Essendon in crisis again - more of what we all knew

[Xman]

Cronulla were using Danks drugs from the boot of his car. Not just TB4, but serious PEDs like CJC. None of them asked for assurances about its safety or legality, so they were doping good and proper. Unlike Essendon players who were clearly misled after being informed in writing that they were within the WADA code

[King-Eliagh]

There's no excuses Xman. Your lads got the punishment they deserved, as did the Cronulla lads. Justice was served and you're just bitter you lost half your team! :_<>

Suck it up princess, sometimes times are tough but its how you get back up again which maketh thy man.

Look at me for example, I go for parra eels and I can say yeah we cheated and deserve what was coming to us. Now I can get up and get going. You on the other hand are lying on the deck, piss in your panties, whinging like a 6 year old girl about how "cwonuwwa were worse why didn't they get pwunished, we were better than them, why are we getting pwunished" :_<> Get up and face your teams punishment like a man xma'am! You're a pitiful site on these forums acting the way you aRE!!!

[Xman]

They were punished and under the WADA code that was fair enough. But claiming Cronulla were somehow better is complete rubbish. If anything its the other way.

[AFLcrap1]

Wow what logic
It's the other way .
Lol

Which team had 34 players banned
Here's a hint ...wasn't Cronulla .

[Xman]

Wow what logic
It's the other way .
Lol

Which team had 34 players banned
Here's a hint ...wasn't Cronulla .

the players were banned based on the consent forms they signed, not on positive tests or confessions.

The essendon players asked for assurances, the cronulla players did nothing

[AFLcrap1]

Lol I'm not defending what Cronulla did
It was bad very bad .
Was it the same as essingdrug . Fuck no.
No matter how much you try to polish the essingdrug turd .
It's still a stinking turd .

& far more players involved
Drugging went on for far far far far longer
Compare penalties ..
The cases are nothing alike

But you keep polishing that turd .

[Xman]

Im not defending what Essendon did either. They deserved sanctions and the players deserved a penalty. However, IMO they ran a program they thought was compliant but involved someone who thought he knew more than WADA and could get around using banned substances. Problem is he didnt document anything and didnt tell the players what he was doing. Robinson and Dank texted each other agreeing to call the substances amino acids so the players wouldnt be alarmed. Why would they do that if the players were also in on the act?

Comparing the penalties is daft. Following the WADA code Cronulla should have been given the same penalty but took a deal. Essendon didnt because the players still didnt believe they did the wrong thing especially after the club assured them they were fine.

[AFLcrap1]

So a few yrs on from when the drug story broke ,let's look at where the teams involved are at.

Cronulla .

Took their medicine admitted guilt Got on with their footy careers .
Now sitting a CLEAR 1ST on the NRL ladder .

Essingbong .
Denied obstructed tried everything to stall, delay ...tried legal action .
Found guilty ....34 current & former players guilty of being drug cheats .
Currently last on the fumble ladder .


I love when justice is served .

[Fred]

Slow night in crappers house i am guessing lol. What made you pull that one up? I am sure the other crapper will join in with the usual . Have fun you two.

[AFLcrap1]

Bhaaaa.
Of course you fumblers want to forget how bad it was for fumbles & bumbles .

This thread is hilarious .

[Fred]

I barrack for collingwood and think it is great what happened to essendon and james hird. Deserves all he gets. Afl is very tribal and if another club cops it all good

[AFLcrap1]

Bump .

NRL Grand Final: Cronulla Sharks success after ASADA scandal v Essendon Bombers struggles

AAP, FOX SPORTS
September 30, 2016 10:26am

CRONULLA took the ban. Essendon didn’t. Cronulla could be premiers. Essendon came last.

The contrast is stark between NRL club Cronulla and AFL club Essendon.

Both dealt with scandals over their supplements programs at the same time. Both clubs were linked to controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank, who denied any wrongdoing.

Both clubs were offered bans. Both reacted differently.

Cronulla took the deal, grudgingly. They’re in Sunday’s NRL grand final. Essendon didn’t. They finished last this AFL season.

WHAT IF WE TOOK THE DEAL?

Right now, Essendon players are probably wondering: what if? What if we took the deal? What if our club responded like Cronulla?

Both clubs were the focus of a two-year investigation by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) into the use of banned substances.

In August 2014, ASADA reportedly offered both clubs a penalty: 12-month bans, backdated, for Cronulla players involved.

There is conjecture they offered six- month bans, backdated, for Essendon players involved.

A dozen Cronulla players from their 2011 squad accepted just before the end of the 2014 NRL season. The backdating meant they effectively served a three-match ban.

Some 34 Essendon players from the club’s 2014 squad followed club advice and refused to deal.

The club fought. And ultimately lost. The players were banned for the entire 2016 AFL season.

ACCEPTANCE V ARROGANCE

Professor Bob Stewart, from Victoria University’s College of Sport and Exercise Science, has studied the cases amid his wider research into drugs in sport. And he’s in no doubt.

“They (Essendon players) would be beyond envy of what Cronulla have done, at every level,” Stewart told AAP.

Pragmatism versus idealism. Acceptance versus arrogance. Cronulla versus Essendon.

“The so-called silver tails of Essendon versus the working boys of Cronulla,” Stewart said.

“In hindsight, Cronulla were very smart.

“They were pragmatic enough to understand they were in a pickle and they thought ‘what is the best worst outcome’.

“And that is what they got. You could say they were actually quite astute.

“Whereas Essendon, this glamour AFL club with all the success and all the resources, thought they could bludgeon their way through the whole mess. ‘But they didn’t.”


On Sunday, two Cronulla players who were banned — Paul Gallen and Wade Graham — will compete in the NRL grand final.

And coach Shane Flanagan, who was suspended by the NRL for 12 months over governance issues, will be their coach.

THE CASUALTIES


James Hird has been a polarising figure throughout Essendon’s ASADA drama. Picture: Nicole Garmston
Meanwhile, the 34 Essendon players have just finished serving their bans — some have since retired, some have since moved to other AFL clubs.

Of the banned batch, a dozen were on Essendon’s playing roster this year. And 10 have re-signed, or recommitted, to playing with the Bombers again next season.

But James Hird, who coached the Bombers in 2012 and was banned for 12 months by the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute, won’t be there.

Hird, after serving his ban, returned to coach Essendon in 2015, but quit with three games remaining in the season.

Stewart said the attitude of Hird compounded the mess at Essendon.

“He believed that he should be exonerated from everything and that he wasn’t part of the problem,” Stewart said.

“Cronulla were quite clever, they understood that ‘we have a problem’.

“You can argue about the technicalities of those peptide hormones but in the end at least one of them, if not two of them, were clearly banned substances.”

MOVING ON


Paul Gallen signs autographs for fans during the Sharks fan day.
Essendon and Hird chose to argue “the technicalities of law and causation”, maintaining they were fighting circumstantial evidence of any wrongdoing.

“But if you add the circumstantial evidence together, which is what WADA did in the (Essendon) appeal, you can’t help think that something is going funny here,” Stewart said.

“And that is something Essendon weren’t prepared to admit. And maybe they didn’t even know. Maybe they didn’t quite understand what was being done to these players.

“At Cronulla, again, maybe they were just more pragmatic and understood in a more simple intellectual way that this is the way out.”

Essendon players were banned in January this year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which heard the case when ASADA appealed an earlier not guilty finding by the AFL’s Anti-Doping Tribunal.

Essendon continue to fight.

They have lodged an appeal against the CAS verdict to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, literally their last resort.

The appeal could be heard in November this year.

[NlolRL]

Hmmm, as an AFL fan I'm happy the cheats at least copped their fair whack, all their coaching staff were removed, and they've been in purgatory for 4 years. If they had accepted a 4 match ban, kept their scheming coach, and were in the GF only a few years later I'd be furious at the lenience of their penalties. Why arent NRL fans? Where's the justice in the NRL?

[AFLcrap1]

Lol
Because they actually put their hand up .
Druggo fumblers should try the honest approach some time .

[NlolRL]

Lol
Because they actually put their hand up .
Druggo fumblers should try the honest approach some time .

So NRL fans are happy the cheats are in a GF only 2 years after being found guilty of systematic team-wide doping? Wow

Essendope will be near the bottom of the ladder for many years to come, which is an appropriate penalty for team-wide doping. If they make the GF next year all hell would break loose. The penalties should be harsh enough that no one attempts to do this again. 4 matches penalty with no real on-field ramifications is an absolute joke