This Essendon saga has been done to death. I wasn’t planning on writing an article about it to join the thousands of overs, but there was some aspects of tonight’s Dean Robinson interview that are worth going into further.
The first thing (that I would have missed if it hadn’t been for a very skeptical mother sitting next to me) is that Essendon conveniently glossed over what Robinson actually said in one of their statements in relation to his ‘Black ops’ claim.
The statement from Essendon read as follows:
“Contrary to reports, James Hird and Danny Corcoran never said the programme should be run as a ‘black op’. This is nonsense and categorically rejected by the club.”
“This assertion is slanderous.”
All very well and good, supporters happy, keep fighting for their innocence in the eyes of the media, too easy. Except they didn’t count on detail sniffing mothers.
Robinson never said Hird or Corcoran asked for the program to be run as a ‘black op’, he said that Dank believed what Hird and Corcoran was asking of him was for a ‘black op’ program.
Hird and Corcoran may not have known/believed that this would have to be how the program is run, and therefore would not have gone out and blatantly asked for a black op program (which, in context, we can be fairly sure is extremely suspicious) to be run.
But while you may think of this as a minor, irrelevant detail this is an extremely fascinating press release. Don’t be mistaken, official statements in regards to allegations like this take a lot of deliberation (and almost certainly legal advice) to compile.
The fact that they have diverted from the actual allegation to a different one is quite simply remarkable, and reminds me of how Lance Armstrong was constructing his fight for innocence.
This is not to say I believe Essendon is lying, Robinson is lying or hell anyone is lying. There is no way of knowing, and the only thing we can currently go from is make educated guesses from who has a track record consistency and reliability in there stories.
From the hundreds or even thousands of stories I have seen, the only one with this track record is Robinson.
I apologise if I’ve missed something here, no doubt I’ve missed many news stories on this saga along the way.
The difference I’ve seen is Hird and Essendon’s stories have inconsistencies, while mainly minor (aside from Hird’s on his own injecting past), they are still inconsistencies.
One who has major flaws in his story is Mark McVeigh, and after seeing him on the review panel tonight I take everything he says with a grain of salt.
The man clearly wants to defend his mate James Hird at all costs, and fair enough too, but this makes viewers understandably skeptical.
The major reason of suspicion of McVeigh for me though is his personal attack on Kyle Reimers for this statement:
”Everyone signed it, it was a personal choice as to whether they took it … it does seem very odd, the type of stuff we were taking. They admitted to us it was right on the edge of the levels you could be taking.”
McVeigh fired back with the following
“He’s a disgruntled player that was delisted by the football club that very rarely turned up to pre-season training in any sort of form that resembled a professional footballer.”
“It was clearly stated to us what we were taking. If you didn’t know, you must have been asleep in the meeting, which, you know what, Reimers probably was.”
Reimers comments have been confirmed in the past, while I am unaware of McVeigh’s response to this development.
But I cannot believe, in McVeigh’s unrelenting defence of Hird on the review panel, this point was not raised to him by any of the panel.
One thing that McVeigh struggled to defend is Hird and doctor Bruce Reid’s absence from a meeting with Dank and Robinson about the supplement program.
Whether Reid knew of the meeting we don’t know, but Hird’s absence shows either a major oversight on his part or, simply that he didn’t want to be there.
Anyway, that’s my largely irrelevant addition to the Essendon drug saga. But before I sign off there are five final things that I want to say on the matter.
1. Enjoy reading the many articles on Robinson’s interview from amateur writers like myself on The Roar tomorrow morning;
2. Everything at the moment (including most of my article) is conjecture, the sooner we have some facts instead of to search for clues the better;
3. One thing we know Hird is telling the truth about is that this is starting to effect lives permanently, and needs to be brought to a close as soon as reliably possible;
4. Andrew Demetriou not being in the country during this time is a disgrace;
5. Having mothers who know relatively little about footy following a news story like this can come in handy.
Brendan
Guest
Bob Danks was nrver at Geelong and BT was never coach.
Matt
Guest
Fantastic article. About time some prope opened their eyes and saw the inconsistent storyline of Essenfon for what it is. They are protecting their 'boys club / inner sanctum' particularly their gown boy, while making others such as Robinson the scape goat. Well written with great points!!!
Penster
Guest
I've read that he was stood down - whether this was on full pay or not is unclear - but not dismissed, and finally resigned last Friday. Does resignation following stood down qualify for wrongful dismissal claim?
seanmaguire
Guest
The most self serving thing about it was that Robinson is sueing for unfair dismissal so he's not going to admit to doing anything wrong as far as drugs go. So the whole interview was pointless. He just blamed everyone else while not shedding any light on the alleged doping.
Shooter
Guest
I enjoyed the revelation from Spike last night that it was he and Jobe Watson who instigated a de-briefing of the players on supplements and the only reason players were told was at their behest. A detail that has only now come to light in all his defences of his good mate. Other interesting Spike snippets were; 1) Another or other players also refused the injections, no one pressed this. How many? Were they also afraid of needles? Or as Reimers suggests there were other reasons why injections could have been declined? Possibly beacuse people didn't agree with the content? 2) The timeline of injections. No injections commenced until after the de-briefing in Feb 2012, only tablets/pills were taken up until this point. Why would an injection program start on the eve of a season and not at the start of a preseason? When James Hird extended his contract for 2 years in 2011/12 I'll bet he didn't realise just how much payback he was going to get.
Penster
Guest
Sorry Jsteel - both those comments up there are mine - created a profile and mixed up user names then corrected it. Thought I'd deleted one of those comments, not trolling!
Franko
Guest
As i've mentioned before, this trip was planned 3 months ago. 3 months ago we knew the ASADA investigation would be coming to a conclusion. Well it's August now and where is Vlad? This is the biggest crisis the game has faced in some time, make no mistake.
Jsteel
Roar Pro
I'm aware of that, and as I've said it's more about the timing of the entire ASADA investigation and Essendon, not so much about being here for Robinsons interview.
Jsteel
Roar Pro
Thanks mate! Appreciate it, and no I don't get paid as an amateur writer. Can I get you to write a letter to The Roar CEO's? :D
Penster
Guest
The New York trip is to explore how to close the gap between rich and poor clubs - far more critical to the longevity of AFL clubs than a paid interview by The Weeping Weapon which was filmed and announced on Sunday. Not even worth cancelling an outing to Aldi to listen to that.
Penster
Roar Guru
I'd guess that the trip involved so many other people and American clubs it would be nigh on impossible to reschedule at late notice and there's more going on in AFL than Essendon. The trip to New York to find out how to close the gap between rich and poor clubs is much more important to the wider game's longevity than The Weeping Weapon's flash in the pan paid interview. Seriously, after that performance enhancing performance, he'd be lucky to get a gig at Fitness First.
Jsteel
Roar Pro
A week is tolerable, but it's still a critical time for the game and I'm not sure if it would be possible for this trip to happen in October. I agree, would have loved to see Mcguire's face when he heard about Robinsons comments!
Penster
Guest
He's only gone for a week isn't he? You did say that him not being in the country at this time is a disgrace. The message is clear, he's here for the main event, not the side show. And he got to see Eddie McGuire choke on his cornflakes. I'd pay to see that.
Jsteel
Roar Pro
Saying that an ex employee did not think something? He supposedly said it to Hird and Corcoran with Robinson in the room, they can respond saying that is true/not true and how they responded, not about something that was never alleged.
joe blackswan
Guest
Gotta laugh at Luke Darcy's "can you say that again" at every juicy comment made by Robinson... perhaps Darcy didn't realise what the function of the recording equipment pointed at both of them was. A shocking panel, almost all ex-players come commentators...only Lethal Liegh made a critical comment about Hird. Mark McViegh was quite the one eyed rabid attack dog, he certainly had a clear agenda....it was comical he would aggressively refute claims by DR that he was not privy to, and then offer no comment to other claims with the excuse he was not privy. Classic.
Australian Rules
Guest
The context of Demetriou's comment was made in direct response to the AOD-9064 revelations that week. Jobe had come out and admitted that he used it. The next day WADA stated it was definitely banned under S0. Naturally, people asked, "well, why is he still playing?" Obviously, Demetriou, under direct questioning, thought that an immediate explanation was due. I'm not apologising for him, but that's the context.
Jsteel
Roar Pro
I think Demetriou has been good in handling things so far, but there are going to be a lot of developments over the next week or so before the findings are released. I didn't mean that he needed to be here for the interview as very few (if any) of Robinsons comments needed an AFL comment, but for the s**t storm that is sure to follow. Yep, if there's one thing a bloke young adult (I think) going through uni wants to be told, it's listen to your mum!
Doug Deep
Roar Pro
Well spotted, this point and many other inconsistencies have been discussed by my mates as well. All of the "interested parties" have inconsistencies, which is no surprise. But the gap between Hird's "I'm shocked to be sitting here really" and the recent statements from Essendon could have a truck load of unidentified amino acids driven through them.
Matt
Guest
What a terrible article. Essendon FC can't release a press release saying that an ex-employee did not think something. That's why it wasn't in the press release.
Penster
Guest
Ok - that's a comment. But there's been no conjecture from Demetriou. The Bomber's statements once the report is out will be very interesting. Will they continue to stand by James Hird? I've a feeling he'll be sanctioned for bringing the game into disrepute but one thing is certain - lawyers will make a bloody mozza out of this.