HOW THE ESSENDON SUPPLEMENTS SCANDAL UNFOLDED
2011
After finishing eighth and with an obvious lack of body strength, coach James Hird promises an intense pre-season. Essendon recruit fitness coach Dean Robinson and sports scientist Stephen Dank.
2012
Essendon win eight of the first nine games but after a spate of soft-tissue injuries, lose eight of the last nine and finish 11th.
Dank is sacked after cost overruns with the supplements program and Robinson receives an official warning.
2013
February 4: Senior Essendon officials hold crisis meeting about the 2012 supplements program.
February 5: Essendon announce they’re reporting to ASADA and the AFL about the program. The same day, Robinson is suspended.
February 7: The Australian Crime Commission releases a landmark report into organised crime and Australian sport, labelled “the blackest day in Australian sport”.
February 11: Dank says Hird and other senior Essendon officials were aware of the details of the supplements program.
February 27: Essendon announce an independent review into governance at the club, headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski.
April 11: Dank says he injected Hird with the banned drug hexarelin, a claim the Essendon coach says is “horrifying”.
May 6: Switkowski’s findings include a “pharmacologically experimental environment” at the club in 2012.
May 23: Chief executive Ian Robson resigns and is replaced by Ray Gunston.
June 24: Essendon captain Jobe Watson reveals he believes he was given the banned drug AOD-9604.
July 26: Robinson resigns and plans legal action against the Bombers.
July 27: Evans resigns.
July 28: Hird’s legal team accuses the AFL of repeatedly leaking information about the investigations. Paul Little takes over as chairman.
August 2: The AFL receives ASADA’s interim report, but say the investigation is ongoing.
August 13: The AFL charge the Bombers, Hird, Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid with bringing the game into disrepute.
August 22: Hird’s lawyers issue a Supreme Court writ, which includes allegations AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou and his deputy Gillon McLachlan “tipped off” Essendon that its players had taken performance enhancing drugs.
August 26: The AFL bans Essendon from the finals. Hird is suspended for 12 months, Corcoran receives a four-month ban and Thompson is fined $30,000.
September 13: No charges against Reid.
October 10: Essendon confirm Thompson will be 2014 senior coach.
2014
March 3: Demetriou resigns and is later replaced by McLachlan.
March 13: ASADA send Dank a disclosure notice relating to allegations of anti-doping violations at Essendon.
June 12: ASADA issues show cause notices to 34 current and former Essendon players, formally telling them they have a case to answer.
August 11: Federal Court begins hearing Essendon’s challenge to the legality of the joint ASADA-AFL investigation.
August 25: Hird’s 12-month ban ends.
September 19: Justice John Middleton rules the joint AFL-ASADA investigation was conducted legally. Little says the club will abide by the decision, but Hird says he’ll appeal.
October 2: Essendon settles out-of-court with Robinson, who claimed wrongful dismissal.
October 2: Hird launches Federal Court appeal against Justice Middleton’s ruling.
October 6: Essendon resolve to retain Hird as 2015 coach.
October 17: ASADA issues amended show-cause notices to the 34 players, detailing evidence they were administered the banned peptide thymosin beta-4 in 2012.
November 3: The national Anti-Doping Rule Violation Panel (ADVRP) places the 34 players on its register of findings, to initiate the anti-doping tribunal.
November 12: Thompson confirms he will leave the club.
December 15: The anti-doping tribunal gets underway, three years after the doping claims first emerged.
2015
January 30: The Full Bench of the Federal Court rules against Hird.
February: Essendon recruit top-up players for the pre-season competition, allowing all remaining players from 2012 to sit it out to protect the identity of those on provisional bans.
February 27: Hird rules out appealing to the High Court.
March 31: The anti-doping tribunal hands down a not guilty verdict, with chairman David Jones saying the tribunal was not comfortably satisfied any player was administered Thymosin Beta-4 or violated the AFL Anti-Doping Code.
