ASADA clearing Nathan Bock reeks of hypocrisy, writes Mark Robinson

ASADA has its trophy in the shape of the Essendon 34, says Mark Robinson. Nathan Bock escapes because he’s a small fish in a murky pond.

AFLPA/Essendon presser

SIT down, Essendon fans, you best hear this in a comfy chair.

Get a drink and try to get a sense of humour.

Ready to go?

BOCK CLEARED: ASADA ACCUSED OF HYPOCRISY

You know how the Essendon players were suspended for 12 months on the back of evidence that a banned drug MAY have been at Essendon, we can today tell you Nathan Bock MAY have a banned drug in his hand and MAY have injected himself and has escaped any suspension.

ASADA confirmed on Friday the Bock investigation was over and that Bock had been cleared of doping.

It’s welcoming news for the former Gold Coast defender.

He won’t be christened a drug cheat. He will be able to coach Southport Sharks in the NEAFL. He will be able to put the stress, anxiety and the alleged subterfuge in the far reaches of his mind, knowing it’s all over.

Nathan Bock is free to continue coaching Southport Sharks. Picture: JERAD WILLIAMS

The issue is not whether Bock took drugs. Did he or didn’t he take drugs? Who cares?

Certainly, ASADA doesn’t.

Let’s get this straight. Dean Robinson, who was at the Gold Coast Suns before coming to an Essendon, told ASADA he gave Bock the banned drug CJC-1295 in a cooler bag, covered in dry ice, when Bock visited his home in late 2010.

He also told ASADA he suggested to Bock he go to a hospital pharmacy and ask for syringes and tell the hospital they were for his girlfriend.

Umm, OK, nothing to see here.

Bock’s case was helped when the AFL anti-doping tribunal said it wasn’t convinced the drug was in fact CJC-1295.

The same tribunal, remember, wasn’t convinced Thymosin Beta 4 actually left China, actually arrived in Australia, actually was prepared for Stephen Dank and actually ended up at Essendon.

Still, WADA appealed the Essendon case to the Court of Arbitration of Sport and, as we know, it won.

Jobe Watson and Heath Hocking train after being banned. Picture: Hamish Blair

They had their reasons, WADA, and in the end the threads and cables and whatever else they twisted for their own argument, combined with a firm belief the players didn’t take enough responsibility by asking enough questions or reading websites or making phone calls, won the day.

No such lack of responsibility from Bock, eh?

He went to Robinson’s home and picked up his own banned drugs - according to Robinson.

This is reprehensible and disturbing from WADA, not least hypocritical.

It wants to stamp out doping, yet even us with a limited knowledge of what pertains to be strong circumstantial evidence, you’d think Bock would be in serious trouble if WADA appealed.

You know, strands and cables and those kinds of thing

It’s as if ASADA went game-hunting in the Okavango Delta and shot a lion (Essendon) and when they saw a warthog (Bock), they couldn’t be bothered wasting a bullet.

They have their trophy kill.

Ben McDevitt, CEO of ASADA speaks after Essendon players were banned.

People will say they are tired of this story and who cares.

Ask Brent Prismall or Mark McVeigh or Sam Lonergan or Nathan Lovett-Murray or Henry Slattery, who have all lost coaching jobs, ask them if they care.

Ask them what they think about Bock, according to Robinson, picking up drugs in an ice cooler bag.

Ask yourselves how a world governing body can pick and choose.

Is it a surprise?

Make no mistake, Essendon should’ve been punished heavily for what happened and especially for not knowing what exactly was put into the bodies of 34 young men.

But what of Melbourne. Dank has said he helped access drugs to be given to Melbourne players in late 2012 and that they were “similar in nature’’ to what he gave the Essendon players.

Melbourne was cleared of any wrongdoing, not enough evidence, it was said.

This Bock stuff arguably was the most damning circumstantial evidence offered over four years.

It’s curious because ASADA, in its investigations report in 2013, recommended Bock be charged with taking a banned substance.

But ASADA lawyers never took action.

The report is somewhere. Maybe it’s lying in a wooden box, in a secret warehouse, right next to the wooden box that hides the Ark of the Covenant.

Originally published as ASADA clearing Nathan Bock reeks of hypocrisy, writes Mark Robinson