Essendon players guilty! Bans til November 2016!

[think positive]

CAS result! About $£$%^%%$ time

[Bucks5]

We should run a prediction thread... My guess is time served (the voluntary suspension during the NAB cup) and a lengthy suspended sentence.

[Jezza]

My prediction is that the Essendon players will be found guilty for taking TB4 and for bans to be backdated therefore allowing the players involved to prepare for pre-season and the home and away season as per usual.

I can't believe it's been nearly three years since this story was covered by the media. It's dragged on forever.

[stoliboy]

Please be something good!

The Age are covering it live at the link below.

Essendon CAS decision: Live coverage
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-cas-decision-live-coverage-20160111-gm3p5e.html

[stoliboy]

Essendon are running the hastag #BackOurBoys.

Should be a good source of Essendon tears if there is a negative result.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/BackOurBoys?src=hash

[think positive]

Guilty! Bans til november

[stoliboy]

The Age is reporting Jobe Watson and Dustin Fletcher's suspensions slightly longer

https://twitter.com/RealFooty1/status/686655240800632832

[stoliboy]

Jobe Watson should have his Brownlow stripped!

[stoliboy]

CAS verdict: Essendon players to miss season 2016
January 12, 2016 - 8:03AM
Jake Niall
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/cas-verdict-essendon-players-to-miss-season-2016-20160107-gm18nq.html

Current and former Essendon players have been found guilty of doping offences and will miss the entire 2016 season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the World Anti-Doping Agency appeal.

In a stunning reversal of the AFL tribunal decision that cleared the 34 current and former Essendon players last March, CAS was comfortably satisfied that the 2012 players had taken the banned substance thymosin beta-4.

While the players were handed the mandatory two-year bans and were found to be significantly at fault, the CAS indicated most of the 34 would be suspended until November this year, depending on the backdating that applies in each case.

They did not receive the major discount for "no significant fault, no significant negligence" which can cut a sentence drastically.

The ruling means that, barring any further legal appeals, that most players will miss all of 2016 season, in a judgement that is disastrous for both Essendon and the AFL and is precisely the outcome that both club and competition have striven to avoid since the drugs scandal erupted in February 2013.

The AFL, which had hoped the players would escape suspension, is set to confirm on Tuesday that Essendon will be given the opportunity to recruit "top up" players for the period of suspension - which is for the 2016 season.

The judgement, unprecedented in AFL and Australian sporting history, will have a number of consequences, with the players expected to consider legal action against Essendon and possibly the AFL.

The AFL commission is also facing an imminent decision on whether to strip Bombers' skipper Jobe Watson of his 2012 Brownlow.

The players' legal representatives, the AFL and the doping bodies were informed on the CAS decision early on Tuesday. It is unclear whether there are legal avenues of appeal, though it possible to take the matter to a Swiss court or Australian courts.

Barring a successful legal challenge, Port Adelaide will be without their ex-Bombers Paddy Ryder and Angus Monfries for the relevant period, while the Bulldogs will lose Stewart Crameri and St Kilda and Melbourne will be deprived of recruits Jake Carlisle and Jake Melksham respectively.

Essendon will be without Watson and many of their premier players, such as Dyson Heppell, Michael Hurley, Cale Hooker, Michael Hibberd and Brent Stanton, along with Travis Colyer, David Myers, Tom Bellchambers, Heath Hocking, Ben Howlett and Tayte Pears. Exactly half of the 34 are no longer playing AFL football.

The CAS decision, while significant and unwelcome for Essendon, the players and the competition, was not surprising to those with a knowledge of the CAS hearing in Sydney.

WADA's case involved bringing not only doping expert Richard Young and his offsider to Australia, but expert witnesses from the US and Germany. Sources with a knowledge of the CAS hearing had observed before the verdict that the panel, headed by London QC Michael Beloff, gave strong signs that they would set the bar lower for "comfortable satisfaction" - the standard of proof in doping cases - compared with the AFL anti-doping tribunal.

Beloff had also indicated at one point that he could not see why players were entitled to a "no significant fault, no signficant negligence" discount, which could cut a sentence from two years to one and might have seen the players avoid missing games altogether.

The players did not qualify for cooperation, either, which can reduce sentences by a further six months, but they will receive discounts for what is deemed to be a period they've already missed.

WADA's successful appeal of the AFL tribunal verdict - which had found decisively against the Australian Sport Anti-Doping Authority - was led by renowned doping lawyer Young, who had been among those who prosecuted disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong and had helped devise the WADA code.

[stoliboy]

[think positive]

[Seth]

Banned for 12 months by the court of arbitration. Wow.

Comments.

[London Dave]

Tremendous news... what Hird and that club did is inexcusable... hopefully the AFL shows some balls and removes his 'legend' status.... a disgrace.

[stoliboy]

Hahahahaha

3AW Breakfast:
Jake says Jobe Watson's and Dustin Fletcher's penalties are eight days longer because they played for Australia in International Rules.
https://twitter.com/RossAndJohn/status/686657945795301376

[think positive]

Now that's funny!