Essendon AFL Drug Saga

26. DAVID KOCH: 10 OCTOBER 2014

I only thing I know about the law is it is not about justice. 

I have reached a dead-end trying to understand youDavid Koch.

FACT:

  1. You took the high moral ground In the Essendon saga. Viz “Suffice to say it would not have happened at Port Adelaide. If we [Port Adelaide] were in that position, I would have stood [him] down and the coach would never coach at Port Adelaide again.”

  2. You were even more outspoken than Egotistical Eddie and the ambulance chaser.

  3. Paddy Ryder has a two-year contract to play at Essendon

  4. Paddy Ryder testified to ASADA that Dank told him what substances he was being given.

  5. Paddy Ryder had an obligation under clauses 5 (c) i to vi and 7.4 of the AFL’s Anti-Doping Code not to take a banned substance but to also lodge a written document with the club doctor of all substances and medicines he had taken in the previous 12 months.

  6. The AFLPA claims it inculcates every player not to take a substance unless he knows what it is and unless he knows it is not banned.

  7. Port Adelaide has spoken to Ryder about playing at Port Adelaide in 2015. It is more than probable that Port Adelaide has discussed specific terms with Ryder

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Given the above, Port Adelaide tried to induce Ryder to break his Essendon contract, particularly as at the time of their talks Ryder hadn’t initiated action to prove Essendon’s contract wasn’t enforceable?

As I said previously, I know nothing about the law, but I suspect it is not very kosher to induce someone to break a contract, particularly when you like to take the high moral ground.

You said you would have sacked Hird and implied he would have been banned Hird for life for not stopping his general manager – football operations’ (Hamilton) and high-performance coach’s (Robinson) supplement programme.

If Ryder and Monfries take the ‘Cronulla option’, which appears to be Port Adelaide’s wishes, wouldn’t Port Adelaide be taking on two confessed drug cheats?

Which is the worst, a coach who wasn’t in a position to stop what he thought was a legitimate programme or a player who confessed to taking a banned substance?

Bruce Francis