Essendon CAS decision: Live coverage

Thanks for joining us on what has been a historic day for the game of Australian rules football.

Sadly, I doubt we have heard the last of this sad and sorry saga.

The decision to find the Essendon 34 guilty of being administered a banned drug could lead to Jobe Watson being stripped of his 2012 Brownlow Medal, with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan revealing the Commission will consider the issue at a meeting in February.

As the AFL began dealing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport's decision to suspend the players for 12 months, McLachlan admitted on Tuesday Watson's grasp on the medal was up for debate.

Banned Essendon player Jobe Watson with his 2012 Brownlow Medal.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo

Stick with us, Essendon chairman Lindsay Tanner urged members, as he slammed the hefty ban on 34 past and present players as "manifestly unfair."

Tanner said having 12 of their most senior players sit out the 2016 season would not necessarily mean the team would be uncompetitive.

New Essendon chairman Lindsay TannerCredit: Eddie Jim

AFL Commission Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick's full statement on the Essendon decision:

As tough as this sanction feels, the AFL accepts the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. We feel very disappointed for the players.

The program at the Essendon Football Club in 2012 was a stain on our game - and it has had a terrible impact on the players, the Club, and the reputation of the AFL.

It has struck at the very heart of our game – the integrity of the competition, and the health and safety of the players.

The players have received a very harsh punishment today in having a doping violation recorded, and a suspension until November 2016. We feel for the players, and will be offering whatever support we can through the Players Association in the coming months.

The Club too has paid a very high price.

The Club was punished in 2013, with historic sanctions not seen before in our code.

The Club accepted this punishment and agreed that they put their players in a position of unacceptable risk of being doped. The Club has also recently acknowledged serious breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in Victoria.

The officials involved all received sanctions. Stephen Dank has been given a life ban by the AFL, which excludes him from all sport, forever.

Port ADELAIDE, Melbourne, St Kilda and The Western Bulldogs also have players suspended and supporters of those clubs will rightly feel aggrieved.

This has been a very dark period, but the last four years will not define the Essendon Football Club.

It will not define Australian football.

Essendon's history is too important…and its future is owned by the members and supporters, and not by the last four years.

The Club has two very respected people in the new Chairman, Lindsay Tanner and new Coach, John Worsfold, and the AFL is committed to doing what we can to assist the club in moving forward.

Our competition is stronger when Essendon is strong, and all of our clubs want to see Essendon recover and rebuild, and be the fierce and passionate competitors they are.

I want to make a few points about the AFL and the process over the last few years.

The integrity of the competition, and the health of players are the most important things for our game – and wemust fight to protect both.

Every decision we have made has been driven by these two pillars.

At every stage of this process, we acted within our rules and our powers, and we have assisted and cooperated with the Anti-doping authorities – as we should.

Every sport in the world faces the threat of doping, and new forms of doping. Fighting performance-enhancing drugs in sport is more important than ever.

We strongly believe our players are committed to anti-doping and that they want us to stand up and fight against performance-enhancing drugs.

Since 2012, the AFL has introduced several measures in response to the matters raised in the investigation:

We immediately conducted a review of the supplementation practices at all AFL Clubs.
We also conducted detailed background checks on all sports-science and medical staff in the industry.
We significantly increased the size and powers of the AFL Integrity Department.

We enhanced the AFL Anti-Doping Code to include Treatment Rules that govern supplementation and medical treatments that go beyond the WADA Code.

And finally, we introduced new rules that prohibit anyone other than the appropriate medical doctor giving injections.

This Essendon process has taken too long, and CAS's judgment today invites a discussion about the way the code applies to team sports in future.

We look forward to working with ASADA and WADA, and with Government to keep sport clean and to protect the health and safety of players.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan's full statement on the Essendon decision:

The AFL Commission met this morning via telephone hook-up to consider the decision announced today by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The AFL accepts and acknowledges the decision of CAS and its ruling has significant implications for the Essendon Football Club and its ability to field a side during the 2016 Toyota Premiership Season, due to the number of players that have been suspended, as well as implications for four other clubs in our competition that have had players suspended.

Firstly, I wish to reiterate what our Chairman has said - the AFL is fully committed to clean sport, for the sake of all players from all clubs in our competition.

This is a devastating decision for the past and present players of the Essendon Football Club, and the AFL feels deeply for them.

It is our view they have been horribly let down by the administration of the time but the club has sought to acknowledge what has happened and to move on from these events.

The welfare of the 34 affected players is paramount and we will be working with the AFLPA, the club, and all players and their representatives to get them through this extraordinarily tough period.

Essendon has given generations of its fans a reason to combine around a shared love of the game – providing the equal-most flags in our history and three of our Hall of Fame Legends - and now needs its supporters to be with them at their lowest time.

The AFL will support the players and the club through this period but these suspensions must stand as part of our commitment to clean sport.

The AFL Commission considered possible suspensions at the Commission's meeting last December, and confirmed the decisions we will take around our rules this morning.

The AFL had consulted with the Essendon FC and AFLPA and our decisions are as follows:

• Essendon may upgrade all of its five rookie listed players to the senior list as a 1-1 replacement, as though the suspended players they were replacing had long-term injuries.

• Essendon will be granted the ability to sign up to 10 extra players to its list, by powers granted by the Commission to our General Counsel Andrew Dillon:

• Existing contract values for the listed players who have been suspended shall be included in the cap.

• Extra payments to supplementary players will be included in the club's salary cap but Essendon will receive an allowance for payments to supplementary players over the cap limit.

In summary, it is the AFL's view that Essendon must be able to field a competitive team, to provide a safe working environment for both their own players and opposition players, and these rules around replacement players are necessary for the club to be able to field a side, around these doping bans.

I would note that the WADA code does allow for action to be taken against a club that has two or more players suspended within a 12-month period. The AFL has already acted against the Essendon Football Club with the penalties handed down in 2013, and there will be no further action against the Essendon Football Club by the AFL on this matter.

The AFL also considered the case of former Essendon-listed players now playing with other AFL clubs.

Melbourne (one player), St Kilda (one player), the Western Bulldogs (one player) and Port Adelaide (two players) also have players now on their lists that have been suspended. It was the Commission's ruling that each club may immediately upgrade a rookie to the senior list as a replacement for any suspended player.

The AFL Commission also discussed this morning the matter of the Brownlow Medal, which was won by Jobe Watson for the 2012 season, the period in which these infractions were judged to have occurred.

The Commission determined that the awarding of this medal needs to be reviewed in light of today's decision. It is the AFL's view that due process must apply in this matter. Therefore it was determined that the full Commission must hear this issue, and that the February meeting would provide the appropriate level of time for parties to get prepared. Jobe Watson will be invited to address the Commission, as potentially will other relevant parties.

It is our understanding that this is now the conclusion to this matter, after some three years, although limited appeal rights do exist through the Federal Court of Switzerland in some instances. I am not in any position to comment on what the players may consider in this area.

I repeat Mike's points this has been a sorry stain on our game but it will not define the Essendon club.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has sided with the current and former Essendon players found guilty of doping offences and who will miss the entire 2016 season, insisting they are "paying a big price for other people's decisions".

"These players put their trust in people, and I believe have been systematically let down and now they are carrying the can," the Labor leader told reporters.

Bill Shorten.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The Xavier Campbell-Lindsay Tanner press conference has now ended.

Campbell: Sponsors such as Kia and Fujistu committed to the club.

Campbell: "We'll meet with the AFL tomorrow to come up with a timeline for securing top-up players."

Campbell: "To think that these two decisions can be so vastly different on the same evidence is bemusing and hard to understand."