the 'sweetheart' deal is standard practise in doping prosecutions. Offer a reduced suspension in exchange for confession and/or assistance with further investigation.
Essendon's players were offered that opportunity. They refused it.
The initial offer of a reduction is only the first step in a chain, though. Where I see the key difference in the NRL and the AFL collectively here, bearing in mind the various agencies and entities operating under each umbrella term, is the relative pragmatism the NRL side embraced in dealing with the issue as soon as it reared its ugly head whereas the AFL side attempted to deny, obscure and deflect.
I don't really give much of a rat's, myself... but the NRL with its troubled history of player misbehaviour including violent assaults, sexual assaults, feacal assaults of hotel room walls and a general assault on good taste and discernment, has managed to come out of this saga looking better than the AFL.
I'm not congratulating anyone over it. I'm still too busy basking in the afterglow of a magnificent Rugby Union World Cup win.
Just in case anyone had forgotten that over summer.
