Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority CEO Ben McDevitt revealed his concern that "crucial records" of the Australian Football League side Essendon supplements program may have been "either destroyed or removed," according to Lane & Baker of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. McDevitt warned of "fresh show-cause notices if evidence emerged of document destruction in an attempt to cover-up the use of a banned substance." Stressing that the authority did not "at present have evidence to pursue a case on evidence removal," McDevitt admitted the "extraordinary lack of records" about the Bombers' '12 supplements program remained "a troubling issue" for the authority. Essendon's former sports scientist Stephen Dank has maintained he kept "detailed records of the supplements program." But these records "have not been found in hard copy or electronic form by the anti-doping authority or the AFL." McDevitt: "I believe there are two scenarios. One is because of the secretive nature of the regime, that no records at all were kept. Or, alternately, if records were kept then they were either destroyed or removed by persons unknown in a bid to get rid of the evidence." In response to McDevitt's comments, an Essendon spokesperson said that the AFL had Deloitte "seize every computer hard drive and other records at the club as soon as it revealed it had reported its supplements program to the anti-doping authority" in Feb. '13 (SMH, 4/2).
QUESTIONS AT CRONULLA: In Sydney, Michael Carayannis reported the lawyer representing three former National Rugby League side Cronulla players who are involved in legal action against the club "has questioned whether players should have taken ASADA's backdated ban in light of the AFL clearing Essendon players." Shine Lawyers NSW GM James Chrara is representing three ex-Cronulla players, Broderick Wright, Isaac Gordon and Josh Cordoba, in a lawsuit against Cronulla. Chrara: "The decision of the AFL anti-doping tribunal to exonerate the Essendon players has led many to question whether the Cronulla players should have accepted the backdated 12-month bans before the end of last season. The fundamental difference between the AFL tribunal findings and the Cronulla agreements was that the deal put forward at the time by the NRL was sanctioned by ASADA." New Cronulla CEO Lyall Gorman, however, "backed the players' decision to accept the ban." Gorman said, "At the time I feel the players acted in what they feel was the best advice they had" (SMH, 4/1).
