James Hird says trusting ‘bad’ people was his greatest weakness during the drugs saga

James Hird has opened up on the Essendon drugs saga and how the downfall started after he trusted ‘two bad people’ while coach.

James Hird has spoken about the Bombers supplements saga. Picture: Getty Images

Former Essendon coach James Hird says trusting two “bad” people was his greatest weakness during the Bombers supplements saga.

In an interview on the Howie Games podcast, recorded in late July, Hird maintained the players were innocent victims of the club’s supplements regimen.

He said he has returned to a place where he can see “life is good” after being at the centre of the Bombers’ long-running supplements saga which took him to the “bottom of the pile”.

In a fresh and revealing interview, Hird hinted that he still had some interest in being a senior coach again after returning to the coaches’ box as a part-time assistant with Greater Western Sydney this year.

However, the 49-year-old said “family considerations” would have to be factored in if he was ever to make the leap back into the hot seat.

Hird said he had learnt plenty of lessons from his last stint as coach of Essendon, which ran from 2011 to 2013 and then saw him return for the 2015 season.

He described “relationships” as his greatest strength as a coach, but listed “trust” as his greatest weakness.

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The drugs saga played out under James Hird’s watch. Picture: AAP Images

Stephen Dank was Essendon’s sports scientist during the supplements saga, with Dean “the Weapon” Robinson serving as the club’s high performance coach.

“I should have been over more of the detail,” Hird said.

“I trusted the people I asked to do things to do things and they weren’t. (I was) a bit naïve. I really was a very trusting, accepting person because nothing really bad had happened to me.

“We had two people there who were bad people who, I don’t think they cheated, but that’s debatable. I still don’t think players took the wrong thing, but the players were put in a very compromised position which they shouldn’t have been put in.

“The thing that is the most upsetting is there’s 34 players who have done absolutely nothing wrong and their families and them have suffered hugely for it – and so have the Essendon supporters. These people have been the most loyal supporters of all time. They’ve paid their membership, they’ve got through ASADA, they’ve gone through Covid. Now all you want for them is to get a bit of success and go to the footy and win a few games because there is no group of supporters that have been through more …. over the past 15 years.”

Hird said the saga had weighed “massively” on him and that one part of the coverage of it had particularly got on his nerves.

“The thing that really irritated me was I was called selfish a lot of the time,” he said.

“It was just so far beyond what I thought I was. When things happened, all I was trying to do was get the players out of that position so they were seen as being totally innocent in what happened, which didn’t end up happening that way. It weighs on you. There’s 34 people and their families who went through hell through no fault of their own. No matter what people think, they just trusted. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

James Hird returned to coaching in a match-day and leadership role with GWS. Picture: Getty Images

Hird spent five weeks in a Melbourne psychiatric facility in early 2017 after overdosing on sleeping tablets but said he had come out the other side of those dark times.

“I’m not proud of what happened but I am proud of the resilience that I have to actually get to where I am,” he said.

“To me it was, ‘This is the bottom of the pile’. No matter what they throw up I’m going to keep climbing and climbing.

“You can get up and see life is good. While you’re going through those dark moments, you’re climbing through darkness. But as long as you keep moving, you’re not going backwards.”

Hird appeared back in front of the Essendon fans during a pre-match ceremony ahead of the Bombers’ clash with Carlton in Round 13 this year to mark the club’s 150th anniversary and received a deafening round of applause.

“I actually really didn’t want to do it,” he said.

“Xavier Campbell (former Essendon chief executive) rang me and Tania (Hird’s wife) and I were away and we talked about it and thought it feels a bit cliché.

“(Tania) was very positive that (I) should do it. In the end it actually felt like the crowd was cheering me but it was almost like I was thanking them a bit as well.”

James Hird was a big hit at Essendon’s 150th celebration. Picture: Getty Images

The podcast was recorded on July 26 – before Essendon sacked senior coach Ben Rutten – with Hird saying his return to the coaches’ box with GWS this year had been “enormous fun” and not ruling out a more permanent return if the opportunity presents.

“I was asked by the CEO of a club six weeks ago if I’d like to coach – not his club – but if I’d like to coach again,” Hird said.

“My honest answer was, ‘There’s some elements about it I really like (but) I’d have to have family considerations to do it’. I love the fact that you get in deeply and you work with young people to create something really, really special and you create a great team environment. But I’ve worked very, very hard over the last six years to create another business arm and I’m 50. At 40, when it happened I could transition and go. At 50, you go down (that path) and that’s almost it. So I’d have to think very carefully about the path that I take and there has to be an opportunity too, obviously.”