ASADA boss Ben McDevitt says his organisation is seriously considering an appeal against the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal’s not-guilty finding on 34 past and present Essendon players.

The tribunal’s acquittal was a massive blow to the credibility of the national anti-doping body, and McDevitt said an appeal is “a very live option”.

“Will we consider an appeal? The answer to that is, yes we are,” McDevitt told a Canberra press conference on Wednesday.

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ASADA failed to have any of the charges upheld despite a joint investigation with the AFL that lasted more than two years.

“The task before the tribunal was not an easy one. They have had to adjudicate over what was effectively the largest anti-doping case in Australian history,” McDevitt said.

McDevitt was disappointed by Tuesday’s findings, saying in a statement that what happened at Essendon in 2012 was “in my opinion, absolutely and utterly disgraceful”.

He reiterated that feeling at Wednesday’s press conference.

“What we know is that hundreds if not thousands of injections, apparently unsupervised and undocumented, were given to Essendon players during the course of the 2012 season,” McDevitt said.

“The absolutely deplorable and disgraceful lack of record of these injections means we will have young men not knowing what was injected into them.

“The blind faith placed in coaching and support staff meant players were willing to subject themselves to an experimental regime of injections.”

McDevitt said it would ultimately be his decision whether ASADA appealed the not-guilty findings.

That decision would only be taken after ASADA had carefully scrutinised the detailed findings of the AFL’s independent anti-doping tribunal which found there was insufficient evidence to prove an illegal substance was administered to the players.

The not guilty findings did not clear up what actually happened in Essendon’s 2012 supplements program.

“You can’t on the one hand say nothing illegal or harmful was given when on the other hand you can’t actually state what was given,” said McDevitt.

“And that’s part of the problem here … that’s the (Essendon captain) Jobe Watson comment from yesterday. We don’t know what these players administered.

“What’s that going to mean as far as health repercussions for these players?

“There are always lessons learned … after an investigation it’s a normal process to do an internal review of the investigation, we’ll do exactly that.

“We will look for opportunities for improvement and everything else.”

– with AAP