The wait to hear whether Essendon will be charged by the AFL over their suspect supplements program is set to drag on until at least Tuesday.
No charges had been announced by the AFL as of Monday night.
Bombers heavyweights including chairman Paul Little and chief executive Ray Gunston gathered at Windy Hill on Monday, sparking speculation an announcement might be imminent.
But more than a week after the AFL received ASADA’s interim report into the club’s 2012 supplements program, there remains no word from the league about possible charges.
In another twist, former Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank has offered to help the club fight any AFL or ASADA sanctions over the supplements program he helped administer.
“If the sanctions were to be placed on the club and not the players, well then there’d be an offer of assistance to the club in terms of what they’d need to go forward with such a challenge,” Dank told the Nine Network.
Dank has previously said he would not agree to be interviewed by ASADA as part of its investigation into the supplements program.
Meanwhile, AFL legend Leigh Matthews says the league could be making a scapegoat of Essendon if it charges the club with bringing the game into disrepute.
There has been speculation that no specific anti-doping charges will be brought against players under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code but the AFL could still heavily punish the Bombers under their own rules.
“We’ve had this leak and that leak and now we, as in the grapevine, seem to believe there’ll be no specific rule breaches but the AFL will go back to its catch-all of bringing the game into disrepute to make a scapegoat of somebody,” Matthews told Brisbane’s 4BC radio on Monday.
“The somebody is the Essendon management, whether it’s James Hird the coach or the club itself.
“But I am yet to see any evidence of what they have actually done to bring the game into disrepute, as opposed to innuendo that we read about in the paper day after day.
“… If you have to go back to bringing the game into disrepute what you’re saying is `Our rules aren’t good enough.’
“In other words they haven’t broken any specific rule but we don’t like what they’ve done so we’ll slam them with bringing the game into disrepute.”
Matthews said the AFL Commission, which will hand down any sanctions, had the right to act in the game’s best interests as the code’s governing authority.
“But I don’t see anything that Essendon have done at this point in time that you could say they’ve brought the game into disrepute,” he said.
“Yes, they may have been sloppy in their governance, sloppy in their management, they might have delegated to some people that they wish they hadn’t delegated to potentially.
“But that isn’t bringing the game into disrepute in my view.”
In a letter to club members on Monday night, Essendon coach James Hird thanked them for their support amid the unrelenting speculation.
“All I will say on the matter to you is that I am looking forward to dealing with the facts,” Hird said.
“As a coaching and playing group we will be doing everything we can to turn around our form slump over the next three rounds to ensure we go into September primed and ready to play finals football.
“One last message to you as the red and black faithful – continue the great support you have shown all year.
“Whether it is at our games, open training sessions, emails, social media or other messages of support, it has been a source of inspiration and strength to all of us here at the club.”