Have a read of the CAS report and tell me what strands make sense to you. CAS even cherry picked evidence from some of the witnesses, they believed parts of what some people said and ignored the bits that didn't fit with their agenda.

The AFL tribunal heard the case in detail. ASADA could have appealed against any part of that judgement that was incorrect. Instead the Australian taxpayer funded WADA via a gift from ASADA of approximately $150K to run a de novo (brand new) case.

The ability to run a brand new case came with a rule change that came in after the players were charged ie it was backdated. Double jeopardy isn't a board game here although there are some people who do find it funny when something bad happens to an opposition team.

Max Power is getting fitted for his tin foil hat...

Not as clear-cut as awarding to the runner(s)-up.
Take all Watson's ineligible votes and you'd have to re-award all 1-2-3 votes for affected games, if you're going to make it fair. Who's to say that wouldn't throw up a different winner, or triple medallists, or whatever.
No, if his Brownlow is returned or withdrawn, it should be left blank on the records, as a salient reminder to all individuals or clubs that seek to rort the system.

Having said that, personally I'd be happy to see him keep it.

"Fairest and Best" - no mention of "and no performance enhancement substances detected or suspected".

It's hardly worth commenting on as most people have made up their minds, but here you go anyway:

ASADA zeroed in on the substance Thymosin Beta 4 (after they finally admitted that AOD was OK all along) which they said was prohibited in 2012, although it was never explicitly listed.

The AFL Tribunal (2 retired judges and a senior barrister) determined that ASADA could not prove TB4 came into the country, could not prove that it was compounded and therefore did not bother to go further. CAS on the other hand decided that they would start at the position that Dank administered TB4 because he always did (except at Geelong, Gold Coast and Melbourne). No wonder CAS only took a couple of daysdidn't take long for their hearing,

Our legal system would be a bit different if it started at guilty and you had to prove innocence.

Remember no Essendon player has ever tested positive despite target testing, no evidence that TB4 was at the club, no whistle blower despite pressure and the offer of a get out of jail free card.

If you read the CAS judgement it is hard to believe that anyone could be convicted by the strands of a cable argument, especially as some of the strands contradicted each other, just throw it all in and muddy the water and get it over with in a couple of days.

Of course Jobe should keep his brownlow because the AFL tribunal cleared him. I know that AFL is tribal so most other supporters would not agree but look at the evidence not at the media headlines.

If they are going to give it to Mitchell they'll have to adjust the criteria as the Brownlow is for Fairest and Best player. Whether he has ever been the best player is subjest for debate but the idea that he has ever been fairest is a joke. The man could get a job writing jibes and sledges for the Australian Cricket team and supplement his income with a military role as a sniper. One of the dirtiest players in the game.

To everyone in Tigerland, please don't get too excited, The AFL policy for the medal of the best and fairest centreman, not including Richmond is rarely broken so even if Jibe loses his, there is nothing to say it will go to Cotchin anyway.

Gonna be a great day when Mitchell and Cotchin salute as worthy winners.
The cheers will be loud.

Super simple. If he gets to keep it McKernan and Grant get one, too. Most of the comp weren't juiced in Jobe's year. Gotta lose it.

Strip the Brownlow off Jobe and create a one off medal called the "you were the best and fairest that year but WADA didn't agree with us medal" ? Or the "anybody but a Richmond player not-a-Brownlow medal" . Since it's unique Jobe could flog it on ebay and make up all the cash he lost last year and perhaps have a bit left over for coffee with James ?

" It is innocent until proven guilty"
Yes, and he's been found guilty. Move on.

Clearly Titus needs a Twat filter.
You're like one of those anti-DP wallies, desperately arguing that the guy who kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered a dozen women, confessed and led police to their bodies, shouldn't get the needle "because the police were big bullies."
Watson is a convicted drug cheat. Period. Doesn't matter how much jiff you spray on his picture, he's still a convicted drug cheat.

"Having said that, personally I’d be happy to see him keep it." Hardly worth responding when you are obviously just another deluded Essendon sycophant, but here goes anyway.
The Brownlow is for the Fairest & Best. Every year there are players disqualified (although only on a couple of occasions have they topped the voting) Votes are NEVER re-cast when players are disqualified, so whay should that year be any different?

Hey Charles, sorry mate. It is innocent until proven guilty. If you have been found guilty through a failed drug test then you have to prove your innocence or explain how you failed the test.

Imagine if you walked down the street and you were arrested and charged and the police didn't have to prove anything but you had to prove your innocence. That is not the way it is in world sport and that is not the way it is in Australia.

Let me remind everyone again, Jobe did not fail any test and the AFL tribunal was way more thorough in their hearing. ASADA presented no real evidence and even withdrew a document that they admitted was forged.

The only way that Jobe and the Essendon players lost the case at CAS was because they lowered the bar so low. The more serious the offense the greater the level to reach comfortable satisfaction should be, if you are going to take someone's livelihood off them for a year or two or end they career, it should be more than just a hunch or the vibe of the thing.

Go and research some past cases and determine what comfortable satisfaction means.

Hmmm, the NFL and MLB are bastions of the global sporting community when it comes to drugs! They didn't sign up because half their leagues would be on the sidelines.

Your argument is that by not signing up to a world standard on anti-doping, that's making a righteous stand. Ridiculous. Comfortable satisfaction is what is required and it was accepted by all bar the AFL, who no doubt had a vested interest in making it all go away.

Apparently Dank has records to prove the innocence of the players. Of course he should, but he can't produce them, even after all this time. That's what you do when you don't want to get caught cheating, you destroy the evidence.

That's why in world sport, the onus is on the athlete to remain clean and if they can't prove what was put into their bodies, then there is a case to answer.

Will TAB Sportsbet pay out on my Sam Mitchell Brownlow bet and if so, can I sue Jobe for the interest lost between 2012 and now?

Sorry Titus but that's sanctimonious smugness borne either of ignorance of the true position or a determination to ignore or deny it. Here's what happened.

The Swiss findings of "guilt" were based on "evidence" that would have been laughed out of the Wangaratta Magistrates Court (and apologies to the Court..)- - but I guess if you are stupid enough to allow your employees rights to be determined by some foreign crazy "legal" system totally corrupted by inquisitorial zealots applying a standard of proof equivalent to "feeling the vibe", this is what you get . Serious professional sporting bodies - -American NBA, MLB and NFL to name a few - -as opposed to the bumbling oafs who run the AFL - -are not so dumb as to give away legal rights and powers we take for granted in Australia
to these latter day inquisitors camped out in Switzerland.

So the AFL, despite themselves finding no case to answer - -the only possible conclusion under the principles that cover how we deal with our rights in Australia - -has to live with the Swiss farce. But there is no reason they need to give it any more credence than it demands - compliance. Which has occurred. The Swiss zealots said nothing about Brownlows and that's the AFl's to deal with as they see fit - -and there is nothing inconsistent with them doing just that and leaving Brownlow where it is - -with Watson - , particularly given their summary dismissal of the matter themselves. But I bet they cave in and make the weakest decision but the one most convenient for them.

Max, as a heartbroken Bomber, I love your outrage and pursuit of the truth. But unfortunately we've been rolled here and continuing to fight will not help us in the long run. The club wants to move on. Stick fat with the club mate and move on with them. Hopefully to a premiership in the next few years, although another AFL miscalculation (The Giants) may make that difficult.

You're outraged, how do you think we feel?

Don't just read the headlines but do a bit of investigation, have a read of the CAS report and if it wasn't so serious it would be funny, like Essendon must have doped because they were good that year (despite the games won being similar to the year before and the year after). If you dope and you're a crap player is that proof that the drugs didn't work?

There was no smoking gun in fact there was no admissible evidence provided by ASADA that TB4 came into the country that is why after the AFL tribunal found the players "Not Guilty" that ASADA or WADA did not appeal that decision because they would have had to prove why the decision was wrong. Instead they went to a double jeopardy "De Novo" hearing and didn't present coherent evidence as such but just cherry picked bits and pieces and used the scatter gun, strands in a cable approach. By the way the WADA code talks about "Comfortable Satisfaction" not balance of probabilities and if you start from the position of guilty (which the code doesn't) then maybe it is easier to end up at guilty if you aren't paying attention.

By the way Lance Armstrong did test positive several times throughout his career but the results were hushed up, it is not too hard to find that out and he didn't just come out, many members of his team admitted it for him.

I don't know how most Essendon supporters feel about the saga but most would believe that the club could have had better governance throughout this period but it has acknowledged this many many times and now has improved processes (as has all the other clubs and the AFL itself which at the time did not even follow its own rules). It is also worth mentioning that many other clubs, eleven in fact had similar governance failures around their supplements programs at this time as the AFL themselves reported.

If Essendon did dope and despite the CAS verdict there is no evidence then it would have been through one of its employees that did so on their own that it recruited from the AFL's own darling club the Gold Coast Suns. Dank and Robinson both came to Essendon from Geelong via the Suns and do you believe that their instructions were to do anything different or illegal when they got to Essendon? I don't.

cancell 2012 brownlow medal, jobe won it, , no prizes for second best for 2012..nul invoid medal.

Max Power.... You are my hero! I agree absolutely and completely with every word you've written!!

Well lets do the maths 18 teams .All supporters loathing the team and players of most other clubs for some obscure reason, so when an article asks for a vote on any player at a club they loath it will be 17 to 1 vote against .

Should Chris Judd be allowed to keep his Brownlow for Chicken Winging ,Eye gouging ,getting a young first year player that drunk he required medical assistance ?

I think Jobe should give his Brownlow Medal to Bob Murphy.

He is a convicted drug cheat. End of story. He loses it!

It's not that simple. I can't believe that every single Essendon supporter believes the rubbish that all players are innocent because there was no "smoking gun". Surely there are some Essendon supporters who consider the James Hird led period of the football club to be a shameful episode which damaged the standing of a great, old club?

Not everything comes down to a criminal code. "Innocent until proven guilty" is about criminal law. Civil Law is based on "balance of probabilities" and in this, Essendon failed to pass.

Essendon will go on long after all the players of the current era have retired. As a supporter of a rival club, I would hope Essendon recover as quickly as possible. But, I do not want the myth of "we did nothing wrong" to be acceptable. Likewise, I do not want the Brownlow to have the taint of that year left hanging over it.
Lance Armstrong also did not ever test positive - he finally confessed to his wrongdoing after he retired.

Happy to move on Andrew, and you are right we have been rolled here, the truth about ASADA and WADA and the AFl will eventually come out. Bits and pieces of these corrupt organisations surface from time to time like how WADA treated the Russian whistleblowers; ignored them for two years until they went to the German media and then belatedly tried to act tough and tried to ping every single Russian athlete.

Just trying to correct outright lies and mistruths and the lazy thinkers who only read the headlines and not the whole articles.

Nobody but Dank knows for sure what individual players may have been given but I can tell you one thing the players and staff including Hirdy did not intend them to take anything outside the code and to date there is zero evidence that would be admissible in an Australian court that proves anything to the contrary.

It is hard to see how anyone can take any joy out of seeing someone with absolute integrity like Jobe being treated like some in here want him to be treated.

Being a totally unreasonable and semi unhinged Hawthorn supporter I would say let him keep it. Sammy went to the Weagles . Anyway, by the look on Jobe's face the past few years I reckon the only drug he was taking was valium. I have a whole list of other drugs that I think would be better for him - for instance I have mates who live in the Amazon and still hunt - the drugs they take allow them to astral travel at night to check out where the prey (or the enemy) is and they can also literally disappear. Imagine if you could disappear all of a sudden and then reappear out on the footy field.

Essendon supporter of 37 years here. I don't for a second believe Jobe (or any of our players) knowingly cheated, the club played loose with the rules and jeopardized the playing careers of half of our boys. James, Dank and Dean are 100% at fault in my eyes.

That said, Jobe MUST lose the medal. Best and Fairest has to actually mean something and regardless of any deliberate wrongdoing, the medal must remain without the stain that those 3 loose cannons above have wrought on this once proud club, in order for the greater game of AFL to be fair and just for all AFL clubs and supporters.

I hate that a good guy like Jobe (and club legend Tim and ALL of our players and their parents) have been put through all of this but my anger is not directed at ASADA, WADA or the AFL, it lies squarely with the 3 stooges.