More evidence the @EssendonFC players were dudded by Bruce Francis


Guys:

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Great news. I nearly have all my (Jimmy Higgs’) ducks lined up – McLachlan, Clothier, Fitzpatrick, Ms Dessau et al, McDevitt, Beloff, Subiotto, Spigelman, VWA, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Wilson, Smith.

The following is one of many, many examples, which suggest the players were duded. The AFL, ASADA and the media spent three years nailing the players. I don’t understand why the AFL, the Essendon board, the media, the players association and the Mr 4%s didn’t spend five minutes on ascertaining whether the players received a fair deal. As will be shown at a later date, the panel even omitted words from a text message to give a completely different (damning) meaning to the text.

Item (the CAS Panel, Beloff, Subiotto) 1: “The complete failure of the vast majority of Players who had to fill in a doping control form ("DCF") during the season to reveal the receipt of injections does not encourage confidence in their statements as to the limited or sporadic nature of what they were injected with.”

My Comment:

On first reading this is another example of the panel generalising or being lazy and failing to be specific. As the panel had access to the players’ doping control forms it should have taken the extra minute to quantify how many of the 34 players didn’t fill in their forms correctly. On closer reading, we discover that once again the panel was being extraordinarily liberal with the truth. Only 21 players were drug tested during the period. As can be seen below, at least eight of the nine players I have information for filled out their forms correctly.

The horrifying aspect of the panel’s claim is it had no idea what it was talking about. The panel cannot substantiate that the 21 players didn’t reveal the receipt of injections. As Thymosin is the only banned substance, it is clearly the substance that concerned the panel that it had allegedly been omitted from the players’ doping control form. The players were required to list all substances taken within seven days of their test. The panel cannot name a single date that a specific player was injected. Consequently, it is astounding that the panel claimed that the players failed to follow the rules. The onus was on WADA to provide evidence that the players failed to record that they had received an injection within seven days of their test. WADA failed to offer any evidence to that effect. Unconscionably, without any evidence to support its determination, the panel implied that the players had colluded with each other and had lied when filling out their forms.

The outrageousness of the panel’s negative judgement of the players arising from this issue is exemplified by the following seven players who were cross-examined by the CAS panel:
1. Scott Gumbleton did not have a doping test in 2012.
2. Brent Prismall was tested on 6 December 2011. Prismall hadn’t received an injection at that stage and therefore he had nothing to declare on his doping control form.
3. Jobe Watson was tested in January 2012 and 12 July 2012. Watson hadn’t been injected before February 2012 and refused to be injected by the end of April. Consequently, he cannot be accused of failing to fill out his form correctly.
4. David Hille was tested on 14 May 2012. Like Watson, he too, refused injections before the end of April.
5. Cory Dell’Olio was tested on 14 July 2012. As he had not received an injection in the previous seven days he had nothing to declare on his doping control form
6. Mark McVeigh was tested on 23 January 2012. McVeigh had not been injected at that stage and therefore had nothing to declare on his doping control form.
7. Ricky Dyson was tested on six occasions in 2012. As I don’t know, and the panel doesn’t know, when Dyson received his Thymosin injection, it is impossible to say whether he failed to fill out his form correctly.

Although Dyson Heppell and Ben Howlett were not required to appear at the hearing, they were in the same boat as the first six players listed above in that they were tested before (23 January 2012) receiving any injections.. As they had not been injected at that stage they had nothing to declare on their doping control forms.

Seven of the remaining 12 players testified that they were never administered a Thymosin injection. Therefore, only a maximum number of five players may not have filled out their doping control forms correctly. I cannot comment on those five players because I have not seen their doping control test forms, despite having made a FOI request to ASADA for those forms on 22 June 2016.

My command of the English language is poor and my mathematical skills are worse. But in my book, five out of 34 doesn’t reconcile with the panel’s claim that “the complete failure of the vast majority of Players who had to fill in a doping control form ("DCF") during the season to reveal the receipt of injections does not encourage confidence in their statements as to the limited or sporadic nature of what they were injected with”.

Shamefully, this statement was one of the major reasons the panel found the players guilty.

Regards

Bruce Francis

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