Essendon drugs scandal: Mark Robinson says banned Bombers will have to deal with drug shame for rest of their lives

FEW people would have predicted today’s guilty outcome but it’s something every Essendon player will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

THE 34 Essendon players are drug cheats, a fact they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

It is a brutal reality.

The club undertook a drugs program and the players followed like blind sheep.

Those at Essendon should feel ashamed because the players have been held to account for what goes into their body despite the players placing all their trust in Essendon officialdom.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, however, laid the blame at the players.

They are responsible, it said.

Clearly, the blame should lay heavily on everyone at Essendon. All of them. Then Essendon chairman David Evans and his board. The coach James Hird and his staff. And Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson.

Through their actions, the players have lost careers and reputations.

The three-year nightmare has become a four-year hell and a lifelong sentence.

Dank, Robinson, Hird and everyone else involved can disagree, but this decision is final.

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They too, have to live with their decisions and they will receive no sympathy.

It came, in part, because the players did not disclose what and when they received injections and pills on the necessary forms.

That is the responsibility of the athlete.

It points to a shoddy and irresponsible environment at Essendon and one that lacked total professionalism.

The decision to sign consent forms and keep secret the regime also went against the players — this despite the club demanding it.

The decision to give the players 12 months will cripple the Bombers, savage the 2016 season and almost certainly set off a chain of legal action from the devastated players.

The financial toll could run into millions.

The Bombers will be the target and so will the AFL.

CAS findings on Essendon 34 in full

Also suspended are players at other clubs, including Patrick Ryder, Angus Monftries and Jake Carlisle, which derails their clubs. The club officials would be livid.

The future of Jobe Watson is a major concern. Will he sit out and return for the 2017 season or will this morning’s announcement drive him from the game?

The AFL will have no alternative than to strip Watson of the 2012 Brownlow Medal. It happens all over the world when doping violations are proven.

It’s just another kick to the head for the skipper.

It would be a scene of utter devastation at Essendon today.

Bombers chief executive Xavier Campbell had addressed the players yesterday and contingency plans had been outlined. He did not expect this outcome, however.

Comprehensively cleared by the AFL’s anti-doping tribunal earlier this year, the CAS decision is a complete about face.

It is mystifying how two separate hearings could return two staggeringly different outcomes.

The players did not return positive tests, but clearly the evidence of a lack of duty from the players overwhelmed the CAS panel.

The carnage that will now rain down on the competition will be unprecedented.

Hindsight is a cheap option, but the players taking a deal was probably that best option, although very few people would’ve predicted today’s outcome.

The suspended 17

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Originally published as Essendon drugs scandal: Mark Robinson says banned Bombers will have to deal with drug shame for rest of their lives