Essendon and the AFL are offering little comment after the startling admission from Bombers captain Jobe Watson that he believes he took the banned drug AOD-9604.
Watson’s candid comments on Monday are a major distraction for the club ahead of Thursday night’s match in Perth against West Coast.
Essendon remain under anti-doping investigation and Watson is adamant he’s done nothing wrong by taking the drug.
Anti-doping experts have reiterated the strict liability facing Watson.
Former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) chairman Richard Ings and World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) president John Fahey separately said on Tuesday that under anti-doping rules, it was up to the athlete to ensure he or she did not take a banned substance.
Watson is the first Essendon player to publicly admit he took AOD-9604, which the World Anti-Doping Authority confirmed in April had been a banned substance since the start of 2011.
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ASADA advice to players and doctors, however, appears to be less definitive.
The substance is one of the key elements in the controversy surrounding Essendon’s supplements program last year.
Ings added it would be premature to suggest that the AFL should stand down Watson immediately because of his admission.
Sports lawyer Paul Horvath said Essendon players may still be able to frame a solid defence if the ASADA investigation finds they took banned substances during 2012. Essendon’s website quotes Horvath saying one possible defence was that an Essendon representative or the distributor of the product may have a letter from the Therapeutic Goods Administration [or other government agency] stating that the drug was not banned or unfit for human use and therefore did not sit within WADA’s catch-all S.0 category.
A second defence that might be raised according to Horvath was that the Australian Crime Commission report released in February stated on four occasions that AOD-9604 was not banned at the time.
“Even at the highest level of government, people that had six or nine months to put their very important, very careful report together got it wrong, so how can other people not be forgiven for getting it wrong if the substance was banned when used?” Horvath told the website. Despite WADA releasing a statement in April confirming that AOD-9604 was banned because it fell into the S.0 category as it was still under pre-clinical and clinical development and had not been approved for therapeutic use by any government health authority in the world, many industry insiders have admitted since the Essendon revelations there was confusion as to its status.
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Essendon has been caught on the hop by the Watson TV appearance.
The club’s stance has repeatedly been that no-one at Essendon can comment until the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and AFL investigations are finalised.
The Bombers skipper said on Tuesday afternoon he would make no further comment.
Essendon also released a statement, saying it was “a complex and difficult area”.
“But our club considers that our players have acted reasonably during the 2012 season,” the statement added.
“The club notes that it is yet to be determined whether any of our players in the 2012 season were given prohibited or performance enhancing substances.”
The AFL is hopeful the ASADA investigation will wrap up in early August.
The only AFL comment on Tuesday about Watson’s revelation is that the investigations are ongoing.
