Blind pride drove coach's denial and bodies piled upCAROLINE WILSON August 22, 2013
James Hird's coaching career could have been salvaged in February on the day he said with straight and solemn face that he was ''shocked'' to be sitting in the uncomfortable position that he was.
In April, too, when the depth of Hird's involvement in the perilous drugs program he pushed, embraced and involved himself in was first revealed, he could have stood aside and worked to salvage his reputation and help his club.
Last month before he declared his phoney war on the AFL, that option remained open to Hird.
Instead, in choosing to place himself and his precious reputation above that of the game he once made more beautiful but has now helped make so ugly, Hird looks finished.
The Essendon coach will say now that Andrew Demetriou and his team are hell-bent on destroying him. But he has brought this on himself.
As badly as he behaved behind the scenes in 2011 and 2012 it has been the manner in which he has conducted himself in 2013 that has brought Hird undone.
He has been revealed in all his selfishness, his refusal to listen to reason, to heed warnings that seemed obstacles to his naked ambition.
A scandal that could have been resolved by now drags on - and drags the game down with it. Even in speaking to the charges against Essendon on Wednesday Hird spoke only of himself and being ''ambushed''. No mention of his players.
The Hird story will surely become a cautionary tale for all football clubs. The tale of a football hero who was handed the keys to the entire operation and was allowed to believe he could do no wrong. Even if Hird had been more responsible, even if he hadn't wanted to cut corners and allowed his players to be treated like guinea pigs, such a scenario was unhealthy from the start.
Inside and outside the club, Hird was surrounded by yes men. He is seen by the Bombers as inexorably tied to their brand. At some point, if the club is to resolve this war with the AFL, it must cut Hird loose.
Against the better judgment of at least two former presidents, Danny Corcoran was welcomed back to the club despite the messy manner in which he departed in the 1990s. What James wanted James was given. Corcoran's job description included protecting Hird from people he didn't want to deal with. And to get rid of people Hird no longer wanted.
Between them, with the powerful support of Mark Thompson, they ran the football club, casting aside those who stepped in their path. The joint AFL-ASADA investigation was told that Hird, at the end of 2011, wanted chief executive Ian Robson and football boss Paul Hamilton out of the club. If that was his wish, then he got his way in the end.
Hird, Corcoran and Thompson worked together with the support of Dr Bruce Reid. Even Reid's blind faith in Hird was put to one side when he wrote that heartfelt letter listing his concerns about the drugs program back in January 2012. ''… one wonders,'' wrote Reid, ''… whether you would want your children being injected with a derivative hormone that is not free to the community.''
That letter was addressed to Hird, and all the coach would say when he put on his latest defiant front late on Wednesday was that he was being denied natural justice and the release of the letter was designed to damage his reputation.
All year, Hamilton has carried the burden of being thought the lone recipient of the letter.
But if that was indeed the AFL's aim then it was effective. Hird said he denied the charges but all his supportive comments covered process and timing but nothing else. He has known of these charges for 10 days but all he clung to was a discredited allegation that the AFL had ''known'' since February that AOD-9604 was legal. They haven't and it isn't.
Those supporters praying James would ''say it ain't so'' heard nothing from the coach on Wednesday to allay their fears. Hypocritically, he stated he was a victim of a ''trial by media'', which was a bit rich given the spinning he has orchestrated in recent months.
Twice he said he had been ambushed, but he has known for close to a week that this was coming. Demetriou said as much. His blindness to the severity of his position is shown by the legal nonsense his people continue to peddle.
Hird's supporters, including Thompson and Reid and some media, keep saying that the AFL has been playing with their lives. If only Hird had not experimented with the lives of his players.
Reid circulated his letter but nothing was done. Then, in May 2012, Thompson told Stephen Dank to stop the injections. Still they continued.
So many of the major players who helped Hird on his path to power have proved to be collateral damage as he resolutely refuses to take the blame for overseeing and embracing the most irresponsible and potentially dangerous drug program in the history of the game.
Chairman David Evans was cast aside because Hird became paranoid he was no longer supporting the coach as he should.
Hird leaked a story about Demetriou and ludicrously allowed his yes men to allege the AFL chief could end up in prison for tipping off Essendon about the Australian Crime Commission report. At that moment he put himself above the game and diametrically at odds with Evans, who was too close to the coach to have a healthy working relationship. Evans continues to have his heart broken by Hird.
The charges also allege that Hird believed Dr Reid was becoming outdated. Perhaps he, too, would have become collateral damage.
How much more collateral damage will Hird inflict before he finally understands once and for all that the buck must stop with him?
http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/blind-pride-drove-coachs-denial-and-bodies-piled-up-20130821-2sbta.html
