Why Essendon needs coach James Hird to hold firm this week as they prepare to meet Richmond

JAMES Hird faces the second biggest challenge of his coaching career this weekend.

James Hird

JAMES Hird faces the second biggest challenge of his coaching career this weekend.

His greatest challenge was against Fremantle in Round 3, when he was under fierce scrutiny amid accusations he was a drug taker.

Accusations he has angrily denied.

That night, the players did it for the coach.

It was heroic stuff.

A mentality of "us against the world" had enveloped the club.

Hird was Braveheart and his players the willing Scotsmen.

The past week and a half, however, has splintered the group.

Where once there was unity, there are now questions and doubts.

The ASADA interviews have cut player after player from the herd - and from Hird - and the comforts of the group have been replaced by an interrogation of the individual.

Hird has continually assured them they will escape punishment.

Now, the players might not be so sure.

ASADA has been vigilant in its questioning.

What did you take? Who gave it to you? How many times were you injected? Did you agree to take
AOD-9604? Did you take banned drugs? Was it a laboratory? Did you keep it a secret?

Indeed, Hird lost his players to the investigation and ASADA policy dictates that he can't ask the players what they said.

He has to be wondering about their mindset.

The players have to be asking themselves, and each other, questions, and all of them would be subjected to stress from concerned girlfriends, wives and parents.

Not all of them would be confident in the outcome.

One parent has told the Herald Sun he is angry about his son being used as "guinea pig".

And we all know what mums are like.

Hird's challenge against Richmond is to restore unity.

In between interviews last week and this week, the Bombers were insipid against Brisbane.

Hird and the coaches don't know what happened.

They trained poorly, they said.

Why?

We don't know.

Against the Lions, the players were scatterbrains, unable to focus on the task at hand.

They lost the tackle count 72-49, playing as individuals and not for each other.

Hird's worth as coach is under constant examination, and the drugs scandal adds an unprecedented layer.

Others have said he should stand down or resign as the investigation plays out.

It's a ridiculous call, a headline grabber more than anything else.

The scandal keeps giving.

Every day this week, the Herald Sun has revealed a list of drugs, banned or otherwise, linked to sport scientist Stephen Dank and Essendon.

The players, meanwhile, are being grilled about a program the club told them they could trust.

No, Hird was right to stay on as coach.

They need him more than ever.