ASADA has responded to a request from the AFL Players’ Association, saying it will not and cannot officially speed up its case against the 34 current and former Essendon players facing potential doping bans.
The AFLPA and its legal team have confirmed that the Essendon players under question will not respond to last week’s ASADA show-cause notices. The representative body has since contacted both ASADA and the AFL seeking a hearing before the anti-doping rule violation panel within the next week.
That notion was shot down by ASADA on Thursday evening when chief executive Ben McDevitt declared all parties should follow due process ahead of the eventual anti-doping hearing, likely to convene in December.
“In the six months I have been at ASADA I have had the club, the coach, the AFL Players’ Association, various other legal entities, plus other interested parties all voice their views as to the management of these matters,” McDevitt said in a statement.
“While all claim to represent the interest of the players and/or Australian sport, the advice as to remedial actions varies dramatically.
“In my role as protector of clean athletes in Australia, my advice to them is that if they want to act in the best interest of the players they should review the 12,000 pages of evidence and follow the due process.
“I only wish that such interest in player welfare had been present in 2012.”
McDevitt also sought to remind the AFLPA that any decision to fast-track the hearing remained with the AFL.
Earlier on Thursday, Essendon official Neil Craig threw further support behind beleaguered coach James Hird, saying the rumoured soon-to-be-sacked 41-year-old would lead the team into 2015.
“Clearly James Hird is and will be the senior coach of Essendon for 2015,” Craig told SEN.
Meanwhile, the future of assistant Mark Thompson remains in doubt despite the 2014 interim coach having already returned from an overseas holiday.
“Those discussions need to take their time, because it’s really important for Mark if he wants to stay in footy … and at Essendon, that he has what I would call a meaningful job, that gives him energy and passion to get out of bed in the morning,” Craig said.
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