Hird is still clinging to faint hope Caroline Wilson
The Age
August 27, 2013 Late on Monday, Hird was still fighting for his standing and, more pertinently, his job. He had given some small piece of ground but refused to see how derelict his football department had been in its duty. Before heading into the AFL, he was still clinging to the belief he could coach Essendon next season.
Elsewhere in Melbourne, those AFL player managers with Bombers on their books were finally meeting as a group and discussing long-term medical and legal strategies for their players with their union. AFL Players Association chief Matt Finnis on Monday wrote to all footballers who had been part of the pharmacological experiment offering independent help.
Co-major Essendon sponsor True Value Solar, whose seven-figure Essendon contract expires in October, was considering its options while smaller commercial backers did the same. The wording of the final charges accepted by Essendon was also being micro-managed. Kia's multimillion-dollar deal with the club, which runs until 2016, is understood to include caveats regarding banned drugs.
In the first significant shift since this saga was revealed in February, Hird said after the Carlton win he might be suspended from coaching. In a dramatic night for the club that will count for nought in terms of the season, but meant so much to the coach and his chairman, Paul Little, he then fronted the media for what began as an interview but finished up a fireside chat.
Journalists, perhaps mindful of interviewing Hird the coach for the last time and acutely aware of his teenage daughter seated among them, allowed Hird to state categorically that his players had been cleared by ASADA.
Hird was not challenged when he spoke of the leaks that had punctuated this story, nor when he calculated he was guilty of 1 per cent of all he had been accused of. He said he and his club were as one.
This last statement should have been challenged at least. Hird has been one, if not the only major impediment to the AFL's resolution with Essendon, a resolution observers increasingly feared could be softened in the interests of expediency with the finals and the 2013 Brownlow Medal count and all manner of other football award ceremonies around the corner.
Hird said he would happily take a hit if it meant his players could be exonerated and if his club could escape sanctions. No one can guarantee the former and the latter was never going to happen.
The rest of the competition demands Essendon is punished as no club has ever been punished and the AFL has to make a statement regarding the duty of care to footballers. Anything less than two years devoid of early draft picks would prove an insult.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/hird-is-still-clinging-to-faint-hope-20130826-2smcr.html
