The case made against 34 players is in chaos. More evidence that support the players defence was omitted and the facts just don’t support CAS’s closed circle claims. In attempting to justify why they found the 34 Essendon players guilty, the CAS panel concluded a close circle of officials within the club were privy to Mr Dank’s regime and were careful to ensure that even the club doctor was not made aware of it. Let's have a closer look at CAS’s conclusion. Bruce Francis, a political science graduate and former batsman with the Australian cricket team, has compiled a comprehensive response to the CAS ‘Strands in the Cable’ decision. Below is an extract from this document where he outlines some key events that occurred at the Essendon Football Club during the critical 2011/2012 period: “...157. In imagining some kind of nefarious ‘closed circle’, WADA and the CAS panel have chosen to ignore key events that belie their assertion. 158. In May 2011 Essendon chairman David Evans, CEO Ian Robson, Danny Corcoran, Paul Hamilton, James Hird and Mark Thompson agreed that the club had to adopt a more scientific approach. Each understood that the programme would involve the taking of supplements, as was already the case in several of the other clubs. 159. With the above in mind, Dean Robinson, formerly of the AFL’s own club, Gold Coast Suns, was appointed to the position of high performance coach and commenced duty on 25 August 2011. 160. On 30 August 2011 Essendon bought 60 vials of Vitamin B Dose Forte. They were administered to the playing group by injection by club doctor Brendan De Morton at the request of Robinson. Dr Reid was aware of the purchase and sanctioned its use. This was the first occasion that the players were administered a supplement injection. 161. On 19 October 2011, the first day of 2012 pre-­season training, Dr Reid discovered Robinson handing out Tribulus tablets. Concerned about their status, he immediately reported it to the AFL. The AFL failed to follow-­up. Hird was overseas at the time and Reid told no one at Essendon, although he chastised Robinson. Tribulus in not a prohibited substance. 162. On 4 November 2011, Dank joined Essendon as a consultant, not as an employee. Dank was responsible to Robinson, who also had the doctors, physiotherapists, psychologist, nutritionist, and the weights and conditioning trainer reporting to him. Robinson reported to Paul Hamilton, who was general manager of the football department. Hird reported to CEO Ian Robson and had four assistant coaches reporting to him. He and his team were on a different branch of the organisation structure from the football department and had no responsibilities for the supplement programme. 163. Hird’s only involvement in the supplements programme was to support it in principle and to constantly remind those responsible for the programme that: • the supplements had to be WADA permitted • Dr Reid had to approve their use • the players had to consent to their use • they could not harm the players 164. The protocols were very simple, in line with Hird’s mantra above, and everyone understood them and ‘signed-­off’ on them. Dank was required to recommend a substance to Robinson. If Robinson were sold on the substance’s benefits he had to get approval from Dr Reid to use it. If Dr Reid approved it, Robinson then had to get permission from Hamilton to purchase the substance. 165. On or about 13 January 2012, Dr Reid discovered Dank administering AOD-­9604 injections and Tribulus orally. Robinson had not sought approval from Reid for their use at this time and no one apart from Dank and Robinson was aware those two substances were being used. Reid was very angry. Because Paul Hamilton, his department head was not about at the time, he mentioned it to Hird. Hird told Reid that he must discuss the matter with Hamilton, and suggested that if he weren’t happy with the outcome of that discussion, he should write a letter to Robson, the CEO. 166. Hamilton spoke to Robson that afternoon and admonished Robinson the next day for not keeping Dank under control. 167. On 15 January 2012, Reid helped Robinson and psychologist Jonah Oliver write the new protocols, which Robinson distributed. Everyone accepted that without Reid’s permission, there was to be no supplement’s program. It is now obvious that Robinson and Dank didn’t keep their commitment in relation to seeking Dr Reid’s approval at every step along the way. 168. Reid, who had been opposed to the supplement program from the start, dug his heels in and it was feared by those who believed in a supplements programme in principle, that he wouldn’t approve the administering of any further substances. 169. On 30 January 2012, Hird sent an SMS to Corcoran: ‘No stress but need to organise a meeting with you me Reidy, Danksy and Weapon [Dean Robinson] the day you get back. Reidy has stopped everything, which is getting a little frustrating. Need to get your United Nations skills back into action.’ 170. It seems that the above was submitted as evidence that Reid was being kept out of the loop by Hird, and for nefarious reasons. In another example of WADA seeming to omit crucial evidence that would help the players’ defence that they weren’t administered Thymosin Beta-­4 and that there wasn’t an inner circle involved in a conspiracy to have them injected with the substance behind Dr Reid’s back, the second half of the above text was omitted in WADA’s submission: ‘Understand about injecting and don’t want to push the boundaries. Just need to make sure we are doing everything we can within the rules as the other clubs are a long way ahead of Reidy and us at the moment’. 171. This SMS is evidence that Dr Reid wasn’t being kept in the dark by an ‘inner circle’, and there was no intention of keeping him out of the loop. Reid wasn’t being kept informed to the extent he should have been by Dank and Robinson, however, and in his view he wasn’t being asked for approval when necessary. He simply wanted the program to stop. Although Hird was a little frustrated, he was the one who had always emphasised the need for Reid’s approval and knew there was no programme without it. To that end, he hoped that Corcoran could persuade Reid to continue with the programme. Everyone except Dank and Robinson accepted that without Reid’s permission there was no supplement programme. It was therefore unconscionable for the CAS panel to state that a close circle of officials within the club privy to Mr Dank’s regime were careful to ensure that even the club doctor was not made aware of it. 172. Dank and Robinson claimed that between 15 January 2012 and 8 February 2012, they obtained Dr Reid’s permission to administer AOD-­9604, Tribulus tablets, Colostrum tablets and Thymosin injections, and these were the substances included on the player consent form. Reid testified that he only agreed to AOD-­9604 being used. 173. When Hamilton, Corcoran, Hird and Thompson saw the player consent form they all automatically believed that Reid had given permission for AOD-9604, Thymosin, Colostrum and Tribulus to be used. 174. As far as Hamilton, Corcoran, Hird and Thompson were concerned those four substances and the Vitamins ‘B’ and ‘C’ intravenous treatments constituted the programme, which would then be individualised for each player, and they believed Reid had approved it. 175. The four of them were assured by Dank and Robinson that all four substances were WADA permitted. There was simply no reason for the four of them to hide anything from Dr Reid. 176. Unbeknown to Hamilton, Corcoran, Reid, Hird and Thompson at the time, in April and May 2012, Dank and Robinson organised for a Dr Hooper to administer Cerebrolysin and an amino acid, to some of the players, while they were attending Hooper’s hyperbaric chamber, HyperMED. 177. When Reid, Corcoran, Hird and Thompson eventually found out about the unauthorised injections at the HyperMED, though involving nothing prohibited, they insisted that the programme be stopped. 178. By May 2012, Dr Reid and Corcoran were so disenchanted with Dank and Robinson administering substances without Reid’s permission that they asked Evans and Robson to dispense with their services. Hird supported their request. Their request was declined on the basis of financial cost. 179. As an illustration of the likelihood that even Robinson was cavalier and incompetent with administrative protocols rather than intentionally keeping any aspect of the supplements program from Dr Reid, ASADA recovered an email sent from Robinson to Reid informing Reid that he was commencing Thymomodulin injections. As Robinson wasn’t asking for approval, it appears he believed he already had permission and was just informing Reid of a commencement date. 180. Hird had 7000 SMSs on his phone and not one alluded to keeping Dr Reid out of the loop. In fact, none of Hird, Thompson, Corcoran, or Hamilton was in Robinson and Dank’s loop of information for the vast majority of the time. 181. The (CAS) panel’s totally unsubstantiated claim, heavy with innuendo, that, ‘It was surely by design, not through accident, that the regime was not disclosed outside the closed circle during the season’ deserves censure…. “ Should you wish to read Bruce Francis full response document, you will find the PDF version here or click the link below: http://twitdoc.com/upload/thegovernorsm/cas-strands-response-bfrancis-2feb2016.pdf. Western Bulldogs President Peter Gordon told ABC Radio Commentator Jon Faine recently: "History will show these (34) young men have been subject to one of the gravest injustices in Australian sporting history" Please support this petition which requests a Senate Inquiry to sort this mess out. 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