Dear Mr McLachlan

1. I have been around the traps a long time and have studied the performance of sporting bodies more closely than most. I have been involved in major fights with the cricket and rugby boards and the Coalition and Labor governments over tours of South Africa; I was involved with World Series Cricket; I helped run a Davis Cup final; I helped my boss complete separate strategic plans for the Australian, New South Wales and Queensland Rugby Unions; I had a short involvement (about 12 months) with Wayne Reid and Gary Daly with the AOC; and consulted to the South African cricket and rugby boards for a number of years.
   
   
2. I spent a lot of my working life not only dissecting very large reports and documents but also writing corporate plans, human resource manuals and occupational, health and safety (OH&S) manuals. I lectured in OH&S, wrote course notes on OH&S for a small training school and conducted risk assessments for major companies, including Kerry Packer’s ACP and a large council.
   
   
3. I didn’t think I would ever see a worse chief executive than Andrew Demetriou but to my horror and disbelief, you appear to want to walk in his shoes.
   
   
4. There are many characteristics, both good and bad, which define a man. One of the worst characteristics a man can have is to allow someone to take the fall for something you know you are equally as ‘guilty’. You not only have done that with respect to the Essendon governance failures but you have actually led the lynch mob against Essendon and Hird.
   
   
5. I am speechless about your comment in Jon Ralph’s column today: “I don’t have any concerns but they [VWA] are going through a process. Until it’s all done there is a slight concern but hopefully it’s procedural.”
   
   
6. A decent human being would have said: “Jon, the buck stops with the AFL commission. We had a responsibility to provide a safe work place for the Essendon players and we failed miserably. We are prepared to do the honourable thing and plead guilty and accept our punishment. We shall eschew help from the big end of town and the government to sweep it under the carpet. If we tried to sweep it under the carpet we would be doing a great disservice to every worker in Victoria, who rely on a vigilant and honest VWA to protect them.”

Mr McLachlan, as you are obviously not made of the right stuff, I shall document a few reasons why you should do the honourable thing and plead ‘guilty’ and accept harsh penalties:

1. The AFL’s senior medical officer, Dr Harcourt, stated during his Zurich, Switzerland, presentation that “under individual contracts all players are contracted to the league as opposed to clubs” [my emphasis].
   
   
2. The AFL commissioners knew that they had a duty of care to the Essendon players to provide a safe work place
   
   
3. The AFL never checked whether Essendon was complying with its OH&S responsibilities
   
   
4. The AFL became aware, and had reason to be concerned, of a potential risk to the health and safety of the Essendon players but did nothing for over 18 months
   
   
5. The AFL never checked whether Essendon had completed a risk assessment;
   
   
6. The AFL did nothing to eliminate the risk to the players’ health and safety.
   
   
7. The AFL did nothing to minimise the risk to the players’ health and safety.
   
   
8. The players suffered severe mental damage to the point the AFL introduced a new rule which allowed the players to rip up their contracts (Paddy Ryder).
   
   
9. The AFL was warned on 19 October 2011 that Dr Reid had been marginalised and that Dean Robinson had given the Essendon players peptides without his permission. Incomprehensively, the AFL did nothing about it;
10. The AFL never checked with compliance of clause 7.4 of the AFL’s anti-doping code. If it had done so, the whole saga would never have occurred
    
    
11. Although the AFL believed the Essendon players were taking harmful, potentially life-threatening drugs, it did nothing to stop it;
    
    
12. Although Andrew Demetriou believed the players had been given over 10,000 injections, he did nothing to stop it;
    
    
13. Although Adrian Anderson sent the clubs a doomsday email on 24 April 2012, the AFL did nothing about it. It appears, it wasn’t even concerned about radiation poisoning.
    
    
14. The AFL didn’t fulfil the obligations contained in clause 12.0 of the AFL / Essendon / Player Agreement.
    
    
15. The AFL didn’t fulfil its obligations under clause 4.6 of the AFL Anti-Doping Code
    
    
16. The AFL didn’t fulfil its obligations under the bi-lateral agreement the AFL had with the Australia Sports Commission in its capacity as a national sporting organisation (NSO). Those responsibilities are set out in the Australian Sports Commission Policy Statement: NSOs Governance – Mandatory Requirements for ASC large partner NSOs. The AFL breached clause 2.3 of the Australian Sports Commission NSO Governance – mandatory requirements, which states: “An effective organisation must have a thorough system of audit and risk management, including internal and external processes. This committee must ensure there are adequate controls and systems in place to alert management and the Board to potential risks associated with the operation of the sport.” The AFL made no attempt to either ascertain whether Essendon had adequate OH&S systems in place or whether it was complying with the law.
    
    
17. During Dr Harcourt’s Zurich presentation, he implied that the AFL knew that there was a possible risk to the Essendon players’ health and safety:
    
    “It was a bit disturbing to be quite honest with you and it was shocking to the extent to which experimental drugs were given to young athletes and highlighted the craziness and the madness of certain individuals who were in the support staff who really didn’t come to grips with what they were doing. But they involved Human Growth Hormone releasing substances, sections of HGH molecules which are which are quite available and manufactured out of China, a dementia therapy drug to improve … who knows, a number of veterinary products and unknown substances, substances like a Mexican drug for the treatment of muscular dystrophy was given to the players without knowing what it was. So, it was all a little bit crazy. Most of this did not have the Australian regulatory approval or the therapeutic goods authority. And most of the substances where either just recently on to the WADA list or in the related substances sections of the list. So, the individuals who were going about this were trying to exploit the nuances of the WADA list and probably also had some understanding that some of these substances were so new that the laboratories didn’t have the capability of dealing with them.
    
    
18. In Zurich, Dr Harcourt said: Coincidentally, we did have some wind of this during the course of the year, it was 2012, and so we did arrange through ASADA to have a number of specimens of these players sent to the Cologne laboratory rather than the Sydney laboratory but nothing came out of it.
    
    
19. The AFL’s integrity officer, Brett Clothier, was aware it was his responsibility to protect the integrity of the competition, but he did nothing. If Clothier had conducted an audit of Essendon on, or just after, 5 August 2011, the problem would not have occurred;
    
    
20. If the above is not enough, the AFL’s three most senior officials during the period informed the world how important the players safety was to the AFL. Your response to the VWA’s investigation will tell us whether you three are honest, genuine, caring men, or whether you are liars who treated the media and public like mushrooms:
    
    – On 27 August 2013, Mike Fitzpatrick said: “On behalf of the AFL Commission I want to send a clear message to everybody that nothing and no one – comes ahead of the duty of care owed to the players.”
    
    – On 21 August 2013, Andrew Demetriou said: “The duty of care to players is a fundamental responsibility of the AFL Commission and all AFL clubs”, the whole problem would not have occurred.
    
    – On 28 August 2013, you told SEN radio: “The AFL dropped the ball by not monitoring the Essendon supplement program after advising coach James Hird to steer clear of using peptides in August 2011”; “The fact potentially though that we weren’t out there regularly monitoring is potentially a failing of the AFL.” “I don’t think that we can shirk it in every instance, I’m happy to take that on the chin in the sense that if we had gone out there every month and monitored it, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation.” “People need to take various forms of accountability and I’ll take that.”
    
    
21. Mr McLachlan, it is hard to imagine that you could ever make up for all the sins committed by the AFL over the last two years, particularly when the public and your lackeys in the media learn, as I have, the laughable case that ASADA presented to prove player 1 was administered Thymosin Beta-4; and the laughable case ASADA presented to prove player 2, Player 3 … player 34 were administered Thymosin Beta-4. But you have to start some time and somewhere. I suggest you start today by ringing Mark Coverdale from the VWA and saying:

“We should like all matters concerned with the Essendon saga completed before the start of the season. To that end, the AFL pleads guilty to multiple OH&S breaches at Essendon and we accept the severe penalties which our governance failures deserve.”

This issue will never go away, so you may as well take your medicine now.

Bruce Francis