The appeal by James Hird against a Federal Court ruling has sent the Essendon versus ASADA doping saga into overtime, with no fresh legs to come off the bench.
The appeal document offers no new evidence to strengthen the argument the anti-doping body acted unlawfully by conducting a joint investigation with the AFL.
Instead it says the judge "failed to identify any source of power" by which ASADA and the AFL could work together, and so the Federal Court's rejection of this argument should be overturned.
The appeal document - lodged on Thursday placing Hird at loggerheads with the Essendon Football Club - asks for all evidence obtained during the "unlawful" investigation to be tossed out.
The show-cause notices, faced by 34 past and current Essendon players, should also be dismissed.
"The primary Judge failed to identify any source of power in the Act, the Regulations or the NAD (National Anti-Doping) scheme that enabled ... ASADA to agree with the AFL to conduct, and then to constitute and conduct, an investigation jointly, or in close co-operation with, the AFL," the document says.
As led in the Federal Court case, the appeal document says the players were wrongly compelled by the AFL's involvement to answer ASADA's questions on potential doping violations at Essendon during the 2012 season.
It says Justice John Middleton erred in his September 19 by finding ASADA did not exceed its powers, and further calls for ASADA to pay Hird's legal costs incurred during the Federal Court case and the appeal.
The Full Court of the Federal Court is asked to expedite the case, with Hird's lawyer asking for a hearing in the last week of October.
But the appeal court otherwise may not hear the case until February next year.
The Essendon Football Club is not appealing against Justice Middleton's ruling.
The club has signalled it wants to move on from the saga which has affected two AFL seasons and - with ongoing court action and the prospect of player bans - will encroach on a third.
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