Dear Bomber fans... Jake Niall
The Age
July 21, 2013 Bombers fans, you're entitled to be peeed off. This season should be like 1981, when Sheeds first came over and they won 15 in a row. It's one of those breakout seasons, when a team suddenly jumps up and becomes a contender. A few of the comeback wins - the Fremantle one, the Carlton game - have been goosebump stuff.
That Hirdy and Bomber are coaching the club - your greatest living icon and your 1993 premiership captain - should just add to that feeling. It should be a special, joyous time, with Joey Daniher and Jake Carlisle set to be the bookends for the next 10 years.
But, as even someone with zero interest in footy knows, what's happening on the field has been marred - if not completely ruined. For every happy story about Carlisle, Daniher or Michael Hibberd, there's about 10 on Stephen Dank and AOD-9604, or some other weird substance that the boys supposedly have been given.
Football is usually a chance to escape from life's challenges, to forget about paying bills, work or a problem in your relationship. But the media won't let you get away, nor will the fans of the other teams. That you've been winning only intensifies the accusations that you've cheated. They wouldn't know, of course. They aren't objective observers, any more than you are. They're barracking for an outcome - which is to see Essendon rubbed out and barred from the finals, draft picks removed, the players rubbed out and Hird sacked. You're correct in identifying a tall poppy syndrome at work here. Opposition clubs and their fans don't like Essendon, and they've started to see this scandal as football's Watergate, with Hirdy cast as Richard Nixon.
I'm not presuming to know what you're feeling, but I hope I have the imagination - as someone who loves football and grew up in more innocent times - to see that how this makes you angry. Your team is just emerging from darkness and then you cop this ASADA crap.
You have emotion invested in this outcome; I don't. What I'll try to do is lay out some of the awful situation, as I see it.
I don't think the players should be punished. I've investigated this subject quite rigorously and, regardless of what the WADA code says about ''strict liability'', the players did what they were told. Some did, in fact, question what was going on - credit to them. But the AFL is pretty totalitarian - virtually fascist - in terms of players following their coaches and officials. It's not like Asafa Powell, a track and field runner, taking a banned substance, because that athlete employs the coach/supplement expert. The players are more like soldiers following a chain of command.
But prepare yourselves for the club to cop a pretty big whack. I can't see it escaping major sanctions and that doesn't simply mean a fine. Fines are meaningless - they don't hurt rich clubs and the poor clubs don't really pay them. I foresee premiership points removed - hopefully this year only - and draft picks taken away. This wouldn't be a terrible outcome, given that the team peaks next year and in 2015-16. Again, educated reading of the tea leaves.
Some of this stuff is like the debate about climate change. It's highly technical and complex, and few people understand it, but that doesn't stop them from holding strong opinions - for and against. Unfortunately, some of you fall into the denialist camp - and can't accept that the club did much wrong, when it's clear from the club's own Ziggy Switkowski report that this is an appalling scandal on multiple levels. The chief executive and Dank have been shoved, the previous football manager went last year, The Weapon is under suspension but will never work for Essendon again.
Hirdy will be very fortunate to keep his job. He might get away with a suspension only. You are the coach's greatest asset - your love of Hird. You are certainly a factor in the club's deliberations, but the rest of the football public - yep, all the Essendon haters and plenty of footy agnostics - will see it as farcical if the coach isn't at least suspended. For what it's worth, I'd like to see a mea culpa from Hird, for failing in his duty of care. Don't blame the media for raising questions about what was taken by whom - it's our job. You'd expect the same if this was Carlton or any other club.
AOD-9604 has received more publicity than it should have, in my opinion. In large part, this is because a) we know it's deemed banned under the provisions of WADA, b) the players signed consent forms in which it is listed, and c) Jobe admitted he took it. It looks like the players were more or less guinea pigs with this drug.
But don't kid yourselves that this whole investigation rests on the status of AOD-9604, the anti-obesity drug, which is what you call a ''specified substance'' under WADA rules.
It is banned, contrary to the confusion created - some of it deliberate - by vested interests. But as a specified substance, the players can be found guilty and still receive a reprimand. There's no evidence it's performance-enhancing, but it isn't approved for human use anywhere. My view is that they will, indeed, get off without suspension for using AOD-9604 (which sounds like a planet from the Alien franchise).
More worrisome is the fact that there were all sorts of more serious substances at the club. One substance that the players appear to have taken is Thymosin, which is on the consent forms. Thymosin Alpha - used for AIDS patients - is kosher. Thymosin Beta 4, is not - it's deemed performance-enhancing. There is strong circumstantial evidence that it was Beta 4, not Alpha, that was administered to players. The players haven't been able to tell ASADA which one they took. The club doesn't talk much about this. It didn't comment when The Age put forward quite a detailed story about Beta 4 and the probability that it was given to players. The club will stick to legalistic-type arguments on this score - that it can't be definitely proved that they took it.
Hexarelin - which is performance-enhancing and banned - was at the club and Dank claims he gave it coaches, including Hirdy. You should only really worry if was given to players, who matter far more than the coaches.
There's some ugliness ahead. But better to pull the tooth out now, rather than letting it fester. One day soon, you'll be able to go to the footy without thinking about anything other than Jobe and Joey.
Yours, Jake.
Read more:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dear-bomber-fans-20130720-2qbkc.html#ixzz2ZbWkzdml
