Essendon drugs cancer will never go away and its scars have been laid bare this week, writes Mark Robinson

THE cancer born from the Essendon supplements scandal won’t go away. It rears its head occasionally and in the past two weeks, it has been ferocious, writes MARK ROBINSON.

Jobe Watson after an Essendon loss.

THE cancer born from the Essendon drugs scandal won’t go away.

It rears its head occasionally and in the past two weeks, ferociously.

On display has been utter despair and disillusionment, bewildering and unrelenting personal attacks and a cry for help from a man who may find himself in jail, but who 12 months ago was so swamped with mental health issues he reached out to an old friend, David Evans.

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His name is Mark Thompson and his email to Evans, the former Essendon chairman, which was written in February 2017, was on the front page of the Herald Sun a week ago.

The push back on Thompson by commentator Caroline Wilson was savage, prompting debate about whether she’s still barracking for her narrative which was Thompson, James Hird et al were all evil and that Evans, the AFL and their processes were the good guys in all of this.

The AFL has been accused of bungling and corrupting the initial investigation. The AFL has denied it.

Former Essendon coach Mark Thompson.

Former Essendon chairman David Evans. Picture: Norm Oorloff

But when Mike Sheahan interviewed former AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick on Fox Footy on May 15, the people still interested in this long-running tragedy were probably surprised at the lack of certainty and conviction from Fitzpatrick.

He said the players “almost certainly took performance enhancing drugs’’, but “you couldn’t totally be certain’’, that there was circumstantial evidence, a rival player complained to him about the size of Essendon players in 2012, and that “apparently’’ the players took thousands of injections.

Even the fair-minded Sheahan was taken aback by Fitzpatrick’s offerings. “His answers did seem to be a bit willy-nilly and indecisive,’’ Sheahan said.

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Tim Watson was critical of the former chairman as was Paul Little, who replaced Evans after Evans quit two days after the Herald Sun revealed in 2013 the infamous phone call made by Andrew Demetriou to Evans at an emergency meeting at Evans’ house. It was dubbed the Night Of Crisis.

“Why Mike would come out now with his views on something that can’t be proven one way or the other is beyond me,’’ Little said.

In fact, coaching great Mick Malthouse was the first to the provoke the cancer when, on April 9, he declared in the Herald Sun the flatlining Bombers were still scarred by the scandal which handed “life sentences” to the suspended players.

Former Essendon CEO Ian Robson, chairman David Evans and coach James Hird.

Fitzpatrick’s comments further opened wounds.

“I thought he was pathetic,’’ former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas said on a podcast with Sheahan and Sam Newman.

Newman said: “He (Fitzpatrick) should be roundly condemned for that.’’

Clearly, the anger and bitterness as a result of the greatest scandal in Australian rules history is back in the headlines.

In the wake of Thompson’s arrest, Hird claimed the club did not fully support the footy department staff, including himself and Thompson, through the investigation and that what the pair went through at the time contributed significantly to their ongoing issues.

On May 10, Thompson, Hird and club favourite Dean Wallis did not attend the 1993 premiership reunion dinner for differing reasons, but those reasons were linked to the drugs saga and its fallout.

Former Essendon captain Jobe Watson.

Former Bomber Stewart Crameri broke down in a Fox Footy interview on May 16. “For someone to be guilty of something when they’re innocent, it’s just really hard to take,’’ he said.

Former captain Jobe Watson this week opened up on a podcast about how his club was “negligent on multiple levels’’ through 2012.

“Four years of not only my career but my teammates’ careers were absorbed by this, so that makes me sad. I don’t have ill feelings towards the club, but the club didn’t do their job,’’ Watson said.

Despite the angst, there has been some breakthrough.

Hird and AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, who was the AFL’s negotiator when the AFL was pushing for penalties for Essendon, which included the one-year suspension for Hird, met twice in the past two weeks. That eventuality was previously unthinkable.

They met at a hole-in-wall coffee shop in South Yarra, with AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon, and spoke of Hird’s relationship with the AFL. Still, they will never be friendly.

That night, or early the next day, Hird’s Toorak house was broken into and a computer, a phone and a car stolen.

The outrageousness of events involving firstly Thompson and then Hird also had Thomas wondering if they were somehow linked. That also is unthinkable, but conspiracies have always been undercurrent of this whole drugs affair.

Thompson’s arrest on serious drug charges was the most stunning news and people close to him, who have reconnected with Thompson since his arrest, say he has sought professional help to deal with his mental health issues.

Mark Thompson and James Hird.

That is separate, of course, to the charges he faces.

His email to Evans came after Hird almost killed himself.

“It’s time to start fighting for the truth for all our sakes, and most importantly for the players’ sake. They deserve to know everything we know about this fiasco. It’s time we all stood up and right the wrong,” Thompson wrote.

“I think it’s time you stepped up to be the man we thought you were.’’

He was referring to Evans’ role with the AFL and with Demetriou, and was fully aware of Hird’s claim that Evans told Hird to “tell the whole truth to ASADA but not the part about what Andrew Demetriou told me”.

The email from Thompson was crucified by Wilson.

“These were the deluded rantings of a man who was the architect of his own downfall,” she said. “(The email) proved to show how completely demented he has been.”

Strong — some would say callous — words to describe a man who had previously admitted he had mental health issues.

This whole saga, running since 2013, will never be fully reconciled and every time it’s back in the headlines, it seems everyone who had a role to play plants their flag to the version they know best. Not most, but best.

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