infractions.

That would leave 28 players on the Essendon list who could play in the pre-season, but the club has several players injured, and will need top-up players to be able to field a full team.

AFL and Essendon officials were in discussions on Tuesday about whether the club would participate in the NAB Challenge, the players having threatened to withdraw completely – removing the entire list from the pre-season games.

Under the rules, the 34 players are provisionally suspended from playing in all football competitions and those in the AFL can apply to have the suspension lifted so they can play.

But ASADA has indicated that this would have an impact on any prospective penalty if they are found guilty, or in the event that a player wishes to strike a plea bargain deal before the case concludes.

The AFL had proposed a plan in which no 2012-listed players – whether facing the charges or not – would play in the NAB Challenge games, thus protecting the anonymity of the players.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-34-wont-play-in-nab-challenge-20150210-13b69i.html

[one-eyed]

And Caro gives Essendon another good whack 


Essendon supplements saga: Ironies abound as Bombers resist pre-season solutions
  Caroline Wilson
     The Age
     February 11, 2015

The continuing possibility that Essendon will withdraw completely from the AFL's pre-season competition involves a number of ironies not lost on anyone in touch with this devastating chronicle as it enters year three.

One is the club's claim that it cannot field a team because it could be breaching a duty of care towards those younger players who would be forced to carry the side during NAB Challenge games against bigger-bodied athletes. If only the club had been this concerned about its players' welfare in 2011 and 2012.

Quite apart from the fact the Bombers line up against the most inexperienced side in the competition in St Kilda first-up, followed by the Giants and then Melbourne, is the savage truth that it will be many years before Essendon can cite health and safety concerns on behalf of its players without a provocative reaction. Ironic too that the Giants pushed aside such concerns when they competed in the NAB Cup of 2011 despite not being an AFL side and consisting almost completely of teenagers.

Essendon's hypocrisy does not end there. Both club and players seem disappointed at the length of time the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has taken to put forward its case, glossing over the fact the club delayed the outcome by a good two months by challenging the legality of the original investigation.

That expensive and ultimately failed exercise succeeded only in dragging down the reputations of the same AFL officials and executives from whom the Bombers are seeking assistance. Australian football's reputation was further soiled by a series of mean-spirited and often irrelevant testimonies. Despite Essendon's protestations, surely the timeline dictates a verdict on the 34 charged players would have been achieved by now had the club and its suspended coach not unsuccessfully attempted to bury the evidence.

Instead the pre-season competition remains punctuated with uncertainties just weeks before the first bounce. There is remarkably little goodwill from its 17 competition rivals towards a club now pushing the AFL to win guarantees from ASADA and perhaps even make deals when only eight months ago it took ASADA to court over its allegedly improper relationship with the AFL.

Particularly when the club's players and coaches appear so unwilling to compromise for the sake of the competition. Those players charged with taking performance-enhancing drugs still at Essendon - at least those who remain relatively anonymous - have fought to keep their identities hidden. The AFL compromise ruling out all 2012-listed players would achieve that, but the club subsequently argued then that their preparation would be disadvantaged.

No one is suggesting the push for anonymity is a red herring but if that is the key issue and top-up players can be found then it seems disingenuous for the players to raise fears of losing a competitive advantage against those teammates fortunate not to have been at Windy Hill in 2012. How genuine are fears of losing ground against teammates where the NAB Challenge is concerned? Just how important alone is the anonymity issue?

Surely when a club and its players find themselves in this situation they should be prepared to give a bit back for the sake of the competition. But the playing group still seems determined to remove itself from the competition. It is disappointing that the players' stand smacks of a subtle protest that to these eyes looks misguided. Jobe Watson's proposed "sit down" in protest against the new interchange rules some years ago springs to mind.

That a side turn up to play, however cobbled together that side may be, is the underscore of any competition. Yet again the players' mindset that they would accept fines in preference to playing under the wrong circumstances could change should the AFL revert to a firmer hand and threaten serious recriminations such as draft or premiership point penalties.

To date there has been no heavy hand from head office as Gillon McLachlan along with his respective football and legal lieutenants Mark Evans and Andrew Dillon attempt to resolve the messy impasse, considering every possible solution including the possibility of staging the NAB Challenge without Essendon and potentially rejigging the fixture. A decision is expected by Thursday and as early as Wednesday.

The team has been preparing for some time for a potential withdrawal from the NAB Challenge by staging intensive Friday intra-club games. And Essendon has vowed that its players will hold community events in both Morwell and Sydney's west should it fail to field a team for fixtured pre-season games. Again, to be nostalgic, this promise cannot help but invoke memories of the 2012 Wangaratta NAB Cup debacle which had as its origin the club's experimental high-performance practices which dictated a three-to-four-hour bus trip and an overnight stay in a motel was poor preparation for an AFL team.

That no-show saw the AFL tighten its rules regarding team travel times. If only it could have predicted then how many rules and practices would be tightened as a result of the dangerous drug regime that ruled at Essendon for those shameful months back in 2012.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-supplements-saga-ironies-abound-as-bombers-resist-preseason-solutions-20150210-13b453.html

[No More]

2 years suspension if they are found guilty. pure and simple.

[tony_montana]

had enough of this mob - 2 years nothing less

[one-eyed]

Dons facing potential anti-doping bans won't play in NAB Challenge
Matt Thompson 
afl.com.au
February 11, 2015 6:08 PM


Essendon has confirmed that its players fighting ASADA infraction notices will not seek the AFL Commission's permission to play in the NAB Challenge.

It's estimated 17 or 18 players allegedly involved in the Bombers' controversial 2012 supplements regime remain on the club's list.

It remains unclear whether the additional players still on the list from that time, but not charged with possible doping offences, will join their teammates on the sidelines.

Essendon has 25 players remaining on its list who were at the club during 2012.

It means the fate of Essendon's scheduled NAB Challenge matches against St Kilda, Greater Western Sydney and Melbourne is still uncertain.

Essendon general manager of football operations Rob Kerr told the club's website said there was "ongoing dialogue" with the League.

“Those players who have been issued infraction notices have been provisionally suspended as we speak, so the issue they face is that if they were to play a NAB Challenge game it would impact upon their provisional suspension,” he said.

“The solution that the playing group themself has bought into has been made because everyone is mindful that under the anti-doping code there is an obligation to protect the identity of those players that have infraction notices.

ASADA confirmed on Wednesday that any players who played during their provisional suspension wouldn't be able to have their suspensions backdated if they were found guilty by the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal.

"Our view is any athlete competing during their provisional suspension and prior to a final decision by a sport tribunal, has not respected their obligation under the World Anti-Doping Code and should not be entitled to a credit for the provisional suspension," an ASADA spokesperson said in a statement provided to AFL.com.au.

"The World Anti-Doping Code is very clear in this respect and our duty is to ensure sports comply with their responsibilities to the code."

Kerr was confident Bombers players would not face fines if they pulled out of the pre-season competition, even if they didn't have an infraction notice.

"The discussions we have had with the AFL has been about finding a solution that is going to work and there has been no tabling of 'if you couldn’t play, this is what the penalty would be'," he said.

The AFL has proposed the Bombers be able to top up their list with additional players, but Essendon remains reluctant to do that.

“The options are that we would have to find other players to supplement our list and when you factor in that there is 25 players on our list from 2012," Kerr said.

“When you look at some of the older players and the younger players who are not going to play a whole lot of time during the NAB Challenge, the number of players available is reduced significantly.

"By our estimation ... we're thinking you'd have to find in the vicinity of 15-20 [top-up] players to be able to compete."

The AFL Commission has discretion over whether players with infraction notices are allowed to play, and doesn't have to consult ASADA.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-02-11/dons-facing-potential-antidoping-bans-wont-play-in-nab-challenge

[DCrane]

Agree with Caro that Essendon's presentation at the Federal Court case has damaged the game. There is a case for another charge of bringing the game into disrepute firstly for putting up such a lame case in the Fed Court and now for their attempt to foreshadow the finding of the tribunal with veiled threats.
This is getting ridiculous as it is now affecting other clubs preparations and planning for the season ahead.
What more can the AFL do for Essendon? Bring back John Coleman from the dead?
They have even given them the softest draw possible in the NAB cup with the Saints, Giants and Demons. Essendon, STFU with your complaining, get on the phone and start organising some players for the NAB cup. I will put my hand up if needed, I have lost a bit of pace over the years but at 6'3 could still be handy in a 2nd forward type role. I have a bit of experience in Division 3 reserves and have kept my footy boots just in case a situation like this popped up. Contact me via this site.

[one-eyed]

Caro reckons Essendon could lose premiership points or draft picks if they abandon playing in the NAB Challenge.





Essendon's refusal to play is making a mockery of the pre-season competition

   Caroline Wilson
      The Age
      February 11, 2015

Essendon's ongoing refusal to make itself available for the AFL's pre-season challenge is starting to make a mockery of the competition with just two weeks remaining to the first bounce. The tail it seems is wagging the dog.

At some point, surely, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan will ditch his deal-making diplomacy and make it clear who exactly is running the competition – and just how seriously the governing body and all 17 other clubs take even the suggestion of an on-field no-show.

Fairfax Media understands the AFL will punish any club abandoning a game by withdrawing premiership points and could even threaten draft sanctions. This is what Essendon faces.

Top-level talks will continue on Thursday. AFL Players Association chief executive Paul Marsh is due to hold talks with league bosses before meeting Essendon's chiefs and the Bombers players.

Marsh reportedly sees it as his duty to make the players, who have continued to resist all manner of AFL compromise, see just how heavily the competition will come down on their club should they carry out their threat.

Bombers football boss Rob Kerr continued the diplomatic club line late on Wednesday when he said the club was continuing to work towards a solution. He made it clear that the resistance was the players' call. The fact the team has played Friday intra-club practice games in a bid to make up for missing NAB Challenge games would indicate the coaches are supporting the players in their stand.

But external sympathy is wearing thin. Most football people believe those charged were doped and duped, but that is no reason for the entire senior list to withdraw from the NAB Challenge with, it must be said, excuses ranging from credible to flimsy.

Given that this club has largely hijacked the competition for two full seasons now the view from the other clubs is that those at Essendon should be bending over backwards to prevent any further damage. But the Bombers bosses appear to have lost control of the situation, just as they had previously with the current senior coach.

Former Essendon coaches Mark Thompson and Kevin Sheedy believe Essendon should play in the NAB Challenge. St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt made it more than clear at his captaincy announcement that the Saints want Essendon to play.

Clearly McLachlan is resisting a provocative move. No one at head office would relish going to war again with Essendon.

But if ever the time had come for the new AFL chief to demonstrate his authority it is now.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendons-refusal-to-play-is-making-a-mockery-of-the-preseason-competition-20150211-13c7lt.html

[tony_montana]

 FARCK EM OFF!

[Yeahright]

Eff them. Should be told if they don't turn up for the NAB don't turn up for the rest of the season. If banned anyway just add an extra 12 months