Former Essendon coach James Hird says the team chosen to run the Bomber's controversial supplements program led it down the path to ruin.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday upheld the World Anti-Doping Agency's appeal against the AFL tribunal decision to clear the players of taking the banned substance thymosin-beta 4 while Hird was coach, handing them a 12-month ban from the sport.
In a column published today in a News Limited newspaper, Hird revealed that fitness coach Dean Robinson and sports scientist Stephen Dank were not the club's first choices in 2011 to run what it thought would be a cutting edge supplements program.
He said the preferred candidate, working in the English Premier League, could not join Essendon until May 2012.
"Had we secured this preferred applicant then the experience of the Essendon Football Club and 34 young men would have been very different," he said.
Dank had assured the club the supplements were compliant. He had even presented supporting evidence
James Hird, Former Essendon coach
"Instead the sliding door we walked through introduced Essendon to the world's of Dean Robinson and, at Robinson's suggestion, Stephen Dank."
Hird said he was comfortable running a supplements program on the proviso the substances were AFL and ASADA approved, players would not be harmed and gave informed consent, and club doctor Bruce Reid gave final approval.
"The supplements program then, from my perspective, had sound logic, important goals, the people the club had engaged presented as credible and successful, the structure for the program was right and the protocol for decision-making and player welfare had integrity," he said.
Hird said he trusted the governance of the program and the people directly in charge of administering it.
Stephen Dank
PHOTO: James Hird said disgraced former sports scientist Stephen Dank did not follow club protocol. (AAP: Julian Smith)
"I concentrated on my task as head coach, satisfied that the supplement piece of the high-performance puzzle at Essendon was compliant," he said.
Hird said he first learned in 2012 of Dr Reid's concerns the protocol was not being followed.
"I re-emphasised the protocols that needed to be in place via email to Robinson. I was clear. Crystal clear," he said.
"Importantly, to our knowledge at that time, this was the scope of the problem, because Dank had assured the club the supplements were compliant.
"He had even presented supporting evidence."
Dank was later sacked, Robinson's role scaled back and the supplements program modified so that only Dr Reid could administer injections.
Hird 'eternally sorry'
Hird said he was "eternally sorry" to the 34 former and current Essendon players who will sit this season out as they serve a 12 month ban for injections administered as part of the supplements program.
"I promised the players I would create an environment in which they would become the very best footballers they could be and, in return, they would give their all," he said.
"This was our promise to each other."
The ABC will broadcast a live interview with James Hird on ABC News24 and News Radio on Sunday evening.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-...nts-sports-scientist-essendon-bombers/7090080
well this is one way to look at things
