Essendon’s former president, Paul Little, on the dark days of the Bombers supplements saga

The man at the helm of the Essendon Football Club during the supplements saga has revealed the extraordinary lengths he went to keep Bombers fans onside.

Paul Little went to great lengths to keep Essendon supporters informed through the supplements saga. Picture: Mark Stewart

Former Essendon chairman Paul Little says he responded to 15 letters a week from impassioned Bombers supporters amid the depths of the club’s supplements scandal.

The billionaire former Toll boss took stewardship of the Essendon Football Club during its most trying period — becoming chairman in July 2013 — just before the drug supplements scandal that consumed the club.

Despite a lifetime in the tough-as-nails world of trucks and transport, Little says there was something new in the challenges at Essendon.

“(There was) lifelong emotion and passion at Essendon — I have never seen in anything like that before,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun.

Paul Little became Essendon in July 2013 just before supplements scandal. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Little received about 15 letters a week from people either asking him questions or offering advice. “I responded to every single person that wrote to me over the period.”

“We were going through the allegations of performance enhancing drugs and I just thought it was so important to respond in that way.”

He recalls mates in the business world warning him about taking the mantel at a footy club.

“(Former Bulldogs president) David Smorgon gave me advice one day.

He said, ‘You don’t know what you are letting yourself in for, Paul, chairing a football club’. Well, that was before the supplements thing hit.”

Kevin Sheedy and Little at the Essendon 2015 membership launch. Pictire: Michael Klein

Jobe Watson and Little hugs after a Essendon win in 2013.

But why did he stick it out, finally passing the job to Lindsay Tanner at the end of 2015, what many people thought was a thankless task?

“The driver for me was these young men. And I have a son who at the time was just sort of going through university — so a similar age. They were just that, they were young men.”

RELATED:

PAUL LITTLE’S BOLD PLAN FOR MELBOURNE’S WEST

WHY PAUL LITTLE AIMS TO GIVE ALOT

“They weren’t able to cope with the added pressure they were getting — whether it be through the press or whatever legal things were going on around them.”

“I felt then — and even now today — that someone needed to protect them and make sure they weren’t going to be unfairly dealt with and treated. So that was the big motivation really.”

Little finished at Toll at the end of 2011 after growing the business from 18 trucks to 45,000 staff over 50 countries.

When Toll Group investors overwhelmingly accepted a $6.5 billion takeover bid from Japan Post in 2015, his 5.2 per cent of the company was valued at about $340 million.

[e-mail]