TOPIC:

Can someone explain why the 2 year penalty is back dated? It is only now that they have been officially found guilty so the 2 years should start from now, they have not suffered any official penalty to date, they have all or most been playing AFL footy and getting paid according to their contracts. This is a one year ban and nothing more.

If the players do sue the club and the AFL, I hope they include Hird in the process.
A once great player who will be forever known as a promoter of drug cheating.

I'm not sure I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for the players as it seems none actually enquired with any rigour what they were being given and also during the random testing process not one declared to the testers they had been injected with supplements whatever those supplements were...so I guess some of the blame must rest with them as well.

SS I am guessing WADA doesn't take seasons or games into consideration rather a time frame so they have probably taken time in off season they have NOT played football off a 2 year ban. I read that Jobe Watson, Heppel and Fletcher have to serve extra time due to the International series they played in.

DD wrote:

Peter North wrote: Essendon have been found guilty of doping, all 34 players will serve 12 month bans due to back dating, are you still in a good place Hirdy lol.

Kudos PN, you were spot on all along. Puts all arguments to bed. Hird still living in denial. He has to go down as the biggest fall from grace to a disgrace in Australian sporting history. Hird can now sit comfortably right alongside Lance Armstrong. He has brought the game into disrepute, ruined the careers of 34 footballers and ruined the club that gave him a wonderful playing career.

As much as Essendon supporters like to think that the AFL was against them, this couldn't be further from the truth, the AFL tribunal for instance wouldn't even here half of the evidence ASADA put up, the same tribunal that would of let Lance Armstrong off if he was before them. Even Demetrio warned Essendon about ASADA and then the paper shredders came out.

The AFL didn't count on WADA appealing, that scenario meant that it couldn't be influenced by the AFL and the very same lawyer that prosecuted the Armstrong case
also prosecuted this case.

Yeah I was always confident DD after WADA appealed, kept hearing how Essendon is a big club and its the AFL never happen, Essendon and the AFL are a mere speck in world wide sport there was no way WADA and CAS were going to back down to them.

The next question is what do Essendon do for players from here on in,

Do they rely on their reserves team and hope they can get through the season as the whipping boys and the consequences of that,

Do they get players from elsewhere and how does that work with the salary cap, presumably the existing players are on pay for the 12 months

Do they fold for the 12 months and the other teams all have a bye - The fallout from this would be enormous for the AFL and sponsorships

Do they clean the list out now and try to recruit undrafted players with a view to the next 5 years,

One thing is forsure and that is that every Monday morning Worsfold will have an answer to the previous weekends loss.

While you an feel sorry for the players they really have no one but themselves to blame.

Interestingly one of the things that CAS bought up was when the players were drug tested in 2012, one of the questions they were asked was "have you been taking any supplements"

Apparently the players all responded "NO" every time they were asked.

This is more like the X Files every day - the truth is out there somewhere

Grump wrote: The next question is what do Essendon do for players from here on in,

Do they rely on their reserves team and hope they can get through the season as the whipping boys and the consequences of that,

Do they get players from elsewhere and how does that work with the salary cap, presumably the existing players are on pay for the 12 months

Do they fold for the 12 months and the other teams all have a bye - The fallout from this would be enormous for the AFL and sponsorships

Do they clean the list out now and try to recruit undrafted players with a view to the next 5 years,

One thing is forsure and that is that every Monday morning Worsfold will have an answer to the previous weekends loss.

I bet Woosha is feeling a bit worse for wear at the moment...in saying that he's in a no loss situation...if he does ok with a patch up team then everyone will be singing his praise...if they go badly then all the pundits will be saying it's not his fault...what did we all expect? maybe this outcome was factored into his decision to take on the job.

I don't feel sorry for anyone at Essendrugs, they are pro athletes and deserve everything they get, if its good enough for Travis Casserley to get 2 years for innocently taking a Sudafed to stop his running nose and hayfever then a 1 year ban for taking performance enhancing drugs is a light on penalty!! F##k em, hope they stay at the bottom for the next decade

Is anyone aware if the positive test results are the previously mentioned tests of 2 cases of elevated levels detected which the first tribunal did not consider or if all players have returned a positive sample after new tests were developed. Could be interesting in the courts for damages when individual cases are scrutinised.

I gotta admit SD...for a while there I had some sympathy for the players but when the guy from ASADA comes out saying that AFL players get all the education and information on PEDs possible and the fact that none of the players admitted being injected once during 18 testing episodes in 2012 you start to wonder just how much they did suspect or even worse, know what was happening.