perthmagpie wrote:Each player has to individually prove to the ADVRP, which met today by the way, that they injected the unbanned version of Thymosin. Which is going to be impossible considering they actually had the banned Thymosin injected. ASADA and the retired judge are comfortably satisfied the evidence is enough to place the violations on the register of findings. There is also the fact that Essendon and the doctors and nurses did not keep records or the club destroyed records and now cannot miraculously produce some old record to prove they only used the good Thymosin.
Infraction notices will be issued and the the tribunal will sit to consider the evidence and the recommended sanctions from the ADVRP. Before all this takes place some loose cannon players such as Monfries who feel no loyalty could come forward to claim a whistleblower discount. Or the AFLPA in their meeting tomorrow with ASADA after seeing the damning evidence in the show cause notices might start to persuade some players to begin voluntary bans and get it over with. Or the seventeens other clubs could lean on Little and tell him to stop buying the players loyalty by paying all the legal fees or demand Essendon advise the players to take their punishment and not drag this out with appeals and courts for another two payers when they are likely to lose anyway. They could threaten to take Essendon's licence away for a while.
In the end the players will be banned and Essendon is stuffed for quite a while. I feel for the level headed supporters who can see things clearly. If lawyers get heavily involved lots of players and staff's lives will be massively disrupted and everyone will lose except Little's lawyers.
Perthmagpie well documented article. I understand there will be a long legal battle as Essendon have always denied doing wrong but they must prove they have done right which is impossible given the circumstances you stated above.
I do feel for he players as they put there trust in there employers and they got systematically got screwed over.
What I am more concerned about is the overall effect this has on the competition.
What happens if 34 players are given 2yr suspensions ?
How do Essendon fill 31 places on there list ?
How do they pay the 31 new players as well as meeting there legal contractual obligations to the 31 suspended players and stay under the salary cap ?
The AFL have a huge problem in front of them and I can't help the conspiracy theorist in me wondering about the timing of Dimi's departure ? Any one else think its strange ?
I wonder now far in advance he knew when the notices would be issued and now that helped him decide on when he would stand down ?
To fill Essendons list they would basically need a full draft given to them so they could trade for other players but what does that do to the Aints and dogs and dee's and lions who will all need some serious list building this draft. Also you have teams like Carlton Richmond west coast Adelaide who will want to try and avoid a complete rebuild.
And to think all this was orchestrated by one James Hird who so far has been enjoying a fully paid year off as well and highly paid job waiting for him upon his return.
I really don't know what will happen here. There are bigger issues above the fact 34 players are facing career ending bans. 2 - 4yr bans which is what they face would end the career of nearly all of them.
Wow the more I think about it the more I dont know a solution.