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Essendon getting thumped by Hawthorn last Friday is the least of their worries at the moment as their six-month drug crisis has got uglier.
It claimed another big scalp on the weekend in chairman David Evans, who after suffering a physical breakdown in the rooms after the Hawthorn defeat made the right decision to stand down the following day.
As James Hird said in his post match press conference, this matter and the ASADA investigation needs to come to a conclusion as soon as possible, because lives and families are paying the price. David Evans is one of those.
He and Hird, who were so close for so long, seemed to suffer a fallout in recent weeks over having a different view on the contents of a phone call between Evans and Demetriou back in February, the day before the Essendon drugs story broke.
That subplot became bigger than the drugs investigation for a day last week.
Hird seemed to indicate in his ASADA meeting in April that Demetriou may have provided some information to Evans in that phone conversation to make him aware that the Bombers were the club ASADA were closing in on to investigate allegations of extensive supplement taking, some of which may have been banned.
Demetriou has strongly denied it over the weekend and Hird’s large legal and PR teams are now engaged in a war of words with the AFL accusing them of leaking other information relating to a meeting Hird had with the AFL’S integrity officer, Brett Clothier, back in 2011, as well as when ASADA had their meeting with him three months ago.
Correspondence from the League to Hird’s legal counsel has been rigorous in denying this too.
With the ASADA findings due out next week and then the relevant parties having a further two weeks to respond to them before sanctions, if there are any, are handed out, the breaking down of relationships and the huge role of the media in this saga threatens to continue to take centre stage.
The League is furious, and rightly so, that their organisation the code appear to have been put into disrepute over these alleged drug practices employed by the Essendon Football Club.
The AFL has to make an example of them, and it’s set to happen on the eve of the finals, which has the Bombers as certain participants at the moment.
To ensure this never occurs again, the penalties need to be severe and as has been speculated long and hard, the stripping of premiership points could come into play.
You can understand James Hird’s frustration that the matter and investigation has dragged on for six months, but it has to be an exhaustive process and if Essendon players are found to have taken banned substances and supplements, the club will only have themselves to blame.
If it’s discovered that Hird played a significant role in this and some high profile media folk remain convinced of that it could spell the end of his coaching career. Though if it was up to new Essendon chairman, Paul Little, ‘Hirdy’ won’t be going anywhere.
If he does stay beyond this season, don’t expect the push for his demise to stop. Hird has constantly claimed his and the club’s innocence that they’ve both done nothing wrong.
He has to be admired for coaching his side into a position where at this stage they should still finish top four, but are clearly not good enough to beat the top three despite the ongoing issues around the club.
If the Bombers were to lose premiership points in the next few weeks it obviously wouldn’t be ideal, but it would be better than if it carried over to 2014, because they might be ready to challenge for the flag next year.
As relationships in the game fall apart and key figures resign as this sorry and sordid affair drags on, we hope that by September the finals action will be front and square. But don’t count on it.
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