Former Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank. Picture: James Croucher. Source: The Daily Telegraph
IN the past six months, two of the AFL's biggest brands - Adelaide and Essendon - have vowed to bare their souls in public, or at least to their members.
Each has sinned. Neither has fully confessed.
The Bombers had their chance on Monday.
Ziggy Switkowski was under the impression from Essendon chairman David Evans there would be full disclosure of his internal report on how the Bombers lost their way while Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson ran a fitness program that is now the subject of AFL and Federal Government investigations.
The members and the public remain in the dark on some key issues of the Tippett saga
In fairness to Evans, the Switkowski report is under threat - if made public in full - of defamation hearings, particularly from Robinson, who was the high-performance manager at Windy Hill last season.
In further fairness to Essendon, the corruption of its procedures was so severe last year that even today the Bombers cannot tell their players what substances they took in the search for a competitive edge.
Adelaide has less to hold back full disclosure - as promised - on the Kurt Tippett affair.
The members and the public - who were assured by Crows chairman Rob Chapman of being told "the whole story" - remain in the dark on some key issues.
Just what happened in September 2009 when Tippett signed a contract with secret attachments is either to stay private or become the focus of a book by any of the key players.
Regardless, there are two fascinating points in each scandal that need to be pushed.
At Essendon, there is the problem of the letter that club doctor Bruce Reid wrote on January 15, 2012, expressing concern at the Dank-Robinson program. This letter never reached the board - and remains lost.
"Bruce did write a letter," Evans says, "and ... we're confused as to where that letter went."
But AFL clubs are small pods. Is it harsh or too simplistic to ask why Reid - as he constantly bumped into Evans in the changerooms, team hotels and flights - never asked why he had no response to his letter?
Had the lines of communication at Windy Hill broken down that much?
At Adelaide, there is the question of just how much the Crows board knew of the Tippett deal - or how much they asked of it.
Considering so many questions of secret clauses were in the media, a concerned club director should have asked for clarity at board meetings.
Chapman says the board minutes confirm his directors did ask and they were satisfied with the answer. The response of "manageable risk" may indicate the board was too easily satisfied with the answer - and the AFL penalties further enhance that impression.
An adjunct professor from the University of Adelaide, Mark Coleman, this month has published a business paper questioning the Adelaide FC's governance.
"I questioned," he writes, "a number of colleagues, all well experienced in governance roles ... "
The conclusions are quite damning of the Crows board, and certain to draw a response from Chapman, who is going to great lengths to correct the governance problems at West Lakes.
But no member at Adelaide or Essendon yet has the full story as they were promised.
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