I sometimes get the feeling that Essendon supporters have met reality and then I read this:
"
Sorry but that's just contradictory rubbish that the public at large has been managed to believe.
Whether or not Hird's architecture somehow contributed to the breach of duty owed to the players is the whole point. You then need to determine whether there was a breach by Hird that caused damage to the players because it may be that it did not materially contribute to anything and that any penalty beyond his 1 year suspension would be "cracking a peanut with a sledgehammer". Why do you think he is pushing, to what I'll admit is the point of stupidity if he does appeal Middleton J's decision, so hard to clear his name?
The real world is so much more complicated than the "where there's smoke there's fire" lowest common denominator garbage that I hear so often. You can't just generalise because it is the specific circumstances of each case that are more important than anything else.
Hird has been set up as the fall guy from day one because the EFC and the AFL were not thorough enough and believed they could deal their way out of this, which they can't. It has not even been confirmed that the deals offered to Cronulla players will not be challenged by WADA.
Any suggestion that the removal of Hird would in anyway have lessened the the penalties we have received or that it could influence the outcome as far as ASADA is concerned is ******* dishonest.
As long as the EFC stakeholders, being the players, members, fans and sponsors, are all satisfied EFC should be doing much more to stand by its coach and any of its people for that matter.
Hird should never go unless he has proven to have failed his players. He's our ******* coach and we choose whether he stays or goes, not the AFL and not the media at the behest of the AFL.
If we buckle to the pressure I don't think I'll ever look at the club the same way again."
The delusion dies hard