Former Australian PM Julia Gillard's government wanted Australian Football League side Essendon "stripped of premiership points and club employees sacked" amid growing concern Essendon "over-egged" the release of an Australian Crime Commission report into drugs in sport on the so-called "blackest day in Australian sport," according to Chip Le Grand of THE AUSTRALIAN. Revealing the "level of political involvement," former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority CEO Aurora Andruska "recounted to the Federal Court former sports minister Kate Lundy's determination to strike a deal to punish Essendon." Andruska, "the ASADA chief executive throughout the Essendon supplements saga, said she ignored political pressure on the investigation." However, she recalled a "series of meetings where Senator Lundy or government advisers made clear their desire for a quick outcome" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/13). In Sydney, Pierik & Cooper reported Andruska said media consultant David Lording "discussed the political pressure Senator Lundy would have faced to have the supplements scandal resolved, and that she would need ASADA to present the AFL with details of the anti-doping body's investigation" so the league could sanction the Bombers. Andruska: "In his (Lording's) words, 'Lundy needs something. The minister can't do anything, it's all in ASADA's court. She needs something. She needs a deal with the AFL but she can't do anything without ASADA agreeing'" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 8/12).
