Ah, Essendon, Essendon... Long a middle of the road team, often on the edge of controversy, the Dons found themselves in a massive cluster of their own making when in 2011, they began an underground program of illicit "vitamins" and "supplements" administered to their players by the team's doctor, approved by management and the coach, and without the knowledge of their players.
This did not go over well.
The fallout of the scandal is still in full force, but the immediate punishment to the club as the program came out in the open was fascinating. Before and during the 2013 season, as Essendon was having success on the footy field, the AFL and the Bombers management were negotiating their penalty for the subterfuge. (Imagine that in America! "Mr. Belichick, come meet with Roger Goodell and let's come to a compromise penalty over SpyGate...") The players were under weekly stress, wondering what the outcome would be, and it showed as they fell from the top of the ladder towards fifth and sixth place as the season wore on.
Amazingly, one week before the playoffs started, the decision was made that Essendon would have to give up their finals berth that season, among other penalties (the coach was fined and put on 12-month leave, which is an entirely other tangled ball of twine). So, going into their last game of the season, they suddenly went from sixth place and comfortably in the finals, to being forbidden from playing in the finals. (Again, picture telling New England one week before the playoffs that, no, stop selling tickets for your home playoff game...) Carlton snuck into the playoffs as the only ninth place finisher ever in finals (and won a game, remarkably). Since then, the team and coach have lost a lawsuit against ASADA (Australian Sport Anti-Doping Agency, the drug patrol organization in charge of prosecuting the mess), and 34 players were served with notices last December that they were suspended for a full year by the WORLD Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Fourteen of those players are still with Essendon; the Bombers, therefore, had to play this season with basically half their team filled with below-grade replacements.
So. Banned from the finals in 2013, made the playoffs in 2014 but players started to jump ship; 2015 saw them fall to 6-16, and just when 2016 looked like it would be their resurrection - BOOM, a notice from WADA that the season was shot. They somehow won three games this year, managed never to lose by more than one hundred points, and kept their fan base invigorated despite the situation. In 2017, things may finally be back to normal in the Melbourne suburb.
Their American counterpart: The Oakland Athletics
Truth be told, there is no comparison in American sports to the Essendon scandal, or at least to the way it has played out. New England's "SpyGate" scandal was referenced, but it seems more appropriate to connect the Oakland A's success despite the rantings of their former owner Charlie Finley which seemed to get the A's in trouble with the commissioner every third Sunday or so. Whether it was the uniforms, the mustaches (he once demanded NOT that every player be clean-shaven, as the Yankees traditionally did, but that every player grow facial hair!), or the simple defiance of the commissioner's edicts...and yet his Athletics won three straight World Series, five straight AL crowns, and were generally among the best (if not the best) team in baseball throughout the 70's.
The one team that could honestly be compared to the Essendon 'Dons' might be the Cronulla Sharks of Australia's NRL, the National Rugby League. Their group of nine player accepted early guilty pleas, served their suspensions (wondering throughout the Essendon saga if they'd made the right decision), and in 2016 came all the way back and won the NRL premiership final, 14-12 over the Melbourne Storm. Meanwhile, Essendon's in the cellar.
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