AUSTRALIAN RULES CLUB Essendon are in turmoil after 12 members of their squad were banned for the 2016 AFL season when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found 34 past and present players guilty of breaching anti-doping regulations.
The AFL and Essendon were rocked today when CAS announced it had upheld an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after the 34 were initially cleared of any wrongdoing by an AFL anti-doping appeals tribunal.
CAS were “comfortably satisfied” that the current and former players were administered Thymosin beta-4, which violated the anti-doping code during the 2012 season, with the majority of the players in question banned until November.
A CAS statement said: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today issued its decision in the arbitration procedure between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and 34 current and former players of Essendon.
“The appeal filed by WADA against the Australian Football League (AFL) Anti-Doping Tribunal’s decision of 31 March 2015 is upheld and the appealed decision is set aside.
“The 34 players concerned are sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of two years, commencing on 31 March 2015, with credit given for any individual period of ineligibility already served.
Thus, most of the suspensions will come to an end in November 2016.
“The arbitration procedure was conducted by a panel of CAS arbitrators: the Hon. Michael J. Beloff QC, barrister in London, United Kingdom [President], Mr. Romano Subiotto QC, Solicitor Advocate in Brussels, Belgium, and the Hon. James Spigelman AC QC, barrister in Sydney, Australia and London, United Kingdom.
“The Panel held a hearing with the parties in Sydney, Australia from 16 to 20 November 2015. In its Arbitral Award, the Panel found to its comfortable satisfaction that Clause 11.2 of the 2010 AFL Doping Code [use of a prohibited substance] has been violated and found by a majority that all players were significantly at fault.”
Essendon responded with chairman Lindsay Tanner insisting he is confident the club will become a force again.
“This is a very difficult day for Essendon Football Club, but the critical thing here is there will be better days,” Tanner said on the club’s official website.
“And they will come more quickly and more powerfully than you expect.
“We’re going to have some tough times, but ultimately we will prevail.”
Tanner paid tribute to the club’s fans for sticking by them
“The support, the unity, the commitment that has been displayed by the wider Essendon community over those three years has been extraordinary,” Tanner said.
“I think many other clubs would have fallen apart in disarray, in disunity – we haven’t done that.
“We made some serious mistakes in 2012, we are dealing with the consequences of that.
“It’s presenting us with some pretty extreme challenges – we are up for those challenges.
“Players rise to the opportunity when they’re given the chance – I have every expectation that will occur again.”
Cork are so bad, Lord
Clare to win the all ireland
Is it tidy towns you are on about.
Wolf , donal og cusack was not wrong when he showed the Graf on the Sunday game last year of where cork hurling is at the moment , that was atrocious from a county that has been so resoundingly competitive for years , as we always said in tipp a good year was the hay saved and cork bet , not the case anymore unfortunately from a tipp this sad to see as it is not good for the sport in general
7 points down with 10 mins to go and they’re STILL using a sweeper what are the management thinking!?
Terrible decision to use a sweeper for all the game
The tactic seems to have been to concentrate on keeping the Tipp margin of victory as low as possible..
That way the Cork public might not turn against the County Board.
It’s all about self preservation.
As a Galway man I’m worried how that cork team beat us in the relegation decider.
Not looking good when it looks like Kerry can outplay Cork in both codes.
That was the worst Cork team, led by the worst Cork management in living memory. Not help by having the worst County Board in Ireland.
It’s grand. Frank Murphy et al will have their legacy with the new stadium and that’s what really matters.
Absolutely sickening stuff….
Probably call it ‘Murphy Park!
Cork were terrible, Couldn’t even pass the ball to each other and hit numerous aimless balls down the park.Tipp won the majority of 50/50s and dominated all the scuffles on the park. There’s a long road ahead for Cork hurling as this group of players are not be up to the standard required.
Worst cork performance in my living memory nit one player would get on the the team of 10 years ago
How did we get so bad?
When you depend on decent guys from junior and intermediate clubs your in big trouble the senior clubs in Cork are of such poor standard it’s amazing we can even limit Tipp to 9 points. The upside is we will have a New state of the art stadium for other Munster counties to play in come championship time and we will have plenty stewards . In serious grief at seeing this latest capitulation and no sign of any light for the road ahead
Ye are on a par with Wexford I’m afraid.
On way down in train, Cork have become the “kerry” of Munster hurling
From a Tipp fan – it was a poor match overall. Both teams will have not learned much from today. Limerick will be a different story! !
When you set up your side for damage limitation that is all you will achieve, the sweeper system has hurling destroyed.The 2013 championship was one of the best in living memory but it seems like a lifetime ago now! I can only hope that Limerick will go 15 on 15 in the semi-final and play their natural gung ho shit or bust style because if they don’t another woeful game will drift by.
The sweeper can still be played in a positive and entertaining way but it requires far more tactically than simply pulling a man back. When you play a sweeper you also play against a sweeper, teams need to execute both defensive and offensive sides of the formation. Look at Clare for example, defensively they press hard when not in possession and crowd midfield forcing teams to play long balls up to where they have an extra man who now has more time to get into position to cover. Then in attack they utilise rapid short passing to work the ball past midfield so they can play long forward passes that bypass the sweeper. It can be done well and still be entertaining but the likes of Cork and Limerick are now trying it without any idea of how to play the system and producing dour matches
Is Frank there for life? Is it like being pope?
Frank does what he wants and NO ONE dares question him.
Patrick Horgan with yet another game of no scores from play!
Shocking.. what were they thinking with the sweeper system ??? A draw ???? Short summer ahead..
Cork should enter the Christy ring
Hello Cork, hello Cork, where are ye.?????
Cork were abysmal today it is sad to see how far they have gone back the game needs a competitive cork side
These players have worked as hard as previous teams and the management have worked as hard as previous managers.We are at the low end of the cycle.The wheel will turn in time but let’s not be personally offensive to players or managers and selectors
Your right… I don’t blame the players, management or selectors…
I blame the county board and more importantly the man who has been running it for over 40 years…
William my comment may have came across wrong. I didn’t mean to have a go at Egan or anyone in particular. I just found d whole game v frustrating. Cork are better than that.
I see the blaming of poor auld frank has started as usual…only one thing for it then I suppose another strike
Why on earth would cork change their tactics to one they have never used and try it in their championship opener against Tipp of all teams aswell
Roll on kilkenny to sort them out
It’s all well and good using a sweeper if they know what they doin. Egan was standing there with not a clue what he was supposed to b at. He may as well been up in d stand.
Hope they don’t become as bad as the Kilkenny footballers
On the ball William…We are in a transition with plenty of challenges ahead. This is the right back room crew to get things turned around.
I love your optimism
I took the m
Jesus, are there any hurlers left in Cork?
Can’t believe how much cork hurling has declined this year. Yesterday showed that they’ve no leadership on the pitch and no plans other than using a sweeping system no matter what. JBM was restricted during his time in charge by the power that be (frank murphy) Also the last players strike certainly accomplished nothing but contribute to the demise of cork hurling. It’s a shame, there’s some great young hurlers all over cork county.