Australian Football League side Essendon "has comforted the former players who will be interviewed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority as part of its investigation into the club, with many feeling better informed and more involved than they were two weeks ago," according to Emma Quayle of THE AGE. The ex-players' parents "have been invited to a second briefing by the club next week -- as they were to an initial meeting last week -- with the players feeling more sure of how the investigation will unfold and what it will require of them." No Essendon player "has returned a positive drug test, but the 'no-fault or negligence' clause could apply to them should the investigation find they were given banned substances without their knowledge or consent" (THE AGE, 2/22). In Melbourne, Matt Murnane reported Fairfax Media's investigative team revealed in an online report on Wednesday that the Bombers' sports science team "is understood to have engaged the services of at least one, and possibly two, external Melbourne doctors with limited sports medicine expertise to participate in the players' supplements regimen" between late '11 and mid '12. Medical sources aware of the arrangement "have alleged that one of the external doctors involved may have written prescriptions for the players to be issued with supplements." Essendon's long-standing club doctor, Bruce Reid, "is understood to have been unaware that the supplements regime involved doctors from outside the club" (THE AGE, 2/22).
