James Hird believes he has no choice but to go to court after dramatic day of revelations, Mark Robinson writes

BARRING a miracle from the footy gods, Essendon, James Hird and the AFL look like they are destined for the Supreme Court.

BARRING a miracle from the footy gods, Essendon, James Hird and the AFL are destined for the Supreme Court.

The first moves will be made by Hird's legal team at 10am today and the Bombers are expected to soon follow suit.

Hird believes he has no alternative.

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The fight for his integrity cannot be found in front of the AFL Commission, he argues, and so he will try to seek it via the courts.

If anything, Hird was more defiant yesterday than at any time in this hellish situation. So was Bombers chairman Paul Little.

This tenacious little bald man with the quiet voice and ferocious attitude yesterday stood shoulder to shoulder with his coach and savaged the AFL.

They were ambushed, they said, and certainly not drug cheats.

Hird to sue as clash with AFL heats up

What an extraordinary day for football.

The AFL dropped an atomic bomb on Essendon, and Essendon shot one back.

James Hird, Paul Little

It was suggested last night the AFL's move yesterday was prompted by Tim Watson's public claims the players did not take banned drugs or drugs harmful to their health.

They came after it was revealed that the drug at the centre of the scandal, AOD-9604, was not a prohibited substance.

Doc's letter reveals he was kept in dark

Politically, the sense was the public was turning on the AFL and chief executive Andrew Demetriou.

The AFL's response was to drop its bomb.

If the public thought the Bombers would roll over, they thought wrong.

Yesterday also was extraordinary in terms of detail of the AFL's damning evidence and allegations against the Bombers and individuals for their roles in the club's 2011-12 supplements program.

Hird health scare claims

Upon their release just before 2pm, the public was agog with the claims.

The 34-page charge sheet painted a horrific regimen of thousands of injections, the use of banned drugs and the sourcing of drugs from China and Mexico.

It included, at last, the release of club doctor Bruce Reid's letter of concern about the injections to players and the substances contained in the injections, of which he was not aware.

There were claims staff self-injected and that Hird had an adverse reaction to using a tanning agent.

What Little and Hird said in full

And there were text messages between Hird and his head of football, Danny Corcoran, about the supplements program and its cutting-edge desire, and text messages between Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson about certain drugs, some of which are banned.

Disturbingly, there were allegations backed by text messages that Dank ordered and received drugs - again, some banned - from convicted drug trafficker Shane Charter, and those drugs were used on players.

For most of us, reading the charge summary was a sledgehammer to Essendon's defence.

If proven to be true, then everyone in a position of responsibility at Essendon last year, including the coach, should be driven from the game.

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The Bombers have admitted to governance issues, but they refuse to admit they were drug cheats.

How can this mess be sorted? The AFL wants transparency and so do Hird and Essendon, although they don't want Demetriou to play a further role.

It is clear the Hird-Demetriou war is personal.

The AFL has summoned all club presidents today.

One president told the Herald Sun last night he expected a summary of how the Bombers were challenging the rules and regulations.

In other words, could the AFL count on club support to help them kick the Bombers out of the finals?

The other clubs read the charge sheet yesterday and would have been flabbergasted with the detail. They also would have heard Little and Hird only hours later.

They now know this is a fight to the death.

Sadly, Hird, Essendon and Demetriou and co have known that for some time.

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