Three months prior to the "Secret Dons Tapes, Crisis Meeting Recording Emerges" (Care, paywall: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/essendon/secret-dons-tape-dons-crisis-meeting-recording-emerges/news-story/cd3d3a6542b136847ffeb0f1b41511f1 ) senior Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigator Paul Simonsson updated the players in a boardroom briefing. The ASADA player update was recorded on May 6, 2013 by lawyer Tony Hargreaves. In excerpts from this recording, provided by Fairfax Media (see full article below), Simonsson told Essendon players that Dank "honestly believes he hasn't done anything wrong here. And in terms of a WADA breach, I think that's probably going to be the case". Simonsson's assessment of Hird, who at the time of the meeting had completed his sole interview with ASADA, was that "the coach was given a massive tick of approval in terms of his integrity". Simonsson recommended that Essendon players, who were soon to be interviewed by ASADA, "look to him [Hird] to give you guys guidance". Simonsson was also complimentary of the conduct of then-Essendon chairman David Evans and CEO Ian Robson. "I could not be happier with what's happening down here … it's been fantastic," Simonsson said in the meeting. Three months later, on August 8, 2013, Essendon Chairman Paul Little stated in the Herald Sun recording “Every single issue that I agreed on with Gil McLachlan, and I met with him the other night, has pretty much been reversed now in this note here.” So what happened? The Interim Report. Lets have a quick look at who actually wrote this Interim Report. Below is an extract was derived from a Statutory Declaration of Arron Walker, employed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) as a Principal Investigator based in its Melbourne office, dated 22 July 2014: "Inspection was supervised by John Nolan on 19 June 2013. I saw Clothier on that day when he visited ASADA's office to carry out this inspection. At the end of this inspection John Nolan and I spoke with Clothier and obtained his view about what he had read. This was an interactive discussion between the 3 of us. Clothier told me that he found the contents of the Interim Report concerning. He offered me some advice about the structure of the Interim Report, and about some areas that seemed confusing and could benefit from improved clarity. I also believe that he made a suggestion about moving a section of the report toward the front end of the document. He also told me that there was nothing within the AFL's own evidentiary holdings which was contrary to or inconsistent with the contents of the Interim Report. I took all of this advice on board. Of course the document grew significantly in any event between 19 June 2013 and 31 July 2013. I considered Clothier's review of the draft Interim Report to be something akin to a peer review of my work. I considered that this was an opportunity for the AFL to identify any significant errors in ASADA's Interim Report. I also thought that provision of this information to Clothier would give him an opportunity to review our work and provide any additional information to which he could contribute and which could improve our knowledge or conclusions, and therefore the quality of the Interim Report. The Interim Report ultimately released to the AFL comprised 405 pages (excluding annexures). The "draft" Interim Report viewed by Clothier on 19 June 2013 comprised 191 pages (excluding annexures ). A large body of evidential holdings were consolidated by ASADA between 19 June 2013 (the date of Clothier's inspection) and 2 August 2013 (the date of delivery to AFL)." What a mess. The anti-doping framework has to be a proper regulatory framework and not based on backroom deals. Further, if the US and UK can have inquiries, so should Australia, particularly because we have had the worst possible case. Kindly support a Senate Inquiry into this whole sordid affair by adding your name/details this petition, and then ask others to support it. If you have already supported the petition, take positive action by sending an email to the decision makers. It takes just one click or you can create your own email - go here to take postive action: https://www.change.org/p/senator-richard-di-natale-senator-nick-xenophon-senator-the-hon-george-brandis-qc-inquiry-into-ethics-practices-of-asada-afl-wada-anti-doping-case-against-the-34-essendon-football-club-players/u/19400777 Social media sharing tips: Use the main links (on the RHS of webpage) to share the original petition. Use the links below this update to share this update. 

 For further information, contact Justice of the 34 via their Facebook page. Thank you for your support and patience.