Revelations from Dr Peter Harcourt’s speech in Zurich raises questions about AFL’s actions

YESTERDAY’S revelation raises questions about who knew what at AFL House before the Bombers “self reported” to the AFL and ASADA in 2013.

SO, the AFL was suspicious of Essendon in 2012.

Yesterday’s revelation raises questions about who knew what at AFL House before the Bombers “self-reported” to the AFL and ASADA on February 5, 2013.

Former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has consistently denied he knew anything specific about any club and questionable drugs practices.

DONS SPECIMENS SENT BEFORE CLUB SELF-REPORTED

VIDEO REVEALS WHY ESSENDON TEAMED UP WITH ASADA

ESSENDON PLAYER IDENTITIES MAY BE REVEALED

He was absolutely adamant he did not know Essendon was the club under scrutiny by the Australian Crime Commission.

Two days after Essendon reported itself to ASADA, the Crime Commission dropped its Project Aperio report, the result of a 12-month investigation into drugs and crime in Australian sport.

Demetriou could not be contacted to comment on Wednesday night.

His successor Gillon McLachlan would not comment on the Zurich bombshell.

In an extraordinary wide-ranging lecture at an anti-doping seminar in Switzerland’s biggest city at the end of 2013, AFL chief medical officer Dr Peter Harcourt said “we” had “some wind” in 2012 that something was up at Essendon.

The whiff would become a smell and then a stench.

With the aid of ASADA, the AFL had an unspecified number of samples from Essendon players sent to Cologne.

They returned nothing, Harcourt said.

If all this is true, there are a few questions here. Near the top is this: how can one department of the AFL be so concerned about the possible use of banned drugs that they sent samples offshore for testing, but not concerned enough to alert executives up the chain, perhaps even the AFL Commission?

That the information didn’t progress to higher offices is baffling. If it didn’t, that’s a serious organisational failing.

Governance, anyone?

Originally published as Revelations from Dr Peter Harcourt’s speech in Zurich raises questions about AFL’s actions