The AFL anti-doping tribunal involving 34 current and past Essendon players will go ahead behind closed doors.
Tribunal chairman David Jones has ruled that the media and public will not be allowed to attend the hearings, to protect the players’ privacy.
“After weighing in the balance all the relevant circumstances, considerations and factors, I am satisfied the public interest in preserving and protecting the privacy and private and personal information of the … players outweighs the public interest in the public receiving information presented to the hearing,” Jones said in a statement.
The hearings have started, continue on December 18-19 and then resume on January 12.
They will go ahead at Melbourne’s County Court.
The players are facing bans of up to two years if the tribunal finds them guilty of taking the banned substance Thymosin beta-4 during the 2012 season.