Essendon Football Club will hit back and seek a Federal Court declaration that the ASADA-AFL investigation was unlawful.
They will argue that the joint investigation breached disclosure laws, with the aim of stopping the Australian Sports and Anti-Doping Authority’s (ASADA) rulings and sanctions against players, staff and the club.
ASADA has been investigating the club for 16 months over the use of alleged peptides and drug supplements banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Last Thursday, ASADA was notifying the club of alleged anti-doping rule breaches.
A total of 34 notices have now been issued to players, querying the use of the peptide thymosin Beta 4.
The findings are related to the 2012 discovery of the supplements regimen at the club under coach James Hird and sports scientist Stephen Dank.
The club had 46 players on its senior and rookie lists in 2012, and have 29 players from 2012 – including rookies – on its list now. Some of the players involved in the 2012 supplements program have since moved to other clubs, and it is believe that Angus Monfries (now at Port Adelaide) and Stuart Crameri (now at the Bulldogs) have been served notices.
The 34 players served with notices will have 10 days to respond before briefs of evidence are passed from ASADA to the Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel (ADRVP) – the federal government-appointed group of experts that must review all significant anti-doping proceedings.
ASADA has said it has conducted more than 300 interviews and collected more than 150,000 documents in its probe.
The NRL is also waiting for their ASADA investigation to be brought to them, with rumours circling that 17 members of Cronulla’s 2011 squad are about to receive show-cause notices.
Source: Herald Sun, The Age
