Hird now throwing the players under the bus for keeping the injecting program a secret from anti-doping testers.
Hird says players made a 'mistake' in keeping quietJon Pierik
The Age
January 20, 2016Former Essendon coach James Hird says the banned 34 players made a "mistake" in keeping the injecting program a secret from anti-doping testers, and insists there was no directive from the club to do so.
One of the reasons the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week handed the players a year-long ban was because they failed to disclose to match-day testers in 2012 from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority that they had been administered peptides.
In its report, CAS said formers players David Hille, Ricky Dyson and Cory Dell'Olio were among those who had not listed that they had been injected, which CAS said was "a revealing" part of the case.
During a question-and-answer session after his interview on the ABC on Sunday night, Hird said the players had erred, and maintained they were to be given the legal drug, thymomodulin, by the program's architect, Stephen Dank.
"There was no directive from the club and I think you read - I think that was a mistake by some of the players. If you read the CAS report, it says the 34 players didn't disclose," he said.
"Well, 34 players weren't tested in that year. Only 21 of the players were tested. That absolves - there's 13 that weren't tested. Another five or six, and I don't know the exact number, who weren't tested - they were tested but not during the time they were taking thymomodulin. The form says there is a certain amount of time (you have to disclose) - what have you taken?
"The others say, they were in a hurry, they didn't always put down what they were taking. You come off the (training) track, you have to give a urine sample, get to a meeting - they just put down a few things. So, it's definitely a mistake, but to say it was sinister and deliberate, I think, is a step too far."
The CAS report said "the complete failure of the vast majority of players" to fill out their doping control form fully "does not encourage confidence in their statements as to the limited or sporadic nature of what they were injected with".
Hird maintained the players were duped, and continued to express his frustration at the manner in which authorities pieced the case together.
"But it would seem this sanction, firstly, the evidence, and the way it was put together, was wrong and it shouldn't have happened. Secondly, the fact that the players, are all - that no significant fault (wasn't) given - is just ridiculous," he said.
"What more could they do? They were told by Stephen Dank that everything was compliant. They were told they were being given thymomodulin. Thymomodulin is something that you are allowed to take. Every time they get thymomodulin, should they be testing it at the laboratory? I think that is the ridiculous nature of this decision. Let's say they were duped, what more could they have done?"
The CAS report said Dank's program could only have been geared towards thymosin beta-4 "as no other available form of thymosin would have provided Mr Dank's desired results" in terms of player recovery benefits.
Hird continued to argue it was not right for him to accept "full responsibility" for the mess the Bombers were in, stressing that he only did so at the initial media conference under the advice of the public relations consultant Liz Lukin, when the club self-reported in February 2013.
He added: "I don't think the senior coach should be responsible for the management of those (medical) people at all. My level of knowledge of medicine, of the medical department, is tiny. I am not a doctor. I am not trying to absolve myself of what happened - I am just saying. I wouldn't think in the future coaches would be in charge of those things at all."
He did, however, express one major regret, when Dank said he had received approval to use the anti-obesity drug, AOD-9604. There was initial confusion over its status by ASADA and the Australian Crime Commission when the scandal first broke, but it would emerge in April, 2013 that the drug had been banned by WADA.
"One of the things I wish I had done better was, Stephen Dank had approved AOD-9604, the supplement everyone thought was the big issue. He went and got the WADA documentation and showed it to (club doctor) Bruce Reid and Bruce Reid approved it and ticked it off, which Bruce Reid eventually did - he ticked it off," Hird said.
"He (Dank) waved a bit of paper under my nose at training one day and said: 'I have got the approval.' Now, I wish, instead of waving it under my nose, and saying: 'I saw WADA had approved this document,' I wish I had got that document, looked at it, checked its authenticity, because there is a suggestion that that document is not authentic.
"I think that if we had discovered then that that document wasn't authentic, or wasn't what we thought it was, that would have set off a number of red alarm bells, and we would have said: 'That's not what we are doing'.
"I would have been stronger in that meeting of June or July when we had that meeting with (former chairman) David Evans and (former chief executive) Ian Robson said: 'If he (Dank) is still there, we are not working.' "
"That's how strong we had to be - we were very strong but we probably should have said: 'If they are there, we are not.' You make a choice."
At that meeting, it was agreed Dank would not have his contract renewed, while former fitness chief Dean Robinson had his role cut significantly, amid legal threats.
On Dank, who has repeatedly said he looks forward to the day when he can explain his role aided by documentation, Hird said: "He promises to show things and they just don't show up."
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-34-james-hird-says-players-made-a-mistake-in-keeping-quiet-20160119-gm8vrf.html
