Not correct.
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Just like BS’s apprenticeship.
Sinecure with the AFL after failing at North and then parachuted into EFC to keep JH out.
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Parachuted into EFC to keep our Lords and Masters at AFL house happy.
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I agree it needs a roof, i also read today they’re going to make the roof to make cricket happy, but cricket as usual won’t chip in and are using their same line as the Brisbane stadium ‘content is our contribution’. Interesting considering the afl chip in and bring more content to oval stadiums around Australia than they do. The ultimate free loaders, along with the nrl and soccer in rectangular stadiums.
So an apprenticeship is being the manager with an experienced person below you in the hierarchy?
Semantics.
Bomber was the senior assistant, purely there as a sounding board and to provide guidance.
You don’t have to like it, but he’s already got more than enough experience to clear your ‘apprenticeship’ threshold.
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There’s a lot of examples of new coaches - whether they played at a high level or not - taking on too much responsibility and not trusting enough of their staff to do the jobs they are meant to do.
Hird probably did the opposite and trusted the wrong people. I don’t believe it was a management issue for him. We allowed the wrong people into the football club.
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We need to be careful with these kinds of statements.
Every club had a ‘supplements program’ so the statement above seems ludicrous to begin with.
It was a long time ago, and the entire saga was swamped by rumour, misinformation and corrupt manipulation. If we’re going to add something to the Saga Historical Account, I think it needs to be supported with a solid reference.
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And that’s the kicker - we’ll never know what could have been.
With his high business nous, high footy IQ and the level of respect he’d have from his playing days - he did seem to have all the ingredients and a pretty good basis to be an outstanding coach.
But the saga and its other subsequent agendas ruined it all. And it’s sad - a bit like never knowing what that 1999 GF could have been if the best two teams had of made it - especially after that R17 match.
Gotta say footy classified with less Eddy and more Hirdy (bit of Cal in there too) makes for a massive improvement.
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To be fair, Scott was an assistant at the Pies for some years before becoming Norf coach (and blowing up their list and culture so comprehensively that they still haven’t recovered coming up on a decade later, so of course we hired him…,)
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This triggered me. No Intel. But what else was in play?
Same with the Eddie and Jimmy podcast the last 2 week’s. It’s been superb with hird and bartel, they have great chemistry.
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I didn’t realise that. Cheers, I’ll download the latest couple of eps for a listen.
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so bomber advised hirdy not to use the supplements program that he implemented so successfully at geelong, yet brought the people who organised the supplements program with him from geelong? im curious to know what they were brought along for if not for the program?
How do you know this?
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He should have been the apprentice to Bomba back in 2010, but Bomba was going through his own issues, at the very least he wouldn’t have been the one with “whom the buck stopped” and could have slid into the top job in the wake of the implosion and potentially led the rebuild with less of the baggage.
As it is now, he will likely never come back to the AFL in a large role or in a coaching capacity, I can only see him coming back to a coaches box in a world where Mark McVeigh becomes head coach somewhere.
Personally I think he’d make a better football administrator than coach at this point, which is the only way I see him coming back to Essendon
Doesn’t ‘know’ anything - Just a typical pathetic ignorant smear.
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If that is true and not just a saga story - Hird probably thought the program was ok at Geelong so must have been AFL approved.
Another example of one rule for the cats and another for us
Actually thinking back, the AFL would have been ok with it until that political announcement about the ‘ the worst day in sport’ or something like that.
Then they shat the bed and went into preservation mode and threw EFC under a bus.
But at the end of the day there was no actual evidence that Essendon did anything wrong.
It would be nice for the truth to come out one day
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Whilst i agree with all that, if he was actually experienced he would have likely thought the program was a bit odd from what goes on elsewhere. Instead he backed in ‘if these guys worked at Geelong and bomber had no issues with them, they must be alright’. Again, a lack of experience in seeing how clubs and sports science programs worked likely had him thinking it’s the norm and not questioning it like a more experienced guy in the system would of.
Wasn’t his job to manage those implementing the program nor have it compared to others, was Paul Hamiltons as football operations manager
Nor was it his suggestion to run a program, but when it was he made his thoughts clear
….
Hird revealed that fitness coach Dean Robinson and sports scientist Stephen Dank were not the club's first choices in 2011 to run what it thought would be a cutting edge supplements program.He said the preferred candidate, working in the English Premier League, could not join Essendon until May 2012.
“Had we secured this preferred applicant then the experience of the Essendon Football Club and 34 young men would have been very different,” he said.
Dank had assured the club the supplements were compliant. He had even presented supporting evidence
“Instead the sliding door we walked through introduced Essendon to the world’s of Dean Robinson and, at Robinson’s suggestion, Stephen Dank.”
Hird said he was comfortable running a supplements program on the proviso the substances were AFL and ASADA approved, players would not be harmed and gave informed consent, and club doctor Bruce Reid gave final approval.
“The supplements program then, from my perspective, had sound logic, important goals, the people the club had engaged presented as credible and successful, the structure for the program was right and the protocol for decision-making and player welfare had integrity,” he said.
Hird wrote he trusted the governance of the program and the people directly in charge of administering it.
James Hird said disgraced former sports scientist Stephen Dank did not follow club protocol. (AAP: Julian Smith)
"I concentrated on my task as head coach, satisfied that the supplement piece of the high-performance puzzle at Essendon was compliant," he said.
Hird said he first learned in 2012 of Dr Reid’s concerns the protocol was not being followed.
“I re-emphasised the protocols that needed to be in place via email to Robinson. I was clear. Crystal clear,” he said.
"Importantly, to our knowledge at that time, this was the scope of the problem, because Dank had assured the club the supplements were compliant.
“He had even presented supporting evidence.”
Dank was later sacked, Robinson’s role scaled back and the supplements program modified so that only Dr Reid could administer injections.
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