The news that Essendon players had been cleared by the AFL’s anti-doping tribunal wasn’t so much announced Tuesday as seeped-out, in keeping with so much of the rest of this sorry saga.

There was no lofty pronouncement from the Bench, nor even an orchestrated press conference. Instead, the news that 34 past and present players were not guilty bobbed up here, there and then, everywhere.

Which has been the problem with this dreary episode ever since it began with a press conference in February, 2013. At no point have the full facts been put before the public, which is why so many opinions have been misinformed and so many got Tuesday’s verdict wrong in the lead-up to it.

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Too much information has emerged over the past two years through leak and counter-leak by journalists eager for the next headline rather than the next fact and sources just as eager to spin the story.



Most of them had Essendon convicted within weeks of that first long-ago press conference. Clearly the three-member tribunal who exonerated the players yesterday didn’t have access to the same material those journalists and their sources did. Funny that.

The verdict was received with a mix of joy and relief by Essendon players, families, officials and fans – and outrage by those with most to lose from a not guilty finding.

The most churlish of these was ASADA boss, Ben McDevitt, who issued a statement within an hour of Tuesday’s news essentially rejecting the process.

“What happened at Essendon in 2012 was, in my opinion, absolutely and utterly disgraceful,” he said, adding: “It was not a supplements programme but an injection regime and the players and the fans were so poorly let down by the club.”

If McDevitt was a footballer he’d be arguing the result 30 minutes after the final siren sounded.

The reality is that ASADA had two years to gather evidence and a month to prosecute its case before the tribunal. And it failed comprehensively before a learned and experienced panel.

Despite this, the ASADA CEO left open the possibility of an appeal during a press conference he gave Wednesday morning. He should save his breath and taxpayers’ money. In fact, McDevitt would be better advised to apologise, rather than appeal.

The AFL might also consider an apology or two. That’s because careers have been destroyed and reputations shredded by what has always seemed to me to be little more than a series of half-baked suspicions overcooked for political reasons by the previous Labor federal government. And the AFL was all too willing to fall in behind.

Actually, make that 34 apologies – to each and every one of the players who’ve had to suffer in silence over the past two seasons, turning up week in, week out and playing well enough to make finals both years despite extreme duress.

But if the AFL can’t manage that, I’ll settle for one: Jobe Watson.

Gillon McLachlan should get on the phone today and on behalf of the League and all the fans who booed the Essendon skipper last season and the one before that and then called for him to be stripped of his 2012 Brownlow, explain that it had all been an unfortunate mistake. And then say ‘sorry’.

But Watson shouldn’t hold his breath. He’s done enough of that over the past two seasons. Yesterday he, his team-mates, their coach and about a million Essendon supporters across the land finally got to exhale. Mr McDevitt should too.