Dear Members,
It is important to provide you with an update on a number of matters relating to our players and football club that have been in the media over recent days.
In particular, the Essendon Football Club and Board are extremely disappointed in the continual leaks of sensitive and confidential information in relation to the AFL Anti-doping Tribunal and the Court of Arbitration of Sport appeal process.
Our players and staff were guaranteed confidentiality at the beginning of this process but time and time again this has been undermined by the willful leaking of confidential information.
The intent of these leaks is unclear. What is clear however is the individuals behind these leaks have no compassion for our players.
And although these leaks don’t influence the outcome of the case, they do serve to harm the psyche and mental wellbeing of our players.
The Club failed our players in 2012, and the system and process continues to fail them now.
As such we believe it beholden on the AFL Commission to fully investigate the breaches within the respective processes to prevent this happening in the future.
It is also important to remind you that after a two-year investigation, an independent Tribunal examined all of the evidence and cleared our players of the charge leveled against them.
Finally, in relation to comments made by Mark Thompson on 3AW radio over the weekend, it is important members are aware that there are a number of factual inaccuracies contained in these unhelpful comments.
Mark alleged that some members of the Essendon Board were aware of the program of injections being conducted by Stephen Dank.
Members of the Essendon Football Club Board can categorically state that the Board had no knowledge of the extensive program of injections conducted by Stephen Dank and at no stage did anybody involved, including Mark, raise concerns with the Board about the program.
He further seemed to suggest that the club has not done anything to rectify the governance failings which were evident three years ago and for which the club has been heavily and appropriately punished.
The EFC has made significant improvements to its governance procedures across all areas of the Club. These initiatives have been made public and continue to form part of our governance framework internally. Details of these initiatives can be found on our website.
To all our members, thank you for your unwavering loyalty. The support for the Club from our members is heartening and greatly appreciated by us all.
We are currently going through a difficult period on and off the field but I can assure you that the future of our club is bright and we are all working extremely hard to quickly turn things around.
I hope to see you all at the game on Saturday getting behind our team.
Paul Little AO
Chairman
