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Australian Watson set to be stripped of highest award after doping ban

Xinhua, October 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Australian Football League (AFL) is set to strip champion player Jobe Watson of the game's highest individual award after Watson's appeal against a doping ruling was rejected on Tuesday night.

Watson, the former captain of Essendon Football Club, could lose the Brownlow Medal he won in 2012 after a Swiss Court threw out an appeal by 34 current and former Essendon players. They had objected to a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that they violated doping rules in the 2011 and 2012 AFL seasons.

The January decision by CAS, which forced one-year bans on the 34 players, came three years after the AFL first announced an investigation into Essendon's controversial supplements program in 2011 and 2012.

The AFL Commission now has to make a decision on whether, in light of the Swiss court's ruling, Watson gets to keep - or lose - his Brownlow Medal. Most football commentators in Australia feel the commission will have no choice but to strip the player of the award.

Their decision, to be made in the coming weeks, will bring an end to a three-year saga which has already ended the tenures of Essendon's chief executive (Ian Robson), president (David Evans) and head coach (James Hird).

Peter Jess, Watson' s former agent, said while Watson deserved the award, World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) rules made it clear he should lose the prestigious medal.

"WADA is pretty specific in terms of the penalties and if you have won an award in the period when you have been convicted of doping then those awards are stripped out," Jess told the ABC on Wednesday.

"He will lose his Brownlow and possibly his best-and-fairest award won during that period."

In a statement released on the club's website, Essendon chairman Lindsay Tanner said Essendon maintained the CAS decision was unjust.

"It is obviously disappointing for our players. The club respected and supported the players' decision to exercise the only legal right to appeal they had in this process," Tanner said.

"We maintain our view that the decision and penalty handed down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport was manifestly unfair on our players."

The AFL Commission has invited Watson to make a submission to the hearing on his Brownlow. Endite