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- May 28, 2013
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Good to finally hear from *hird. This clears a lot up for me.
"Today is my first chance to publicly answer this question, unconstrained by the contractual obligations a coach must observe and free of pressure applied by the AFL. I can finally offer a more detailed explanation to 34 young men and their families. Players who absolutely do not deserve this fate.
To put it simply, when I was offered the job of Head Coach at Essendon in September 2010, I didn’t take the job. At least not in any real sense. Sure, I was around the club a bit. I headed press conferences after most/all games. And I took full credit for wins, when we had them. But it’s a leap to say I was in any way in charge of the playing group.
In 2012 I hired Dean Robinson, and in turn Stephen Dank. I don’t intend to go through every detail of every interaction I had with them, lest I inadvertently give away useful information that sheds light on what actually took place that year.
But what I can say is that it was the club’s Sliding Doors moment. I’m not sure if you’ve seen Sliding Doors? Basically it’s about how Gwyneth Paltrow misses a train, setting off two parallel realities, one where she catches her husband having an affair, the other where she doesn’t. In our case we set up a program to inject 34 players with human growth hormone. The similarities are undeniable.
So, in summary, who was really responsible for the injection program that led to 34 players getting suspended for a season? Quite simply, everyone else. The staff, the media, the AFL, and to some extent – let’s be totally honest here – you.
But was I in any way responsible, even in some small way? To believe that, you’d also have to believe that I had some kind of senior role, or at least some level of influence at the Essendon Football Club. And that is the stuff of conspiracy theories”.
"Today is my first chance to publicly answer this question, unconstrained by the contractual obligations a coach must observe and free of pressure applied by the AFL. I can finally offer a more detailed explanation to 34 young men and their families. Players who absolutely do not deserve this fate.
To put it simply, when I was offered the job of Head Coach at Essendon in September 2010, I didn’t take the job. At least not in any real sense. Sure, I was around the club a bit. I headed press conferences after most/all games. And I took full credit for wins, when we had them. But it’s a leap to say I was in any way in charge of the playing group.
In 2012 I hired Dean Robinson, and in turn Stephen Dank. I don’t intend to go through every detail of every interaction I had with them, lest I inadvertently give away useful information that sheds light on what actually took place that year.
But what I can say is that it was the club’s Sliding Doors moment. I’m not sure if you’ve seen Sliding Doors? Basically it’s about how Gwyneth Paltrow misses a train, setting off two parallel realities, one where she catches her husband having an affair, the other where she doesn’t. In our case we set up a program to inject 34 players with human growth hormone. The similarities are undeniable.
So, in summary, who was really responsible for the injection program that led to 34 players getting suspended for a season? Quite simply, everyone else. The staff, the media, the AFL, and to some extent – let’s be totally honest here – you.
But was I in any way responsible, even in some small way? To believe that, you’d also have to believe that I had some kind of senior role, or at least some level of influence at the Essendon Football Club. And that is the stuff of conspiracy theories”.

