"I did not have sub-cutaneous relations with that lady"
Watson to Hird: Don't come back in 2014.
- Thread starter LongBomb
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"I did not have sub-cutaneous relations with that lady"
Yep, I think the media will spin a lot to suit and sell papers.
WHile I agree, I could argue the same in reverse. How many of the stories attacking Hird were plants from Lukin - Liz Lukin with Labout uniion connections, the AFL's standard PR firm,
evo
Let's hit the f*ken road!
I'm surprised Lord Heritier hasnt summoned Bill to the thinking chair for a bit of sagely advice.
On the bolded, that is there job. I only have a problem when they claim it's a Journalistic piece, not that I care what spin they spin they put on the story. Just don't claim it to be something it is not.
As for your reply to Laphroaig; would be interesting to go back and see who fired the first shot across the bow. I'm tipping they went into Beast Mode after AD's little media hints that Hird should step aside. Especially given that early days the EFC & AFL were in each others camp, things really kicked off once Hird found out he was no longer a part of either.
- Jul 22, 2013
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Fair point, but it misses an inconvenient factor.
It's blindingly obvious that the AFL went in with the intent to bury this issue where the sun don't shine. That makes them allies of convenience to Essendon and Hird, not the convenient evil adversary which gets thrown up as a smoke screen to explain away any negative press. At least until Albert declared war in August 2013 - one assumes because Evans and Vlad put it to him he'd have to take his share of whacks whether he liked it or not.
Evidently he opted for "not".
I'd suggest to you that Hird/Essendon have had the lion's share of control of the public debate. ASADA is hamstrung when it comes to public argument, and the few times they have dipped their toes into it have been less than successful. They can not become involved in a protracted debate, so any information they release is easily screamed down.
The AFL less so, but still very much lacking the free reign Essendon/Hird have had - and have used to the hilt.
I think history will show that the AFL were allies of convenience to Essendon and Hird until such point as Hird dropped Vlad into the s**t regarding the tip-off.
That was the point at which things went nuclear.
Evans took his whacks
Vlad took his
James refused
Last man standing sort of.
Vlad took his
James refused
Last man standing sort of.
evo
Let's hit the f*ken road!
Thats probably true. Seems to me Albert isnt so great at the realpolitik stuff.
ASADA provided the AFL with an Interim Report so the AFL could punish the EFC for governance issues (BTGID).
The AFL provided ASADA with information that allowed ASADA to issue 34 SCN's for possible doping breaches.
Something very arse-about with this situation.
The AFL provided ASADA with information that allowed ASADA to issue 34 SCN's for possible doping breaches.
Something very arse-about with this situation.
Hird was the scapegoat and once he realised this he wasn't interested in following Vlad's narrative.
He was the instigator!.
- Jul 22, 2013
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Absolutely. And while we can only speculate why Hird did that, there's a fair degree of confidence in the likely answer.
Which leaves us with this strange love triangle thingy with Essendon, Hird and the AFL. The AFL doesn't want to damage Essendon, and Essendon at this point refuses to damage Hird.
It's a situation with unresolvable conflicts in it, and in the end the Club is the big loser no matter what the details of the outcome.
Of a legal and safe supplements program as all clubs have. If your mate gives you a lift home and he crashes his car, are you the scapegoat because you instigated the trip?
To continue my car trip analogy - you tell your mate to keep his eyes on the road but he doesn't, and crashes due to being distracted, does that make you guilty?
Hird played a role, nobody worth listening to is denying that, however his role is massively overstated thanks to Caro's agenda and the AFL's decision to make him the scapegoat.
- Jul 28, 2012
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The problem was there for everyone to see when the suspension was first handed down. Essendon were always going to in the mix somewhere between 6-10th this season, did this scenario not occur to any one at 'Bomberland' or were they still sniffing the Ajax? It should've been made perfectly clear to Hird from the outset that this season in it's entirety was out of bounds. He's going to be trouble over this, he wants to stick it to the AFL and the best way he can do that is walk out on field as coach against Carlton. Now what happens if Essendon say NO to this is anybody's guess, i would imagine Hird will not be a happy chappy. It's an ego thing, i suspect Hird has Essnedon by the short and curlies with this.
I'm not so sure. Football clubs are, in the end, judged on their on-field achievements rather than their off-field politics. From what I can see so far the off-field stuff hasn't really affected the playing group and we've still got a strong list with a young core. If anything it's encouraged loyalty. Infraction notices and suspensions are still possible but at this stage the group is strong and united.
If none of this had gone down the supporters would probably not have been happy with 7th* (9th) last year and with what looks like a top 6-10 finish this year. Without the saga Hird and Thompson would likely have been in the gun for lack of on-field success. None of that matters at the moment though - every victory is a victory against the man, every loss is the man's fault.
Off-field, the club's supporters have been strangely galvanised by this saga and I honestly think we can thank Fairfax for that. Their irrational and personal attacks on Hird and the club, coupled with their loose fact checking, have made it difficult for Essendon supporters to see the forest for the trees and we've bunkered down. Perhaps if Fairfax didn't so obviously 'play the man' we'd have a little bit more objectivity as a supporter base.. who really knows?
ManWithNoName
TheBrownDog
Seems a sensible call.
There are parts of it I agree with, I think the AFL would have loved it buried as much as possible.
I think that would have worked too is Hird stood down when Vlad hinted last year too, things went pear shaped there. He may well have been within this rights too if he had done no wrong, there would, IMO always been speculation of a deal, even if Essendon cleared linked to his standing down with teh way the AFL deals with things through PR.
I'd argue the very very reasons the AFL wanted in on the investigation was because they wanted to control the narrative of the media. Most of which that had the most voice is AFL Accredited media.
I'd suggest the AFL knew that there were probably more clubs with issues with their supplements programs (the 12) if they were anything like Essendon's remains to be seen.
The AFL successfully made this the Essendon scandal when there were potentially more clubs with issues.
The AFL assured us there were no other clubs, than Dank leaked texts implication Melbourne , though that spot fire was quickly extinguished. Neverr really heard of again, as well as Danks time at the Gold Coast.
Had all those stories come out with more detail, or even other clubs that teh AFL may well have successfully kept quiet through this it would have become the AFL drug scandal not the Essendon scandal.
The AFL firewalled Essendon to protect themselves, IMO.
Look at the narrative of Caro through the year and how close it resembled Harcourts seminar speech last year.
Clothier was the conduit between the AFL and ASADA through this, everything that to go through him, amazing that Hardcourt was one of the people he kept in the loop (as well as Gill and a few others)
I agree in so far as the would have prefered to keep this all quiet but things went nuclear when Hird chose not to stand down. I think Vlad lost control there and things spiraled.
There was the suggestion by Tim Watson last year that Hird's 'I take full responcability' line had a story about it.
I meant to add too, Liz Lukin was the PR firm Evan used early on for Essendon too.
Oh look, he's doing exactly what they said at the start of the year and what everybody knew he would
Why the trips across the road?.
Why the Chiro?.
Why the UN skills required?.
Why Charter?.
Why the compounding chemist?.
Cheers
CC
Irrelevant.
So Dank instigated the UN skills txt?.
