Ex-Essendon football boss breaks four-year silence
DANNY Corcoran broke down when he entered James Hird’s room in a Melbourne intensive care unit, as four years of anger, frustration and desperation spilt over.
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DANNY Corcoran broke down when he entered James Hird’s room in a Melbourne intensive care unit this week.
Four years of anger, frustration and desperation spilt over as old mates embraced for the first time since Hird’s drug overdose 11 nights ago.
Hird will require continued specialised medical treatment after a near-tragic episode in the 1439-day Essendon saga.
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“I walked out of that ICU unit and just felt the total despair of how systemic bullying and harassment of a person had caused him to fall into such a dire state,” an ashen Corcoran told the Herald Sun on Friday.
“I can’t believe it. He’s in an ICU in a secure ward.
“A great man — a great champion, reduced to this ... it’s just horrendous to think that it’s got to this point.”
The road to ruin began in September 2011 when Essendon, under second-year coach Hird, embarked on a secret supplements injections program.
Corcoran had returned to the club as people and development manager under football boss Paul Hamilton.
Suspended and effectively banished from the game in August 2013, Corcoran watched on as Hird waged a one-man war against the AFL and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.
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He said he first recognised signs of Hird’s declining mental state in late 2014.
“Two years ago I said to James: ‘No one in the history of Australian sport has ever suffered as much humiliation or persecution and that is going to take its toll on you’.
“I started to notice little things about him being erratic and angry. He couldn’t see anything positive about life after his treatment.
“I said: ‘You need some help and you should get professional advice’.
“But like a lot of men, help was offered and help was rejected.
“He is a victim and is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, I’ve got no doubt about it.
“He endured four years of harassment and eventually he just snapped.”
Corcoran’s role in the Essendon scandal was blurred by the sudden passing of his wife, Maxine, in November 2011 after a short battle with brain cancer.
“The week after the 2011 Grand Final she collapsed with a seizure,” Corcoran says, his voice-trailing off.
“She went to hospital ... and was gone within two months — a vibrant and healthy woman was just gone in just two months.
“I never used that as excuse.
“We all made mistakes and we own up to them.”
Corcoran escaped overseas to grieve in private when the supplements program went into overdrive and he recalls telling Hird by text not to let laypeople inject the players as it always causes trouble.
Corcoran was later charged along with Hird, assistant coach Mark “Bomber” Thompson and club doctor Bruce Reid for bringing the game into disrepute.
Hamilton was his superior, but like fitness boss Dean Robinson, was never charged by the AFL or ASADA.
From the early days of the investigation, Corcoran sensed the AFL’s desperation to save the players from suspension and instead nail club officials.
He singles out the ASADA interim report used by the AFL to punish Essendon on the eve of the 2013 finals.
“The damned interim report — it remains to this day a combination of the truth, half truths and lies,” Corcoran said.
“Disaffected Essendon staff, deregistered practitioners and even convicted criminals gave evidence that was simply inaccurate.
“None of its content was tested or cross-examined and it portrayed a lopsided view of the situation.”
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Looking back, he said a supplements program designed to give Essendon’s players a “one per cent edge” was poorly policed and trust was badly breached.
“I remember Dean Robinson had convinced the doctor that supplements that were taken by injection were more effective than supplements that passed through the gut,” he said.
“That was the beginning. Once that happened it opened Pandora’s box ...
“It was the beginning of the nightmare.”
As for Hird, Corcoran said punishment was warranted, but not a life sentence.
He said Hird was never charged by ASADA because they could not build a substantive case against him.
“Once he had been penalised it was time to back off and leave him alone,” Corcoran said.
“But as we have seen in other situations, that’s not the way they operate.”
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