Jobe Watson's Brownlow: the decision the AFL didn't want to makeCaroline Wilson
The Age
March 5, 2016The most arduous task facing the AFL in 2016 — the stripping of Jobe Watson's Brownlow Medal — was one the game's governors believed they would never have to make.
That is because senior and long-standing commissioners thought — and certainly hoped — that Watson would make the decision for them. At one stage they considered officially offering the Essendon captain the opportunity to make the call to offer up the 2012 medal.
Instead, in the hours that followed the early-morning bombshell on January 11, the AFL chose instead to call the Essendon captain to front the game's governors to put forward his views on the issue. It chose not to put the voluntary option in writing of Watson handing the medal back. But they did give him some weeks to think about it.
The letter was drafted by Gillon McLachlan and his legal executive Andrew Dillon. Looking back, it seemed a strange tactic given everyone in power was acutely aware at that stage there was no alternative but to remove the game's highest individual honour. Surely, even with McLachlan at the helm, this was never going to be a negotiation. Particularly when it quickly became clear that Watson would not proffer the medal.
There is every suggestion that the scheduled February commission meeting with Watson, which never took place, would not have been a comfortable one. The commissioners appear to have hoped in vain that those mentoring the 31-year-old would advise him that the best course was to voluntarily give back the 2012 Brownlow.
This column is not suggesting it is aware of Watson's current thought process but according to his manager Craig Kelly the suspended player has no intention of voluntarily giving back his medal.
"He didn't ask to win it," said Kelly, "and he won't be handing it back." The Elite Sports Properties boss, whose firm handles eight of the suspended 34, said that Watson had indicated he would be happy to front the commission to explain his case but that if the Brownlow was to be stripped from then the AFL would have to do it.
In any event the decision has been, at the very least, postponed.
Watson along with all of the suspended 34, is appealing the decision although a positive outcome for the players who took part in the 2012 drug program will not be based on the fact they did not take banned substances.
Experts in the legal field of international sport have given them very little chance of success and even if the appeal is upheld it will be a technical decision based upon the fact the past and present Essendon players should never have fronted the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Which will mean for Watson, a much-loved player, that in the eyes of many football people his Brownlow will remaIn tainted. And the commission should still make a ruling one way or the other. It has been repeatedly stated by this columnist that few believe he deliberately cheated, but that has no bearing in the eyes of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Therefore the commission's decision to call in Watson to put forward his views would appear to be a formality should his appeal fail. There are simply no grounds for the player to retain the medal for the best-and-fairest footballer of 2012.
Public statements uttered recently by the likes of Luke Beveridge and Kevin Sheedy cast the AFL's attitude to the international drug code in a bad enough light without the competition allowing any room for debate over the Brownlow, however onerous the ultimate task.
Nor would tendering the Brownlow have been an admission of guilt.
Watson could have said as much, simply adding that he believed it was the right thing to do.
And the runners-up that year? The commission's position upon that was originally less clear given that there are precedents in world sport where a medal or champions' cup have been taken away with no alternative winner awarded. But in most of those cases it was because the runners-up have been found guilty or at least been under question, just as in the case of Lance Armstrong's tour victories.
For Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin, the reallocation would seem a hollow victory but for history's sake it would be the right thing to do. But for Gillon McLachlan and Mike Fitzpatrick the call will no doubt prove a low point of their time in the game.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/essendon-bombers/jobe-watsons-brownlow-afl-hoped-he-would-hand-back-medal-20160304-gnarvn.html
