Guys

The Senate should have used Wonder Womans lasso

It is time someone Prime Minister Turnbull, Sports Minister Susan Ley, Lindsay Tanner,
Gillon McLachlan or a rare journalist with backbone pulled the Keystone Cop, ASADA
chief executive, Ben McDevitt, into line. In his past he was obviously a great cop who served
our country with distinction, but like all great AFL players, he has reached his use-by date.
Sadly, he has gone on the equivalent of at least two seasons too long.
I have just had the misfortune to listen to McDevitt once again try to outdo Fidel Castro for
long-winded speaking nonsense. On Thursday 3 March 2016, McDevitt testified in a Senate
Estimates hearing. A friend who attended the hearing asked me how I would have testified if
I were McDevitt. I told her if I had to utter his nonsense I would have testified under an
assumed name.
Ive become used to McDevitts sweeping non-sequitur comments but this time I couldnt
cope with the untrue statements. When I have time I shall dissect all his dribble. For the time
being, I am just focussing on some of his disingenuous and untrue statements. Statements
which I believe should necessitate his sacking.
Item (McDevitt) 1: The members of the club implemented a program to make Essendon
players bigger, stronger and able to recover more quickly to gain an advantage over their
opposition.
My Comment:
1. This is a disingenuous comment made to imply that Essendon was doing something
sinister.

2. Every club has a program to make its players bigger, stronger and able to recover
more quickly.
3. It is only sinister if the club uses a banned substance to achieve the objective. Most
sensible people believe that there is no evidence Essendon used a banned substance.

4. I believe the CAS decision was dreadfully flawed and was reached because WADA
tabled changed evidence; omitted evidence; fabricated evidence; and because it tabled
evidence it knew to be untrue. It appears ASADA may have been to blame.
Item (McDevitt) 2; In the words of Stephen Dank, thymosin was the vital cornerstone of
that team based program.
My Comment:
1. McDevitt claims unambiguously that Dank used the words that team based
program. Dank did no such thing. McDevitt has disingenuously inserted the words
team-based program to create the impression Dank was talking about Essendon.
There is no evidence dank was talking about Essendon.

2. The SMS was sent by Dank to Dean Robinson on 23 August 2011. Neither Dank nor
Robinson was working at Essendon at the time. Dank wasnt even interviewed for a
job at Essendon until 28 September 2011.
3. It was outrageous for McDevitt to imply that Dank was talking about Essendon when
there was no evidence he was. It was deceitful to insert the words team-based
program in order to create tenuous evidence.
Item (McDevitt) 3: Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank was shown to have used
thymosin beta-4 on other athletes prior to him getting to Essendon.
My Comment:
1. This is untrue and it was unconscionable to make such a claim.

2. McDevitt uses the plural athletes. ASADA has ever only alleged Dank used TB-4
on Sandor Earl.
3. Accusing Dank of using it on Earl is based on corrupt behaviour by ASADA.
4. The actual text sent by Dank to Dean Robinson on 2 August 2011 that the CAS panel
refers to, read:

Hi mate. Just in consult for shoulder reconstruction. This case will be of

interest to you. We are utilising Thymosin post surgically for one shoulder but
prophylactically for the other, Thymosin is so effective in soft tissue
maintenance.
5. ASADA provided WADA with the following altered version of the texts contents
implying Earls name had been included in the text:
On 2 August 2011, Mr Dank, in a text message to Mr Robinson, referred to
his use of Thymosin for Mr Earl, adding, Thymosin is so effective in soft
tissue maintenance.
6. Someone in ASADA inserted Earls name into the text to advance a case against the
34 Essendon players that Dank had previously used Thymosin on an athlete.

7. As AFLs general counsel Andrew Dillon used the text - before it was changed - in
his charges against Essendon in August 2013, it would appear that someone from
ASADA illegally gave the text to him. It would therefore appear that ASADA
breached the Australian Crime Commission Act and the Telecommunications Act.
Breaches of the Acts attract custodial sentences.
8. Even the ASADA website, in its Register of Findings, refers to Earl as having been
found guilty of anti-doping violations in relation to four substances, none of them
Thymosin Beta-4. For ASADA to give WADA such false information about Earl to
use as compelling evidence that 34 Essendon players took Thymosin Beta-4 is
incomprehensible, and deserving of severe censure.
9. To present false findings against Earl in making the case against the players should
place an automatic question-mark over the reliability of even the facts included in
the remaining fifteen strands of the cable, let alone the conclusions reached by the
panel.
Item (McDevitt) 4: There were over 100 text messages that unveiled a plan to source
thymosin beta-4 for the purpose of doping the Essendon team.

My Comment:
1. In the 434-page ASADA interim Report Danks name was from memory mentioned
1189 times. I am certain Thymosin Beta-4 was mentioned only 18 times and I should
put McDevitts life on it that Dank only mentioned Thymosin Beta-4 once. Yet
McDevitt has stated under oath that ASADA has over 100 text messages where Dank
uses the term Thymosin Beta-4. If this were true ASADA and WADA would have
included them in evidence.
2. I havent seen the 100+ texts but Im prepared to bet that Dank doesnt refer to
doping Essendon in any of them.
3. However, I am prepared to bet that some of the texts were given to ASADA by the
Australian Crime Commission and that McDevitt may have used that information
illegally. My understanding is if that is the case such behaviour carries a custodial
sentence.
4. The interim report included about 50 texts/emails between Dank and Shane Charter.
None of them involved Dank ordering anything from Charter.
Item (McDevitt) 5: The 34 players signed consent forms agreeing to thymosin beta-4
injections and each of them admitted to receiving a number of injections.
My Comment:
1. This is a lie. There is no other term strong enough to describe the deceitfulness. No
player signed a consent form agreeing to Thymosin Beta-4 injections. This comment
alone has brought ASADA into disrepute. I shall never believe another word
McDevitt says.

2. It distresses me that a great servant of Australia is throwing his career and reputation
away. I have spent 60+ hours on the phone with Dank and I am sure he could give
McDevitt a WADA permitted peptide, or should I say amino acid, that would solve
his problem. I think the first word starts with T and the second word is serum. If
McDevitt doesnt want to deal with Dank Ill give Wonder Woman a call and ask her
if she can lend McDevitt her lasso.
4

Item (McDevitt) 6: Six players reported being told they were being injected with
thymosin.
My Comment:
Break out the champagne. McDevitt is correct at last.
Item (McDevitt) 7: Two players reported seeing vials marked with the word 'thymosin' in
the sports scientist's fridge.
My Comment:
1. Stewart Crameri is one of the two players McDevitt was alluding to. He definitely
didnt say he read the word thymosin on a vial in the fridge. Crameri read the label
which he couldnt have done from where he was sitting and where the vial was in the
fridge.

2. Crameri and the other player were interviewed approximately 12 months after the
event and were clearly mistaken. Thymosins appearance in the media every day
obviously influenced their thinking. There is no such substance as Thymosin.
Therefore it is illogical that there would be a vial with that name on it in the fridge or
anywhere else. It could have been Thymosin Alpha 1, Thymosin Beta-4 or
Thymomodulin but definitely not Thymosin. The compounding pharmacist would
have lost his licence for mislabelling a substance.
3. McDevitt disingenuously forgot to mention that when Dank left Essendon, staffer
Dean Wallis cleaned out Danks fridge and found three vials labelled
Thymomodulin. The vials carried batch numbers and a date and Wallis took a
photo, which was submitted to ASADA. But that evidence appears to have
disappeared.

Item (McDevitt) 8: Frankly, this stuff about thymomodulinthe 'good' thymosinwas

shown to be absolute rubbish.

My Comment:
McDevitts comment about Thymomodulin was indicative of his attitude, and the CAS
panels attitude, to anything that supported the players. Inter alia:
i.

As was pointed out in the response to item 7, Dean Wallis photographed three
vials of Thymomodulin that were found in Danks fridge.

ii.

Neither ASADA nor WADA tabled evidence that a vial labelled Thymosin
Beta-4 was ever sighted at Essendon.

iii.

ASADA was given a spreadsheet titled Thymomodulin that contained the

names of some Essendon players.

iv.

On 15 June 2012, Dean Robinson emailed Dr Reid a list of supplements

to be administered between the mid-year bye and the 2012 Grand Final
which included Thymomoduline

[sic] weekly: two days pre-game;

Cerebrolysin: two mil split fortnightly two days before the game; and
two monthly intravenous immune booster.
As an aside, I should like to comment on a statement made by Senator Peris at the hearing.
Peris said: To me, with my sporting background, I would go to see our team doctor if I was
sick, but you have a sports science unit. I know that having ice baths, for example, helps with
your recovery. Protein shakes, as we know, can

contain amino acids [my emphasis]

which help with recovery. Athletes are provided protein shakes through their sports science
unit.
My Comment:
Ironically, when Dank suggested using the term amino acid to Robinson, the panel accepted
WADA/ASADAs claim that Dank was a crook in using the term amino acid. But here we
have a great Australian Olympian volunteering that the doctor gave the Australian athletes
protein shakes with amino acids in them.

As stated earlier, I shall dissect the rest of McDevitts comments when time permits. Suffice
to say, McDevitt and ASADA have major problems. This is just another chapter in the
Essendon saga/ASADA scandal.

Regards

Bruce