On Thursday 31 January 2013, the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) convinced the AFL’s Andrew Demetriou, Gillon McLachlan and Brett Clothier that Essendon players had taken banned substances.
As it transpires, the ACC only had misinformation and not proof.
As the ACC’s information reinforced the AFL’s 15-month held view that the Essendon players had been taking banned substances, Demetriou and McLachlan, in their stupidity, accepted that the players were guilty.
On Friday 1 February 2013, Demetriou and McLachlan convinced Essendon chairman David Evans and chief executive Ian Robson that the players were guilty.
This produced a major dilemma for both the AFL and the Essendon board. Someone had to be held responsible.
The possible guilty options were the AFL Commission and Essendon board for failing to fulfil their statutory and contractual obligations to provide a safe work place for the players; the players for being administered a prohibited substance; or senior members of the Essendon football department.
If 45 players were suspended, Fox Sports and Channel Seven would only have been able to televise eight matches a week instead of nine. That would have meant the AFL would have been required to refund tens of millions of dollars to its broadcasters.
The AFL Commission and the Essendon board had a vested interest in exonerating each other. That meant that the Essendon football department, which ran the supplements programmes, would be held responsible. But as the football department didn’t include anyone of a high enough profile to satisfy the vultures in the media, someone else had to be blamed.
On either Saturday 2 February 2013 or Sunday, the 3rd, at the urging of the AFL, David Evans hired the AFL’s most reliable consultant Elizabeth Lukin to manage the case.
At a meeting at AFL House on 5 February 2013, Lukin demanded that Hird accept full responsibility. Hird refused. After some bullying from Lukin and Evans, Hird foolishly capitulated and agreed to take full responsibility. But that wasn’t enough for McLachlan.
Although the battle lines between the AFL/ASADA on the one side and allegedly, Essendon on the other, had been drawn on 1 February when the AFL and ASADA decided to investigate Essendon, McLachlan created the impression that he was helping Hird and told Hird what he could and couldn’t say.
As it transpired, Essendon wasn’t the target, Hird was.
In a shameful ASADA/AFL/Essendon/Labor government meeting in Canberra on Saturday 9 February 2013, Richard Eccles representing Prime Minister Julia Gillard, asked McLachlan: “What are you after?”
ASADA CEO Aurora Andruska’s note book and subsequent Federal Court affidavit records McLachlan’s response: “Come to arrangement. Players found to be innocent. This is the outcome. Sanctions against Essendon [club but not against the board]. [The Essendon club] held responsible. Hold individuals accountable.” Andruska also recorded that Eccles said “the prime minister wanted it to end.” Ironically, Eccles breached the ASADA Act by attending the meeting and scores of other meetings.
David Evans and Ian Robson, in their capacity as Essendon board members, endorsed all McLachlan’s demands. The decision was subsequently endorsed by the Essendon board. The bottom line was Evans and his Essendon board agreed to sacrifice Hird to protect the AFL Commission, the Essendon board and the players.
The big dilemma was how to create a case against Hird given he wasn’t even a member of the football department and given that the Victorian OH&S Act implied Hird had no more legal responsibility than say a secretary.
ASADA solved the problem. An ASADA official corruptly changed Ian Robson’s evidence to the investigators. When asked to outline the reporting protocols at Essendon, Robson said Stephen Dank reported to Dean Robinson and Robinson reported to [football manager] Paul Hamilton. The ASADA official corruptly added [and Hird] in square brackets. That created the false impression that not only was Hird responsible for Robinson but that he had the legal power to interfere in the operation of the football department and the supplement programmes. Hird had no such power or rights.
Essendon AFL Drug Saga 