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When the footy historians of the future re-examine the Essendon supplements saga, what will they see?
Will they see 2013 as a turning point in the sport’s fight against doping? Or will they see it as just the tip of the iceberg, the first in a long line of dominoes to fall and plunge the sport into the dark and seedy world of illicit, artificial enhancers?
While we would like to think that the answer would be the former, the history of doping in other sports suggests it is more likely to be the latter.
But did Essendon actually dope at all?
The best ASADA could come up with after six months of investigation and the provision of 13,000 documents of evidence was that it was only ‘reasonably likely’ that the players had doped.
In the minds of most observers it seemed ‘highly likely’. It was not a hard conclusion to reach considering the history of the key personnel running the supplements program and the names of the supplements being bandied about.
That Essendon couldn’t prove otherwise didn’t help their cause and it is this fact that brought them undone.
Their sloppy governance and record keeping, coupled with their inability to be able to say one way or another just what their players had been injected with left the AFL with no choice but to hand down some form of punishment.
But in doing so have they made James Hird a scapegoat?
Probably. The AFL, due to intense media scrutiny and a fed up football public, needed to be seen to act. Hird was the obvious and most high profile of targets, the one that would best satisfy the wolves baying for blood at the doors of AFL House.
As a result, Hird took the most substantial hit of the key figures involved.
Assistant coach Mark “Bomber”‘ Thompson, facing similar charges to Hird, was fined $30,000 but is allowed to coach on, and indeed may yet find himself holding the reins of the football club until Hird’s return in late August next year.
Danny Corcoran has four months to serve of a six month suspension and will be back at the club before the beginning of next season.
Doctor Bruce Reid’s immediate fate is still unknown.
But by charging Hird and in effect forcing him to accept responsibility for what went on around him, the AFL has also turned the Bombers legend into something of a martyr – especially among the Essendon faithful.
After all, the temporarily suspended coach is forgoing defence of his own reputation for the greater good of the game, or so we are told.
Perhaps he just ran out of steam after a long and relentless campaign – and who could blame him for that?
The hysteria surrounding the case and the unprecedented coverage of the unfolding events (even when they weren’t unfolding) ensured that the drama was never far from public consciousness.
Throughout the ordeal there was some responsible and well-informed journalism, but there was also the headline chasing, scaremongering, unhelpful type of journalism; the type that degenerates into witch hunts and personal attacks.
At the very centre of these attacks was James Hird.
Initially they were just cries to step down, but things intensified when Dean “The Weapon” Robinson launched a scathing personal attack on Hird via a paid interview on Channel 7.
In what smacked as a ratings grab for the network, Robinson tried to portray himself as the Caped Crusader – fighting for truth, justice and the Australian sporting way – despite ASADA’s report painting him as anything but a few weeks later.
It was truly a rat-deserting-the-sinking-ship type of moment. What could have been an excellent interview that shed light onto a very dark subject turned into nothing more than a private grudge being made public.
Hird came under further attack after the Essendon ‘mother’ made her now famous call to Melbourne radio station Triple M.
The mother’s concerns about the players were valid, even if her validity has not yet been completely established, but her attack on Hird for his press conference following the laying of charges against him by the AFL missed the mark.
She claimed that Hird had made the press conference all about him and that he had forgotten to mention the players. But Hird was responding directly to charges levelled against him and him alone, the players having been tentatively cleared a few days earlier.
As heart-wrenching as the call was, it was grossly unfair to lay total blame at the feet of Hird, yet someone has to be responsible for the mess that Essendon got itself into.
While Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson instigated and controlled the supplements program, someone brought them into the club and allowed them free rein. That misjudgement must sit with the football department and sitting at the top of that tree is James Hird.
Hird will still be revered at Essendon and that is fine. He will serve out his time and return to a hero’s welcome. Whether you find that savoury or not is irrelevant.
What is important is that an inappropriate and potentially dangerous approach to player preparation has been brought to an end.
Clubs have always looked for that elusive edge over stronger or more finely tuned opponents, so it stands to reason that there would be a fair sprinkling of skeletons still hidden away in unopened closets.
Even so, let’s hope that lessons have been learned and clubs have been shocked into new levels of accountability.
But don’t count on it. As I said earlier, the history of doping in other sports suggests otherwise.
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