Charging veteran Essendon club doctor Bruce Reid with bringing the AFL into disrepute is like putting a big gun in front of Bambi, says legendary coach Kevin Sheedy.
Former Bombers mentor Sheedy was reluctant on Wednesday to discuss the charges brought by the AFL against Essendon, their coach James Hird, Reid and two other senior officials as he didn’t know the content of the ASADA interim report they were based on.
But he threw his support behind long-time colleague Reid as Essendon and the four officials prepare to contest charges of bringing the game into disrepute over the club’s 2011-12 supplements program.
“Bruce Reid is my own family doctor and I’ve known him for nearly 40 years,” said Sheedy, who worked alongside Reid for all but the first year of his 27-year coaching reign at Essendon that yielded four premierships.
“He is well respected. It’s like putting a big gun in front of Bambi on this one.
“But good luck, because most people know the calibre of Bruce Reid.”
Sheedy believed Hird would be undaunted as he fights to save his reputation and job as coach of Essendon.
The commission has sweeping powers and can suspend Hird if it finds him guilty, as well as stripping Essendon of premiership points and taking away draft picks.
Hird has remained cool, composed and adamant of his innocence throughout the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s seven-month investigation of the supplements program.
Sheedy said Hird would continue to use the same courage he displayed on the field to battle the AFL and the charge against him.
“A young man like James Hird runs out there, has his skull fractured in five or six places, then has the courage to come back,” Sheedy said.
“He’s always shown an enormous amount of courage.
“You’ve got to be very courageous to take on the AFL in this matter, and that’s what he’s going to do.”
THE AFL’S BIGGEST SCANDALS OF THE PAST 25 YEARS
ESSENDON AND DRUGS
The Bombers use supplements in a bid to fast-track the physical development of their players last year. An Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation gets underway in February and the scandal claims the club’s chief executive and chairman before the AFL, acting on an interim ASDA report, charges the club plus coach James Hird, senior assistant Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid with bringing the game into disrepute. They vow to fight the charges. Meanwhile the ASADA probe continues.CARLTON’S SALARY CAP CHEATING
In 2002, the powerhouse club is fined a record $930,000 and loses draft picks for deliberately and systematically cheating the salary cap between 1998 and 2001. They’re found to have breached the cap by $1.37 million in total.WAYNE CAREY
North Melbourne’s premiership captain and the AFL’s best player of the time is forced to quit the club in disgrace in 2002 because of his affair with the wife of his vice-captain and best mate Anthony Stevens. Carey and Kelli Stevens are infamously busted in a toilet at the house of team-mate Glenn Archer.BEN COUSINS
West Coast’s poster boy and Brownlow medallist admits being a drug addict during his decorated playing career, but denies taking drugs on match day. Cousins is sacked by the Eagles in 2007 and banned by the AFL for a year for bringing the game into disrepute. He returns to play for Richmond in 2009 and 2010.ESSENDON’S SALARY CAP CHEATING
In 1996, the Bombers are fined a then-record $638,250 and lose draft picks for salary cap breaches between 1991 and 1996. They’re the only club found to have broken the cap in a premiership year – when they won the flag in 1993.JUSTIN CHARLES
The only player suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. The Richmond ruckmman is banned for 16 matches in 1997 when there isn’t a drugs policy in the AFL. Charles accuses the AFL of a cover-up, saying he told league officials where he got the steroids but they didn’t want to know – a claim denied by headquarters.ST KILDA’S RAPE CASE
St Kilda forward Stephen Milne is initially cleared in 2004 of rape allegations arising from an incident at the house of his teammate Leigh Montagna. But in June this year, he’s charged with four counts of rape and will front court again next month.RACISM
St Kilda’s indigenous star Nicky Winmar highlights racism in footy when he famously lifts his jumper and points to his skin after a 1993 game at Collingwood’s Victoria Park. The issue hits the headlines again two years later when Essendon’s Michael Long is racially vilified by Collingwood’s Damian Monkhorst. And it flares again this year when Sydney champion Adam Goodes is called an ape by a 13-year-old Collingwood fan.THE ST KILDA SCHOOLGIRL
Teenager Kim Duthie embroils the Saints in ongoing controversy in 2011 when the then 17-year-old puts naked photos of two St Kilda players online. She later leaks photos of herself and player agent Ricky Nixon in bed in a scandal which costs Nixon his career.BRENDAN FEVOLA
The Carlton and Brisbane forward is a walking scandal with a rap sheet including: Circulating a nude photo he took of Lara Binge during their affair; putting a headlock on a bartender in Ireland while on an Australian tour; urinating on a shop front; being a drunken disgrace at a Brownlow medal count; an arrest for being a public nuisance on New Year’s Eve in Brisbane.KURT TIPPETT AND THE CROWS
Adelaide and Tippett strike a deal outside AFL rules when the key forward re-signs with the Crows in 2009. The Crows are fined $300,000, lose draft picks and have their chief executive suspended six months and football manager banned two months, while Tippett is suspended for 11 games and joins Sydney when the rule-breaking contract expires.MELBOURNE’S “TANKING”
The AFL is adamant Melbourne didn’t deliberately lose games in 2009 to secure top draft picks. But they still fine the club $500,000 and suspend their then-football department chief Chris Connolly for a year and then-coach Dean Bailey for 16 matches for prejudicial conduct.THE OTHER SALARY CAP BREACHES
Other cases of salary cap rorts punished by the AFL include Sydney (1992 and 1995), Carlton (1994), West Coast (1998), Geelong (1998) and Melbourne (1999).
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