Essendon doping saga: Secret CAS hearing transcripts reveal AFL’s Hird hit
THE AFL urged the world’s top anti-doping court to acknowledge “the cult of James Hird” in determining the culpability of the Essendon 34, secret CAS hearing transcripts reveal.
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THE AFL urged the world’s top anti-doping court to acknowledge “the cult of James Hird” in determining the culpability of the Essendon 34.
Secret transcripts from the behind-closed-doors Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing, which wiped out the Bombers’ 2016 season, lift the lid on the league’s attempts to spare the players from maximum suspensions.
In a bizarre exchange, an AFL lawyer suggested iconic US actor Jimmy Stewart was “not clean enough” to be cast as Hird in a movie, such was his “pure” reputation before footy’s greatest scandal. “Don’t underestimate the significance of the cult of James Hird,” AFL counsel Jeff Gleeson, QC, told the CAS during a five-day hearing in Sydney last November.
“If a casting director was trying to cast James Hird and the suggestion was that Jimmy Stewart play the role, the director, knowing James Hird, would think, he’s a little too abrasive, he’s not clean enough.
“That is how pure James Hird’s reputation was. Brownlow medallist, Norm Smith medallist, one of the most courageous players the game has ever seen and not a whisper of scandal or impropriety about the man.”
“He is involved in taking injections himself.”
But the AFL’s attempts to sheet full responsibility for the Essendon drugs debacle away from the players and towards club figures like Hird failed spectacularly after the World Anti-Doping Agency used testimony from Bombers doctor Bruce Reid to help win its case.
Essendon on Friday night confirmed Dr Reid was compelled under AFL rules to give evidence at the Sydney CAS hearing after being called as a WADA witness.
The AFL argued unsuccessfully that the players should have been eligible for discounted “no significant fault or negligence” penalties that would have allowed them to play games this season, regardless of the verdict.
A ruling on the players’ appeal against their suspensions is expected within weeks.
The secret 827-page CAS transcripts also detail how:
A WADA expert witness claimed the use of thymosin beta-4 — the drug at the centre of the scandal — was widespread at other AFL clubs during 2012. The evidence from Professor David Handelsman was not accepted.
BANNED Bombers skipper Jobe Watson said he discussed the contentious peptide AOD-9604 with Dr Reid before he signed a consent form for its use.
A CARDIOLOGIST for a senior player suffering from a heart condition called Dr Reid to discuss the supplements the player was being given.
A RETESTED urine sample provided by a rookie player after the club’s Round 16 match that year revealed sky-high readings of thymosin beta-4. WADA failed to establish whether the level of thymosin beta-4, which can be produced naturally in the body, was artificially raised.
MORE:INSIDE THE SECRET CAS APPEAL HEARINGS
Dr Reid’s lack of knowledge of Essendon’s 2012 drugs program was a focus of the World Anti-Doping Agency appeal. In a critical testimony, Dr Reid told the CAS via video link on November 17 last year that he had no knowledge of thymosin injections at Essendon and would have stopped them if he did.
He agreed not a single player told him they had signed consent forms. Dr Reid’s evidence was used by WADA to help establish a narrative, ultimately accepted by CAS, that he was deliberately kept in the dark about the program.
In its final judgment, CAS said none of the 34 players bothered to ask Dr Reid — “the obvious port of call” — for advice about thymosin “although all signed a consent form for its administration”.
Under questioning from WADA attorney Brent Rychener, Dr Reid confirmed he was not aware of a meeting at the club’s Windy Hill headquarters in February 2012 where players were briefed on what drugs they were being given.
Rychener: “You had never approved thymosin injections?”
Reid: “No, I had not.”
Rychener: “And fair to say, you were very upset that the players were being injected by (Stephen) Dank and (Dean) Robinson without your knowledge or approval?”
Reid: “Yes.”
Rychener: “And if you had known about the thymosin injections, you would have done something about it?”
Reid: “Yes, I would have.”
The veteran Essendon doctor, who was charged by the AFL over the saga in September 2013 before the league backed down after he lodged a Supreme Court fight, said the players were “convinced” he had approved the use of thymosin.
In an exchange with a lawyer for former Bombers Stewart Crameri and Brent Prismall, Dr Reid flatly denied knowledge of the injection program.
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