The club decided to go ahead with the appeal after taking extensive legaladivce on the matter.
Essendon will have legal representation at the hearing while the AFL hashired a Queens Counsel to defend its rulings.
The club recently asked the AFL to reconsider the penalties it had receivedin light of the penalites imposed on the Melbourne Football Club by the AFLCommission for its salary cap breaches.
The AFL rejected Essendon's request so a decision was made to take thematter to appeal.
"We sought an explanantion from the AFL Commission as to why the MelbourneFootball Club penalties appear on face value to be more lenient than ours,"club chief executive Peter Jackson said.
We haven't been given an adequate explanantion so we are going to theappeals board to seek the explanation."
Essendon's appeal is under Rule 11 of the AFL Player Rules and is againstthe AFL Commission's decision to:
- impose a sanction of $20,000 for breaching the player rules during thepreiod 1992 to 1994.
- impose a sanction of $76,274 for breaching the player rules in 1995 and1996 after the club was previously fined $112,000 and lost a second rounddraft choise for a breach of the rules in 1995.
- exclude the club from the 1999 pre-season draft.
- exclude the club from the 1999 pre-season rookie draft.
- exclude the club from rounds one and two of the 1999 national draft andexclude the club from participating in player trading and draft selectiontrading in rounds one and two of the 1999 national draft.
- to refuse an application by the club on or about September 24, 1999 toreconsider the sanctions imposed on the club.
- to refuse to provide the club with a copy of the AFL's report intobreaches of the player rules by the Melbourne Football Club.
- to refuse to provide the club with reasons for drawing a distinctionbetween its conduct and that of Melbourne.
- Under rule 15.3, to refuse to extend the time to appeal the originalsnactions imposed on the club by the AFL Commission.
Should the AFL Appeals Board uphold Essendon's appeal, the club couldfeasibly have its selections in the AFL National Draft re-instated.
