Essendon Football Club Drama

[Ludwig]

Essendon are fighting for their very survival. It truly is a life and death issue for them. If it is true that 38 players signed consent forms for AOD-9604 and/or Thymosin-B4, then they are truly cooked, it would seem. I don't think the AFL should push them over the edge. The stakes are so enormous that this has to play out with Essendon kicking and punching till the bitter end.

I hope they can stay in the league, because I don't think the players intended to be drug cheats and might take the fall for the errors of a few megalomaniacs. But I also think that the WADA code needs to be respected, and if they have to fall, so be it.

[Doctor J.]

Here's another from Back Page Lead.

Sums up the inadequacy of the penalties indeed.

Deals and provisional contrition fail to satisfy

[CureTheSane]

Everything I have seen, particularly Bomber Thompson's interview, lays the blame squarely at Hirds feet.
He was warned by Thompson, the club doctor, and decided not to act.
He has come across as a pompous, arrogant, self important fool.
I say this with no real prior feelings on Hird either way.
2 million is right.
Missing this years finals really isn't much of a penalty
Draft picks will be worked around and that blow will be softened.

They bullied the AFL into submission.
The AFL are happy for this to go away.
I hope players are sanctioned - just to add to the severity of the penalty.

I guess a precedent has been set.
Clubs can 'do what ever it takes' and they know what they'll have to pay for the privilege.

[goswannie14]

The spin doctors are claiming the penalty the severest ever. What a load of horse excrement. The fines are meaningless, Skull Little will simply extract it from some coterie of club billionaires. The move to 9th place and subsequent exclusion from finals similarly laughable, even the Essendon faithful aren?t stupid enough to believe they can win this year.

And when it comes to the draft penalties, it?s the exactly the same as Adelaide got for Tippett (whether the picks were lost of volunteered is a meaningless distinction). No wonder their president thought the penalty ?tough but fair? ? they have been treated with absurd leniency. Whether it was because of Essendon?s threats and bombast or just the AFL?s pro Victorian bias I don?t know but the result sucks.

And as for Little?s press conference, he described Hird as a martyr (Little?s response to one question was James accepted the penalty to save Essendon). Which I thought was amusing because when he returned as coach he was seen as a messiah. And of course like another well regarded messianic figure, after 12 months he will rise again. Some reporters have descriped faith in Hird as being like a cult, at the risk of possibly causing offence:


We believe in one Club,
the Bombers, the mighty Don?s,
winner of more premierships,
than any other club, ever.
We believe in one Messiah, James Hird,
the truest Son of the Club,
begotten of a Bombers Father (and Grandfather)
Coached by Sheedy, toached by Brownlow.
For us and for our salvation
he undertook the coaching job:
with the power of absolute faith
he became incarnate in the coaches box,
and was made messiah.
For our sake he was crucified under Andy Demetriou;
he chastisement and was suspended.
On the twelfth month he will rise again
in accordance with the Comission;
he will ascend to the coaches box
and may be seated at the right hand of Kevin Sheedy.
He will come again in glory to win more premierships,
and his kingdom will have no end.

I'm a minister of religion and I am NOT offended. Very clever.

[bodgie]

Essendon are fighting for their very survival. It truly is a life and death issue for them. If it is true that 38 players signed consent forms for AOD-9604 and/or Thymosin-B4, then they are truly cooked, it would seem. I don't think the AFL should push them over the edge. The stakes are so enormous that this has to play out with Essendon kicking and punching till the bitter end.

I hope they can stay in the league, because I don't think the players intended to be drug cheats and might take the fall for the errors of a few megalomaniacs. But I also think that the WADA code needs to be respected, and if they have to fall, so be it.

I for one don't mind if Essendon bow out in shame completely. I'm an old follower of Melbourne but it would be a convenient time for them to shuffle off too. It would be a fine way of cutting down the excessive number of teams and a way for victorians to finally wake up to the reality of a national competition.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

I'm a minister of religion and I am NOT offended. Very clever.

Thanks was a touch worried.

Anyone see Marngrook last night? Wayne Carey was good enough to give his OK to Hird and the Don's . . . .

[hot potato]

The AFL 's job was to get The Bombers out of the finals.
They must be very pleased to have achieved that.
What happens next is the more dramatic part, seems to be a lot of stuff that can't be ignored by the other authorities.

[YvonneH]

Heard Stu Crameri say one of the reasons he went to the Bulldogs was to be 'under a coach he respects'. Could be wrong but I am reading into this that he doesn't respect Hird. Who would have guessed.

[ScottH]

Heard Stu Crameri say one of the reasons he went to the Bulldogs was to be 'under a coach he respects'. Could be wrong but I am reading into this that he doesn't respect Hird. Who would have guessed.

I heard that comment too.
A bit of a slap in the face to Hirdy.