Reckon he was just backing his mate up. Plenty of others passed on the op to go with that story, says a bit.
I'd want to know the conditions on which the report was leaked before giving the rest of the industry too much credit.
Given that the AFL leaked (probably the whole report) to Fairfax it is likely that the leak was on the condition that the players were protected meaning that Fairfax was not in a position to use the players names. Say what you want about the AFL but it did act to protect the players it knew the club had let down (or that's what it thought it was doing).
I don't believe that Essendon/Hird would not have required the same condition if we leaked the interim report to the Sun (not that I believe that we'd want anyone to see that report).
