James Hird’s dad urges Bombers to name and shame board ‘moles’ who betrayed his son
Six years after a story wrongly suggested James Hird had been sacked as Essendon coach, the heat has been dialled up on the Bombers board members who leaked it. Now Hird’s father wants answers.
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James Hird’s father says Essendon chairman Paul Brasher must name and shame the board “moles” who betrayed his son.
Journalist Caroline Wilson last week revealed she had been told by “key people on the board” about a decision to sack Hird as coach in October 2014.
The story, published in The Age, proved to be incorrect, but Allan Hird said Wilson’s admission had exposed the board’s duplicity.
“Let’s leave to one side the fact Caroline Wilson is prepared to out her sources when it suits her, and instead focus on the implications of her admission,” Hird Sr said.
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“I call on each board member at the time to either deny they leaked to Caroline Wilson or confirm they are one of her moles.
“Because until we know who the moles are, suspicion surrounds them all.”
Brasher and former Bombers ruckman Simon Madden are the only two remaining Essendon directors from the 2014 season.
The other board members were ex-chairman Paul Little, Chris Heffernan, Phil Pryor, Kevin Egan, Daryl Jackson, Jo-Anne Albert and Greg Brown.
Brown can be eliminated as a suspect because he was hospitalised for six months between July 2014 and Christmas with a severe golden staph neck infection.
“It is essential the new chairman, Paul Brasher, comes out strongly and condemns the leaks from certain members of the board — against the coach they appointed — and assures the supporters there won’t be any leaks on his watch,” Hird Sr said.
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“What this points to is a dysfunctional Essendon Football Club in 2014 with disloyal people running it. How can anyone be sure anything has changed?”
Wilson made the admission on Footy Classified last Wednesday after co-panellist Matthew Lloyd asked her to identify her biggest career regret.
“Saying that James Hird had been removed as the coach of the Essendon Football Club,” Wilson said.
“It was disappointing because it was wrong. At the time I wrote it there were key people on the board who told me it had happened.
“I suspect it maybe had happened and then they changed their mind, I don’t know what happened.”
Hird was under intense pressure at the time of the story after lodging an appeal against a Federal Court ruling that found the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s joint investigation into the club’s 2012 supplements program with the AFL was lawful.
Essendon opted not to appeal, but Hird forged ahead.
“It was then that the AFL and sections of the media mounted a serious campaign to have him sacked,” Hird Sr said.
“In the minds of the AFL hierarchy, exercising your legal and democratic rights is a sackable offence. Only at the AFL one would hope.”
Hird resigned as Essendon coach in August 2015 when the team’s performance fell away after the World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the AFL tribunal’s not guilty verdict against 34 Dons players accused of using a prohibited substance to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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Originally published as James Hird’s dad urges Bombers to name and shame board ‘moles’ who betrayed his son