I’m the opposite really. Once it all went ****-up it was totally uncharted territory that was basically impossible to manage. I doubt he ever had anything but the best intentions. It was an impossible situation.
Toast David Evans, a great leader throughout this saga - Receives life membership - 5/12
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I’m the opposite really. Once it all went ****-up it was totally uncharted territory that was basically impossible to manage. I doubt he ever had anything but the best intentions. It was an impossible situation.
TheGreatBarryB
Hall of Famer
Threw the club under the bus to save his own ‘reputation’ ...that was pretty much based on his Dad. High fee managed funds are a ripoff...what a dud.
jmoo wan
Formally Mr Jmoo Wan
why are we sponsoring players? we should be investing in Evans Dixon
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Or at least buy some memberships at his new golf club.
- Jul 15, 2008
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He always had the intention of doing the right thing. Good management tries to hire the right people then trust them to do their role because that’s their area of expertise. Our policies were inadequate to handle rogues but disregarding hindsight I can see how it happened and don’t consider that as big a fault on his behalf as what happened after.
Once it happened is where you can more clearly define who you are and what you stand for. He sold out the club to benefit the AFL and their political alignment re funding etc.
I’m sure he told himself he was doing the right thing by the club but in reality his job was not to protect the AFL. He made deals before even trying to find out for himself to any real degree what happened.
I don’t hate the man, I even have some level of sympathy for his situation but I don’t agree with his decisions after the fact and his silence. His life membership is questionable and leaves a bad after taste.
In terms of finding out, we have to remember that the first thing he did was go to the footy dept and ask “can you tell me exactly what each of the players was injected with last season”
They couldn’t. From there he was in an impossible situation. What could he go back to the AFL with?
“We don’t know”?
After that he commissioned the Switkowski report. And that wasn’t pretty actually damaged us.
But I don’t think you can accuse him of not trying to find out.
The whole problem was the club had shockingly weak leadership when it all happened. Evans was part of that and I think that was his sin, not what came later.
- Jul 15, 2008
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He made an agreement with the AFL within a couple of days about hearing about an issue himself. The only real thing in between was the emergency meeting with Hird etc where he effectively chose to believe Gil over Hird without much evidence. That is not conducting his own investigation. Everything else afterwards was window dressing. By then Evans was an AFL puppet.
Say what you want about the AFL but they would not allow anything to happen without conducting matters in-house first.
Going to the football department was also after he made the deal. Switkowski report and many other things was not Evans, but the AFL placed Elizabeth Lukin on Evans agreement.
Evans was the guard on duty who welcomed the pretty gift from the AFL of a wooden horse.
In any case we can agree to disagree, I have no problem accepting your point of view.
This is pretty much my understanding. Impossible to be certain of his intentions I guess....but either though self-interest or misjudgement he seems to have contributed very significantly to the ensuing cluster *.
Who knows how things might have turned out if he hadn’t accepted the “Trojan horse” as Mr Mojo mentions above.
My guess it was more misjudgement and the realisation of this was what contributed to his subsequent issues. Just a guess though.
Definitely questionable to be extending life membership in my mind.
- Dec 18, 2007
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I have a nagging suspicion that there is something the AFL and the club knows while members have been kept in the dark. The amazing thing is that AFL clubs are usually not good at keeping secrets.
There is nothing surer.
Personally I think the AFL wanted coaches gone, not players....they tried to manufacture that outcome and pissed off ASADA, and in turn WADA, big time. They in turn decided that if anyone was going to manufacture an outcome it would be them and they went ahead and did so....via a horribly unfair process where the players never stood a chance.
It’s the machinations between the institutions involved where I think the truth is still yet to out. Essendon and AFL and AFL and ASADA. The use of the media, particularly the demonisation of James Hird by the AFL friendly journos, is also a tangential story waiting to be told.
I’m not over it....never will be until the day we get to the truth. Apologies, I know many are and prefer not to have it raised again. In the context of life membership for Evans it has some relevance though.
- Jul 7, 2014
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Did he ever.manage to square things.away with the Hird family?
I'd be very surprised if he did.
I'd be very surprised if he did.
Took the train home with him a few years back, I'd had an absolute gut full and he put up with my ramblings , he was a gentleman. Of course he got off at Kooyong ! He's a true Essendon man, put a lot of $ into the club, but far out, he fell for the oldest trick in the book that all clubs have done, the old boys club (network)
His dad was a player and president. Evans literally is the old boys club.
Exactly
What an absolute disgrace. Filthy on the club awarding this coward such reverence. His old man would’ve rolled in his grave how piss weak he was jumping ship & throwing his mates under the bus.
FMD....this club.
FMD....this club.
Didn't his old man move to league HQ and tip em off about our salary cap back in his day?
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That was Danny Corcoran I think.
Ron was a staunch Essendon man & a Sheedy fan through & through. Fought for his retention everytime boardroom coups threatened to offload him. Doubt he would’ve s**t on him & the club the moment we won a flag & the ensuing years we contended.
A true campaigner if ever there was one. But of course Sir James wanted him back
Could be right. I think there was a big falling out when he went.
Pretty sure it was Corcoran who got Tim Watson fit for '93. Worth a life membership.
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Perfect for his role as a Brighton real estate agent if you know what I mean.
No mate, he didn’t throw us under the bus he threw us under the whole fleet. And for hird to insist he came back !!!!! Mistake number one Sir James.
Unfathomable.
Really nothing more than organisational cockups and misjudgments at every turn I think.
Essendon obviously for letting it all happen in the first place. From there we were in a lot of trouble.
The AFL applied their standard problem management. Bring it in-house, script and manage the outcome at all times. Take down a scapegoat or two, blame it all on them, "penalise" the "club" if need be, but make sure nothing affects the show on field... it goes on.
Their enormous, grave *-up was the "joint investigation". In standard AFL style they thought they were bringing it under their control. What they actually did was bring ASADA behind the curtain and gave them access to everything. If they had their time again, I guarantee they'd tell ASADA to run their own show, make all the players and EFC crew STFU, induce Dank and the Weapon to STFU, and burn and shred every bit of evidence that existed.
ASADA never had a chance. They weren't in the least bit equipped to deal with any of it. It was dumb luck they stumbled into the joint investigation. They mismanaged things at every turn, had no real idea what they were doing, right up to their stupid "links in the chain" approach at the AFL tribunal which got thrown out. From their point of view, the only smart thing they did was then finally realise they were out of their depth and run to WADA pleading them to take over.
