If James Hird’s pithy excuse for a tell-all interview offered anything in the way of revelations – and it was spectacularly light in that regard – it was a look at the level of denial that has completely consumed the man.
With most of the hour dedicated to Hird reciting ad nauseam that “these 34 men are not drug cheats” and other similarly worded declarations, it wasn’t until the very end that the biggest hole in Hird’s logic was revealed.
It was a hole that would be immediately recognisable to a clearer mind.
Whenever Tracey Holmes actually cut to the chase and asked the single most important question of the four-year debacle, that small issue of what was in the needles, Hird’s reply was simple: only Stephen Dank knows.
And when finally pushed on whether that means it could have actually been banned substances, Hird almost casually stated that it was a possibility.
Incredibly, Holmes didn’t seize on this, which tells you all you need to know about the tenacity of the interview, and probably sent many remotes flying at televisions across Australia.
So viewers were denied the chance to hear Hird explain how this fits with his unshakeable belief that the players weren’t given banned drugs. The only brief justification given was that in his eyes, Dank had no reason to do so.
It was a staggeringly weak explanation which flew directly in the face of Hird’s countless stubborn pronouncements regarding drugs given to the players.
The problem for Hird is the same problem the players faced at the Court of Arbitration for Sport: the possibility they were given banned drugs is all that’s needed. It’s what’s landed them where they are today.
It’s not fair, it’s not just, and in the domestic realm of Australian football, it doesn’t make much sense. But it’s the rules.
Hird’s possibility passes the CAS’s low ‘comfortable satisfaction’ barrier to guilt. And if he’s genuine in his statements that the only person who truly knows what was injected is Dank, then he must eventually face that reality.
Dank’s amazing slip-up in April 2013, when he freely explained to journalist Nick McKenzie how he’d administered the infamous TB4 to Essendon players, says enough in itself. He later retracted it, stating he’d actually meant the legal Thymomodulin. But the unconvincing correction hardly removes the all-important possibility.
Hird isn’t stupid. The only probable explanation for his views is that the man is so blinded by feelings of injustice, so used to pleading the players’ absolute innocence, that he’s become engulfed by denial and actually come to believe it.
He desperately needs a dose of reality.
In 2012, Dank injected Essendon players with TB4. There’s no real suggestion that he did so knowing the drug had been banned, though it’s possible.
Likely, Dank made an error, enabled by a shocking lack of oversight at Essendon which ensured nobody properly checked or questioned his work – not Hird, not Hird’s mentor Mark Thompson, not CEO Ian Robson, not football manager Paul Hamilton, not doctor Bruce Reid and finally, not the players themselves.
If Hird can acknowledge that as a possibility, then by definition it must eventually skewer his denial that the players may well have taken banned drugs.
While that’s important for Hird, his future does lie outside football and thus he has time on his side to make that adjustment. Of more concern is the same attitude pervading through Essendon and the banned players. Because they don’t have that time.
Come November – which, though it may not seem like it, will arrive quickly – they’re required to resume their professional responsibilities. They’ve lost enough time already without doing themselves the double injustice of not being completely mentally ready to do so.
All denial will do now is delay the healing required for them to make a success of their returns. The players simply need to accept the facts: they put their trust in the wrong people, and have paid a shocking, perhaps draconian price for doing so. It’s not going to change now.
Hird said to Holmes he is still committed to doing whatever he can to help the players. If he truly has the courage of his convictions, then it’s absolutely impossible to understand how he hasn’t spent every night of the past three years camped on Dank’s front lawn demanding answers.
If he truly believes and wants to help, then that’s where he should be. Strangely, given a national television platform, when Dank was raised Hird didn’t make that plea. Instead, in a thoroughly baffling statement, he went as far as to defend the one man he says could have saved his beloved players from four years of hell, saying he doesn’t think Dank ever intended to cheat. As if that was even relevant.
One would think there were 34 men watching that who might have expected a slightly more aggressive attitude from their former coach.
Failing that, the best thing Hird can do to help is to stay the hell away from the players. He even suggested he could help them train, or work their way through their ban. That would be a calamity on top of a disaster.
In fact, the players could do worse than take a leaf from Hird’s book of suspension and disappear for a long European summer. Travel has a way of giving people perspective and restoring them mentally, and a trip of that nature is a luxury AFL players don’t usually get during their careers.
As the AFL’s nominated ‘head on a stake’ for the entire saga, Hird is tortured by his feelings of injustice and bitterness. To an extent, that’s justified. But all his presence can possibly do now is engender and strengthen those same feelings in the players, which will only delay their recovery – perhaps irretrievably.
Hird has time for that. The players don’t.
Jrod
Guest
Factual error. The doctor had huge issues and did stand up internally and say something. His letter all over the internet. He was blocked by Hird and co from actually checking doses etc
Mike from Tari
Guest
The players should look at Cronulla, they were offered the same thing & refused, for Cronulla life has gone on, they made the top 4 in 2015, there does not appear to be any stigma on the players as being drug cheats, someone advised the Essendon 34 not to accept the offer, who was that, were they told the AFL would find them not guilty as all the evidence had been trashed, that person or those people have let the players down as much as the Dank, Herd & the Essendon Club who juiced them up.
marfu
Guest
Yes I was intrigued by Tanner's suggestion and wondered whether that was what he wanted personally or was he representing the consensus of the club members or even just the faction that supported his appointment? Either way, it is not a good idea.
Mikey
Guest
Great piece Mark
Kevin dustby
Guest
Thanks scoop
Hansie
Guest
Crowley v. Ballantyne should be worth watching!
c
Guest
what mistakes did CAS, WADA, make?
northerner
Guest
Yes, in a nutshell, that's it. The "I didn't know" defense hasn't worked for a while when it comes to WADA. I am old enough to remember the Olympics of the 60s, and losing interest in track and swimming because of the obvious doping. Then, I lived in Europe for a while and got interested in cycling. Started to lose interest there with Delgado and totally gave up with Armstrong, because, so very clearly, something was wrong. Next stop for me was winter sports (being a Canuck and all) and geez, Salt Lake City and half the Russians are being done for dope offences, and then the entire Finnish cross country team gets nailed a few years later. Cross country skiing? Finland? If it reaches to that level, doping is pervasive. If someone with simply a passing interest in sports can see the obvious problems, why can't the sports codes and the drug bodies, never mind the fans? American baseball, another drug-fueled endeavor, never mind the NFL. At yet somehow, the AFL and the NRL are exempt from something that cross country skiing isn't? Puhlease. I don't know whether every single player on the Essendon team was guilty of doping. I do know that Essendon as a club was guilty, at the very least, of such mismanagement that they rightly admitted providing an unsafe workplace. I also know that both the AFL and the NRL have played lip service to WADA rules that they signed up to for far too long. And I know, further, that the apologists here are seeing the trees and entirely missing the forest of evidence that says, yup, Houston, we have a problem. I'm sick of cheating in sports. So should every fan be. And as for Essendon, the entire administration and coaching staff should be walking the gangplank for what they've done to the club, the fans, and the players.
sheek
Roar Guru
I think I finally have a handle on this. Yes, there's a mountain of anomalies all over the place & a lot of people & organizations have made mistakes - EFC, AFL, CAS, WADA, etc, either deliberately (in pursuit of politics/ideology/self-protection) or unintentionally. But it comes back to the players. They didn't ask enough questions about what was being injected into their bodies. As the Latin phrase says, "caveat emptor" or, "buyer beware." Buyer, user, whatever, the players need to know what is going into their own bodies.
marron
Roar Guru
I agree with the headline, just time to move on I reckon. Put it all in the past and forget the whole sorry episode. now. Tell me more about this Crowley fella.
Roy
Guest
Just read about this, and to quote Fussball "...and I laughed and I laughed..." Essendon (yes that Essendon !) announce their first 'top up" player being someone who has just spent the last 12 months suspended for . . . substance abuse !!!
AVictory
Guest
Hird taking responsibility, "It's my fault for trusting other people" LOL
Macca
Guest
I saw that and my first question was why? Crowley will be 32 beofre the season starts hasn't played AFL for over 12 months and was below his best in the last season he did play - on top of that his hard tag style seems to have been pushed out of the game in favour of negating players who get their own ball. Sure he offers experience and a hard body around the ball but he wouldn't have been my first choice.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Casper, you don't think that if Hird thought there was wrong doing as part of a supplement program that many seem to admit was pushing the boundaries: (a) It's possible they could go beyond those boundaries; and (b) It would be in his own interest to make documented attempts to put a stop to it, if only for the fact that any ASADA breach notices would negatively impact the team's performance
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It's the old take responsibility then dodge it move. He takes responsibility. But then denies anything went wrong and says everything was done without his knowledge.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Crowley signs with bombers
northerner
Guest
@Caspar - according to the transcript of the CAS decision, Robinson reported to Hamilton and/and to Hird. That statement appears to have been based on the AFL Tribunal findings, and doesn't seem to have been disputed by any of the lawyers at the CAS hearing. I don't see how you can continue to claim that Hird didn't share in the oversight responsibility.
chivasdude
Guest
Definitely the interview could have followed up a number of critical issues more strongly. But really, Hird is a master of obfuscation. At the end of the day, the way I see it, is: 1. Hird was instrumental in establishing the supplements program and recruited/approved the people (Robinson - who brought in Danks) to run it. 2. Personnel selection is a major responsibility of management. So, if these people were incompetent, then it is the responsibility of management - something Hird does not acknowledge. 3. If you read the CAS report, Danks appears to have managed the program poorly. For instance, he did not always seems sure what injections (and when) the players received. So, I can well believe that he may have (whether deliberately or not) injected players with a banned substance. And that is the MAIN issue I have with Essendon's conduct. To this day they cannot say what the players were injected with. 4. The players - collectively - kept information from ASADA. That was a major issue for CAS. Is that cultural? A coach sets the player culture, so again Hird is responsible for this failing. His near defence of Danks in the interview was pathetic. That he sees that he can help the players is astonishing. Why any player would want his help now is mind boggling. James should just stop talking and give everyone a chance to put this behind them. And he needs to go away.
Casper
Guest
No, Hamilton was under Robson, separate to Hird. What's wrong wit you guy?
Kaks
Roar Guru
Yes i listened to the interview, however considering all the crap Hird has already said like “As the leader of the football department, as the coach, I take full responsibility for what happens in our football department.”, I took that interview as nothing more than a way for Hird to try and save face and shift blame on to others. The whole interview was a joke. The defence for Hird is a joke.