Coach James Hird - is it time to give him a second chance at coaching an AFL club? Gil says yes!

Should James Hird be given a second chance at coaching an AFL club?


  • Total voters
    984
Sep 2, 2008
63,165
37,760
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Fletchers games tally needs to be adjusted accordingly …

  • 2 mill fine
  • Players banned
  • Jobes brownlow stripped
  • Draft picks removed
  • Kicked out of finals even tho we qaulified
  • Staff and coaches sacked

How much more punishment do you want mate? we did the crime and did the time,time to move on.
 
Sep 2, 2008
63,165
37,760
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
They're adults, not young boys.

They shoulder some of the responsibility, especially considering they deliberately omitted info to ASADA.

I know the club and players share some of the responsibility but Asada didn't do their job properly with Dank.

They should have aressetd the kent and beat him up till he confesed what he actaully gave the players.
 

mouncey2franklin

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 16, 2018
8,648
15,446
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Aussies love to stick the boot in when people are down, especially fallen stars.

It is one of the worst things about modern Australian culture tbh.

What it means is that there will likely be no redemption arc for Hird, even if he has earned it by hard work and commitment.

Sorry Jimbob, the tribe has spoken.
 
Dec 29, 2008
14,688
29,168
Adelaide
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Norwood
  • 2 mill fine
  • Players banned
  • Jobes brownlow stripped
  • Draft picks removed
  • Kicked out of finals even tho we qaulified
  • Staff and coaches sacked

How much more punishment do you want mate? we did the crime and did the time,time to move on.

The truth of what happened and ownership of everyone's part in it.
 
Sep 2, 2008
63,165
37,760
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
Aussies love to stick the boot in when people are down, especially fallen stars.

It is one of the worst things about modern Australian culture tbh.

What it means is that there will likely be no redemption arc for Hird, even if he has earned it by hard work and commitment.

Sorry Jimbob, the tribe has spoken.

Cant belive Hird still cops it the bloke almost took his own life that's how much the saga fcked him up. As far as I'm concernd he did the crime and did the time people should move on now.
 
Feb 9, 2009
17,159
23,041
Footscray
AFL Club
Richmond
They're adults, not young boys.

They shoulder some of the responsibility, especially considering they deliberately omitted info to ASADA.
Idiotic comment with no appreciation for the massive power imbalance between some 18 year old fresh out of school and the coaching/medical staff
 

matthew_s

Premiership Player
Aug 19, 2013
3,186
6,017
AFL Club
West Coast
Cant belive Hird still cops it the bloke almost took his own life that's how much the saga fcked him up. As far as I'm concernd he did the crime and did the time people should move on now.

There's been a few notable bad guys who've offed themselves, I guess we should forgive their trespasses too.
 
Idiotic comment with no appreciation for the massive power imbalance between some 18 year old fresh out of school and the coaching/medical staff
No, it isn't. I'm 100% correct when I say the players have to shoulder some of the responsibility.

Stop treating them like children. Not all of them are 18, most of the players found guilty were 20-something and been in the system for years for feck's sake. Given that one of the players actually took a stand and said "* it, I'm not taking that", they have no excuse not to follow up and find out what's been given to them. It's the responsibility of every player in the league, regardless of what the coaching or medical staff say.

I'm going to have to take a look back at the CAS document, but I clearly remember that AFL players went to a seminar by ASADA to make sure this kind of thing is crystal clear. And then there's the fact that they have to disclose what they're taking when an anti-doping body asks them to. I don't care if they're 18 and fresh out of high school, but if you omit important info to the authorities, then that's your fault because it's a deliberate action not to. Which suggests to me that the players were in on it too, you can only use the "childish naivety card" up to a certain point until it's no longer relevant.

They're not as sweet and innocent as you like to make them out to be. That skeleton was revealed in the WADA appeal at CAS.
 
Sep 2, 2008
63,165
37,760
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
No, it isn't.

Stop treating them like children. Not all of them are 18, most of the players found guilty were 20-something and been in the system for years for feck's sake. Given that one of the players actually took a stand and said "fu** it, I'm not taking that", they have no excuse not to follow up and find out what's been given to them. It's the responsibility of every player in the league, regardless of what the coaching or medical staff say.

I'm going to have to take a look back at the CAS document, but I clearly remember that AFL players went to a seminar by ASADA to make sure this kind of thing is crystal clear. And then there's the fact that they have to disclose what they're taking when an anti-doping body asks them to. I don't care if they're 18 and fresh out of high school, but if you omit important info to the authorities, then that's your fault because it's a deliberate action not to. Which suggests to me that the players were in on it to, you can only use the "childish naivety card" up to a certain point until it's no longer relevant.

let-it-go-frozen.gif
 
Feb 4, 2008
12,967
27,948
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
It would defy all reason if any club even seriously considered appointing Hird coach.

He has nothing to recommend him as a coach over about 4 dozen other potential coaches just based on his coaching record alone. Then there is the fact he is way out of touch. And then the small matter of him being the chief party responsible for the most damage any club has suffered in living memory short of Fitzroy folding.

That is before you even start to consider whether the AFL should be allowing him to be in any position to have the final say over players' welfare etc. And let’s not forget he has never spoken anything that even remotely resembled the truth regarding his part in the whole saga.

The whole concept is ludicrous.
 
Sep 2, 2008
63,165
37,760
Melbourne
AFL Club
Essendon
It would defy all reason if any club even seriously considered appointing Hird coach.

He has nothing to recommend him as a coach over about 4 dozen other potential coaches just based on his coaching record alone. Then there is the fact he is way out of touch. And then the small matter of him being the chief party responsible for the most damage any club has suffered in living memory short of Fitzroy folding.

That is before you even start to consider whether the AFL should be allowing him to be in any position to have the final say over players' welfare etc. And let’s not forget he has never spoken anything that even remotely resembled the truth regarding his part in the whole saga.

The whole concept is ludicrous.
Personally don't see him as senior coach again but can see him as an assitant or development coach which he would be really good at imo
 
Personally don't see him as senior coach again but can see him as an assitant or development coach which he would be really good at imo
Maybe in a lab, but not in a football environment.

Hilarious how some people are still trying to downplay one of the key architects in one of the biggest team doping scandals in sporting history.
 

TP86

Club Legend
Apr 16, 2010
1,304
1,608
AFL Club
Hawthorn
It seems antithetical to an expansion market. The Giants have always been this strange Essendon proxy with Sheedy being their start-up coach and being one of the few clubs that regularly trades with Dodoro, but taking the hit on rehabbing Hird's image really does tell us how apathetic the AFL actually is about building and establishing a fanbase in Western Sydney.
 
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