I'm particularly curious if any delisted players will be seeking legal restitution. Hal Hunter lodged a statement of claim last year so he could see the evidence relating to himself, but oddly enough he's not named as one of the 34.
Currently all the media is focusing on are the 17 current AFL listed players who will miss the next season, but that still leaves the 14 now playing or coaching in the lower leagues - plus Mark McVeigh who's now an assistant at GWS - who are also banned.
Also Port Adelaide could have some legal standing over the Monfries trade, given that was done before this whole saga kicked off.
I don't really have any strong feelings about this results, I feel like this has reached an inevitable conclusion.
There's this narrative being pushed that the punishment is unfair, that the players did no wrong. But ultimately all players are educated on the risks of PEDs and that final responsibility of what goes into their body lies with themselves. People talk about the players putting their faith in the club, but similarly solo athletes put their faith in coaches, trainers and training partners. All athletes have to be held to the same standard otherwise the system has no integrity. It's Jobe's own testimony to WADA about his misgivings regarding the "program", though never questioning it, that ultimately did him in.
As reported:
“The players had all received education in anti-doping,” the panel ruled.
“No player appears to have made use of the WADA hotline or indeed any other hotline. No player asked the club doctor, the obvious first port of call, for advice about Thymosin, although all signed a consent form to its administration.
“The players’ lack of curiosity is fatal to the success of this particular plea.”
...
However, the panel was comfortably satisfied only TB4, not other variants, would have had the effects Dank had intended.
...
Hundreds of texts and emails between key players in the drama also indicated Dank, who also runs a private sports science practice, had been using TB4 at the time.
The CAS panel treated evidence from biochemist Shane Charter, pharmacist Nima Alavi and Dank himself with “appropriate caution” but declined to reject it outright, saying much of it was backed up by text messages and emails.
It said that given the high degree of secrecy, players must have known the regimen was controversial.
There were also consent forms signed by players which said they were to receive “Thymosin” injections.
It said “the complete failure” of players to fill out doping control forms detailing their injections “did not encourage confidence as to the limited or sporadic nature of what they were injected with”.
Think people and the media need to stop treating these players with kid gloves. They're not park footballers, they are professionals, this is their livelihood. You can only feign so much ignorance. People love using military analogies in Football, so maybe we should stop viewing clubs as a family and more as a platoon. Sometimes authority needs to be a questioned when s*** goes FUBAR.
Doesn't mean I don't have a shred of sympathy for the players. I just think people romanticise sporting clubs too much, to the sports own detriment. Sports all to easily shift between "its just business" to "we're a family".
