Taken a bit of time to digest everything I've seen and heard, what a week.
Unfortunately and it pains me to say it, I lay the blame for the events of this week purely at the feet of the Hird camp (I say camp deliberately).
There's been one constant from Hird throughout this entire saga, one admirable, typical constant that has made him even more loved by us - he's ALWAYS, at every turn here, fallen in line and toed the club line. Usually to his own detriment, he...
- took part in the very first press conference and said things he did agree with, because the club told him to do it. In typical Hird fashion, he did it.
- agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation that he is still adamant wasn't required - and did so
- performed admirably as coach under immense public scrutiny and extraordinary attacks on his character and family by gutter dwellers in the media
- offered his resignation (before the Freo game last year) when he thought it might be the best thing for the club. When the club refused to accept his resignation, he ploughed on as before
- dealt with the media literally at his door every single day and handled it all with good grace and incredible calmness
-maintained a united front with chairman Evans for months, despite it now being clear the two were at direct odds
- joined with the club in proposing legal action against the AFL last year
- withdrew that legal action when told to
- participated it that disgusting, grotesque disgrace last year at AFL house when everybody went behind closed doors, listened to the AFLs threats and succumbed to them, because they were given no choice - accepting a huge suspension, against his wishes
- did not interfere whatsoever with the playing group or football dept this year
- walked back into the club the day his suspension finished ready to work, then accepted the decision for him to have no direct football role, and again didn't interfere.
Now on all these points it can be argued if it was the right thing or not to do for himself - but that's not the point. Whichever way you think, one thing is constant - he fell in line with the club.
At every turn, if you wish to be part of a club, that's what you have to do. It can be thankless, unjust and some can be called upon far more often they than ever should be - but that's how it has to be in a footy club. You don't get a pass from it just because you've done it a million times before. Nobody has understood this more than Hirdy over the past 20 years. He's answered the call as much as anybody.
If you don't like that, go and play tennis.
If you want proof, look at other clubs throughout history where people start going their own way and are allowed to. The places splinter and become a joke.
Now you might argue that Hird has earnt the right to do as he pleases at Essendon. That's simply not the case. People seem to get over the "nobody is bigger than the club" term. But it's absolutely true. Everybody has to be pulling in the same direction, whether they've been there 5 mins or they've been pulling that direction for 20 years. Hirdy has always got that.
The club must endure, it'll be here long after Hirdy and long after all of us have gone. It's a living thing, it attracts people down generations, pulls them together and united them in common cause. That must endure or we might as well shut the doors.
People must be joking when they say it's "just a group of individuals". Christ. A bunch of people standing at a bus stop is just a group of individuals. This is a club. The mighty, feared, revered Essendon Football Club.
And the club has, to be fair, looked after him wherever it could where it didn't harm the club - as it should. It retained him against incredible pressure, defended him, spoke glowingly of him at every opportunity, handed him a contract extension that wouldn't even come into effect until after he'd spent a year completely outside the game (a huge show of faith in any coach), paid him a full salary whilst on leave in defiance of the AFL, and this week offered him the opportunity to resign and pursue his own course, with a handsome (and I mean handsome) payout. That's the way it should have been, with him delivering a short farewell on Wednesday night with all the grace and humility he's always shown on and off the field. He deserved all that.
So for him to act in direct contradiction to the club this week - and to somehow not recognise that he needed to resign to do so - is a huge shock. It's completely inconsistent with how's he's acted for the last two years and indeed the last twenty years. I don't get it. He's no doubt being advised, the only thing I can think of is he's been poorly advised by people who don't care for the club. Maybe he's just reached the end of his tether and lost it. I don't know.
Surely he must realise that whilst he's part of the club, carrying on his personal war means threats of harm will be made against the club and players to dissuade him. No good can come of it for him or for the club.
The club is acting in the best interests of the players and in line with their wishes. They've approved the clubs course of action. This is the way the club is going. The players are the ones with their careers on the line here, because the club (not just Hird of course, the club) ****** up.
So for the first time in this whole god forsaken mess I say:
Hird must go.
He must. The club has to pull the trigger on him, and he's forcing them to do it. I think he's been advised (poorly) as such. Who knows.
I don't want it to happen. Nobody does. The players don't want him gone. But I know they realise what has to happen if he takes this action and peels off in his own direction.
That's why when the playing leaders met him this week, they didn't say "resign". Nobody wants that. Nobody. They said "please drop this appeal"... in no small part because if he doesn't, they know exactly what needs to happen.
I don't for one second mean "banish him". The EFC doors will always be open to him and I hope he returns one day in some official capacity. He's obviously deserved that. This is not a nice experience for anybody and he deserves to continue to receive the support, love and respect we've always given him. He certainly has mine.
You only had to hear Timmy during the week. He was enlightening as always, due in large part to him obviously representing Jobe. He was asked what he wants Hird to do, again he didn't say "resign". He wants him at the club like we all do. But he said he must drop this appeal. He knows what will happen on Monday if Hirdy doesn't either resign, or pull the reins on his lawyers. It has to happen or the club will be in far bigger trouble than it has at any other point in this whole saga: it'll be, by definition, splintered. We are Essendon. We can't have that... from anybody.