It's been long enough and I'm finally going to wade into the Essendon drug scandal. I've resisted it previously for a number of reasons. Firstly they are my favourite team and any defence of their position by myself may be misconstrued as biased. But most importantly there haven't been enough facts available to the public to make any clear judgement one way or the other. Not that that hasn't stopped thousands of evil hearted, brain dead, butt licking, dog fucking....sorry, calming myself now....there may be some outbursts during this post. So thousands of people have decided to act judge and jury without facts and condemn a team; its staff, its players, its fans, and publicly cry for what they consider justice in the form of sanctions, fines, stripping the players and team of accolades and evening banning them all from the competition. I do that often. I decide that facts aren't important and that all decisions on the lives of other human beings should be made on a hate filled whim. Oh no wait, I don't. COZ I'M NOT A FUCKING TWAT!
So here are the facts as they have been revealed over the course of the investigations. They DO NOT add up to a verdict but they paint a pretty clear picture of what went on and should prove to anyone who doesn't have their head up their arse that the Essendon players are not some lowlife miscreants out to destroy the integrity of the game. I'll list a bit of hearsay in here as well as when coupled with known facts it paints a clearer picture.
Hearsay - Stephen Dank, former Sports Scientist for Essendon, has claimed since the scandal broke that he acted within the guidelines provided to him and that neither he nor the Essendon football club has done anything wrong.
Fact - WADA stated AOD-964 has been banned under category S0 since 2011.
Fact - WADA does NOT provide advice directly to sporting clubs, they defer this responsibility to governing bodies within each country.
Fact - Jobe Watson admitted to signing the consent form for AOD-964 and believed that it was administered to him during 2012
Fact (and this is where it gets a little messy but also the most interesting) - The ACC has officially stated that during 2012 the operational advice provided by ASADA was that AOD-964 was NOT a prohibited substance under category S2. They also state that during 2012 this advice was provided to a number of officials including members of the AFL community.
So right here you can see some conflict. WADA says it's banned, but clubs can't ask them. They have to ask ASADA. And if you asked ASADA during 2012 they said it was not prohibited under category S2. They make no mention of category S0. So how is the club to know WADA has banned the substance if ASADA is not providing that information? ASADA is THE authoritative source for this information in Australia. They are the ONLY place sporting teams can turn to for this kind of advice and there is factual evidence from the Australian Crime Commission that they have screwed up. When I heard this news I was freaking ecstatic. I wanted to run into the pub where I overheard a guy was telling his mate never to tip Essendon because they were drug taking cheaters and yell "TAKE THAT COCK SMOKER!". I wanted to go to Perth and line up the West Coast fans who booed Jobe Watson before they knew the facts and yell "TAKE YA HEAD OUT OF YA ARSE AND JAM THAT UP YA! SIDEWAYS!". And I still wanna spout this information to all the douchebags on Twitter every time Essendon play and they start tweeting misinformed vitriol and sign of my posts with the hash tag #FUCKINGL2READ, but I only have 140 characters. The investigation isn't concluded just yet so there may be more facts that come to light, but I can't see that evidence changing the situation much unless it directly contradicts evidence previously given. But the evidence seems to support Dank's hearsay that he acted within the guidelines he was officially provided with. I can't see any fair resolution to this situation that results in penalties for the club or it's players. But it seems fairness is not what people are after in this investigation...
A number of current and former players have come forward and said they trust the advice given to them by the team doctors implicitly. They are encouraged to do this by the AFL Committee itself. Those doctors are to receive advice on the legality of supplements from the ASADA as the authoritative source of such information. So this could have happened to ANY player who was playing for ANY team who's doctor had requested such advice during 2012. This could have happened to YOUR players for YOUR team without them having any control over the situation. Does that not make them victims? It could have happened to a number of teams and if it was your team in this horrendous situation, how would you feel then? People need to think a little before they judge. Firstly, they shouldn't judge people without all the facts. Secondly, they are judging real people here; people with feelings and people with families. Are you really the sort of person that wants to hurt them only to find out later you were wrong?
