ASADA & the AFL acted lawfully: Hird & Essendon lose

[Warbler]

I sincerely hope that Hird doesn't resign -


I want him to suffer the shame of being sacked .

Then I want the players to sue him .

Then I want him & his feral wife to crawl back under whatever rock in NSW or ACT that he came from , & never be hird of again .


GO PIES

[Warbler]

I sincerely hope that Hird doesn't resign -


I want him to suffer the shame of being sacked .

Then I want the players to sue him .

Then I want him & his feral wife to crawl back under whatever rock in NSW or ACT that he came from , & never be hird of again .


GO PIES

[neds elbow]

Going to be a bit awkward if Heppel wins the Brownlow on Monday night?

[Damien]

[Damien]

[neil]

[Greening gold]

Paul Little Open Letter: Slight problem

Following today�s decision in the Federal Court, Paul Little wrote to all Essen don members about the good news.

Dear Members

I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is we lost today in the Federal Court. I mean, we really lost.

It actually physically hurt.

To put it in footy terms, we were the Melbourne Demons of legal proceedings.

We even have to pay the legal cost of the other side.

Oops!

�So what could possibly be the good news?� you ask.

We�ll, given we may appeal and as we�re also going to pay ASADA�s legal costs, we are announcing new membership categories for season 2015.

This is a very exciting development, I�m sure you�ll agree.

The new categories are:

Queens Counsel- $25,000
Partner- $15,000
Senior Associate- $10,000
Solicitor- $8,000
Article Clark- $4,000

These exciting and almost affordable new memberships, should help us to continue to run the only legal defense fund in the world that has its own footy team.

I want to also personally assure you that the board is committed to this path of destruction we are currently on.

The board will not rest until every dollar in the club is spent on lawyers.

I ask all members to continue supporting the club, especially financially.

Regards

Paul Little

[watt price tully]

From Patrick Smith at The Australian:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/james-hirds-time-at-essendon-is-over/story-fnca0u4y-1227064242586

JAMES Hird has no other option now than to step down as coach of Essendon. If he doesn�t then Essendon must remove him.

Hird was coach of the club, in charge of a large group of most young men, where dubious peptide practices ran for a year.

The 34 players at the club in 2012 have been issued with show cause notices. Attempts by Essendon and Hird in the Federal Court to have been them thrown out were dismissed almost contemptuouslyby judge John Middleton. Now 20 players still at Essendon and another 14 who have moved on from the club since the peptide program was running out of control must very soon prove to ASADA that they did not take a drug � Thymosin Beta 4 � banned under the ASADA code.

If they can�t then they will go onto a register of findings and then face suspension. ASADA had previously offered them a six month ban, chipped down from a possible two year penalty because they had been duped into taking the banned drugs and they had also co-operated and assisted ASADA in its inquiry. ASADA could well put another proposal. Any penalty will certainly be backdated.

Hird must walk. For such a damning lack of governance to happen while he was in charge of the football department is a stark and grievous failure of his duty of care. Hird has said as much. In his affidavit to the Federal Court he stated: �I believe that if show cause notices are issued to current or former Essendon players by ASADA this would give rise to immeasurable and irremediable damage to my reputation, my earning capacity as an AFL coach and my business interests external to Essendon and the AFL.

That is, in effect a coaching suicide note.

Justice Middleton gave no inch to the claims by Essendon and Hird. ASADA had operated within the law and in the best interests of investigating anti-doping breaches. The then CEO of the government body Aurora Andruska gave her evidence laboriously but the judge said he did not question the veracity of her answers.

The AFL decision to join the investigation with ASADA was appropriate because it could use its coercive powers enabled under league rules to answer questions. While ASADA and AFL investigators were present at all player and officials interviews information obtained was received instantaneously by both ASADA and the AFL. In other words, ASADA passed no information on to the AFL. Another conspiracy theory falls over.

If only Hird understood that as coach the buck came to a screeching halt at his door. If he had only been better advised and counselled not to wage a war against Andrew Demetriou, then CEO of the AFL, and the league itself. He seemed blinded by an arrogance that he could do no wrong.

If he had taken his punishment with good grace, accepted his lot, he would be a richer man to day and with a coaching job to return to. For one of the first times in a famous career, Hird has been hopelessly outplayed.

[Damien]

[Jezza]

[uncanny]

so the little herd didn't find their way to a liesome home...

Graham Smith:a partner with Clayton Utz and a leading industrial relations and employment law specialist,

"The decision is a complete vindication of the actions taken by ASADA. It is a comprehensive and closely reasoned decision that is unlikely to be overturned on appeal, in my view

"Indeed, the task of an appellant to overturn a judgment cannot be overstated. It is very hard. There must generally be a clear error of law for an appeal court to find that one of their colleagues was mistaken in approach."

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bombers-face-a-tough-fight-to-appeal-say-lawyers-20140920-10jqsb.html#ixzz3DrrIJNGB

[uncanny]

so hit them hard now when you have the chance to say something about the culture of drugs in sport afl

[swoop42]

[Geek]

[Damien]

I see Vlad gave Golden Boy a nice little whack today on AFL.com. He must be sitting back on his big fat Greek arse laughing now in Essendon and particularly Hird's demise. Hahahahaha.