It shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s a well-trodden path. Someone in the public eye makes a comment and the media pundits rush to analyse every last syllable, despite not possessing any facts or surrounding information.
Jobe Watson is the latest victim. His “admission” on Foxtel’s On the couch that he’d been administered AOD96-whatever-it-is was accompanied by a strong and unequivocal statement that he believed he’d done nothing illegal.
Do the media pundits think that he wouldn’t already have told the AFL/ASADA enquiry the same thing? Do they think the Essendon Football Club hasn’t had substantial advice on this situation leading the Chairman and senior coach to predict a positive outcome? And yet we still see omniscient sages like Caroline Wilson pontificating on the basis of supposition, assumption and guesswork.
Subsequently, Jobe’s father, Essendon champion Tim Watson, has said he is completely satisfied that Jobe will be exonerated on the basis of his discussions. These are discussions that Wilson hasn’t been privy too, but that doesn’t stop her calling for the guillotine for everyone associated with red and black.
If the enquiry, on the basis of its long and exhaustive process of interviews and other investigations, determines that Essendon have broken the rules as they stood at the time, then let the Bombers be sanctioned appropriately — and we say that as a committed Bombers fan.
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2 comments:
re Jobe watson and the suggestion that his Brownlow Medal be removed for taking either an illegal or banned substance brings to mind that another Brownlow medallist was banned from the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute for taking illegal or banned drugs from an early age and during most of his career. I don't recall that there was a very strong push to remove his Brownlow. Coincidentally this player was a member of the very team whose supporters recently booed Jobe Watson at every opportunity. Maybe they should have looked inside themselves a bit prior to judging Jobe as their own team had a very well documented culture problem and just escaped AFL santions as a team.
I should mention that I am not an Essendon supporter but am motivated by the extreme lack of balance.
Excellent points all, Anon, especially in view of the boos from the Eagles crowd on Thursday. Thanks for your contribution.
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