Again, I have sympathy for his actions at the time.
I have none for his actions since.
But hey.
Hahahaha. Rich guy’s money go brrrr.
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AFAIK, he never had a Heart Attack, but a “Breakdown”, or Anxiety attack.
If he did have a Coronary, … no one in the Media knew, and a Google search would indicate they never found out. 
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Tears. So good.
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Still a ■■■■.
Hepp can give him all the shakas he likes.
He’s still a ■■■■.
Of course, he can rectify that literally any time he likes.
Until then…
Further:
You can name the entire training ground after him.
You can give an annual award to the best administrative employee in his name.
He’ll still be a ■■■■.
Forever and always.
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I don’t know where you got that idea from. Like Gillon’s the good bloke and the only bad guy was big Fat Andy.
Gillon has a reputation of being a hard and tough negotiator. Try having reading the book Dean Bailey’s former coach of Melbourne wife wrote after his death. It may give you idea of what went on with the AFL and how they went after a bloke who was dying of cancer. Yep a real class act.
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Being hard & tough is fine. Being manipulative to the point of corrupting due process, vicious and dishonest is not. The AFL exec were the latter.
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Yes that’s right. I didn’t want to go into too much detail.
There are some people who go beyond vicious, who are almost sociopathic, cruel and brutal.
Dishonest he goes way beyond that.
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Classic Wim.
Always on the fence…
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Everyone should watch this interview, bloody legend.
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Yep watched, and shared.
New footy show on Channel 9 - 9 now digital channel 8pm Sunday night half an hour reviewing the round, low budget.
Shane Crawford host on full time half hour show with Artyon Wolley and a guest - James Hird asked to be regular panelist, hasnt said if he will be a permanent guest on there yet.
Full Time with Crawf , presented by AFL legend Shane Crawford and Nine News reporter Ayrton Woolley, will drop across digital channels at 8.30pm each Sunday, starting March 22. With a recap of the day’s footy action, Full Time with Crawf will also tackle the headlines and key talking points from the week, taking a look at post-match media conferences and bringing viewers up to date with the latest on injuries, reports and suspensions.
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Many knew that and are still aware of what went down.
To be seen to be doing the right thing, whether or not, it is actually happening as long as the public think it is. Always have a scapegoat ready to take the fall from grace. It was never about justice and it was never about being fair. It has the AFL stamped all over it. It was all about OPTICS.
As Fat Andy said, " We head hunted him and we hired because we didn’t want to have to negotiate with him. He’s known as “the Negotiator.” And; Gillon waited patiently for Fat Andy to vacate the chair.
Love you Hirdy.
Glad you and your family have found a better space. You all deserve it.
(I know I will never be able to forgive or forget all those craven oxygen thieves)
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Hird, Jobe and BJ were some people that this club hasn’t deserved over the last decade.
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Just watched this. Its been mentioned before many times but its a fkn disgrace what a lot of the AFL community, media and wider public did to James Hird and his family in particular. I’d bet there are other things that happened or were said to him or his family that he will never reveal. We almost lost this brilliant man to the saga and we are so lucky to have him around still.
When we finally win our next premiership it’ll be the most emotionally charged one the AFL community have ever seen, and I can’t wait for that day.
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This.
I almost want James and Jobe to be invited up to the presentation and hold the cup up.
…then give a big fark you AFL.
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An old article from 2000:
Against the odds, James Hird realises the dream of his life
How does it feel when a dream comes true? Since he was a little boy, James Hird has dreamt of holding up the premiership cup. For Essendon.
Except, that is, for a period of about 18 months when he stopped dreaming altogether. Depressed by the recurring foot and hamstring injuries that threatened to curtail a brilliant career, the Essendon captain woke each morning and could remember nothing.
On Saturday evening, when he dedicated his Norm Smith Medal to his teammates below him and to his wife and 16-month-old daughter, wife Tania was standing on the boundary line of the MCG knowing that her dreamer had returned.
“Tania taught me how to dream again,” Hird said. “For a long time I was too depressed, I didn’t let myself dream, but about a year ago the dream came back. Lately, as it got closer, I’ve tried not to, but it’s hard to control when you’re asleep.”
If Hird’s dream became a burden, then the burden has been lifted. “A huge fog in my head just cleared all of a sudden,” he said. “It was a huge pressure release, a huge burden off my back. And I’ve got to say, when I was a kid I dreamed of that moment every night.”
So how must he have felt 10 days ago as he stood in the Royal Children’s Hospital while his daughter lay in intensive care having suffered a seizure earlier in the day?
Hird was facing a preliminary final against Carlton the next day, but at that point doubted he would leave his daughter’s bedside.
At 10.30 that night, coach Kevin Sheedy arrived at the hospital having prematurely left the Melbourne-Kangaroos preliminary final. He never asked Hird whether he would be available for the Carlton game, just asked how he was.
It is an intriguing relationship between the two men. Sheedy, the biggest name in the game, who still cares desperately for Hird’s approval, and Hird, the superstar who at times has had to protect himself and his teammates from the coach, a coach he also knows has always been there in his hours of need.
It has been said at Essendon this season that just as every person carries their own baggage, Hird and Sheedy have been carrying each other’s for years. Perhaps, as they stood together in hospital that night, the baggage was finally handed back.
It was only just before midday the following day that Hird decided that his daughter’s situation was safe enough for him to leave. He did enough against Carlton when the game was in the balance to justify his spot, but there were times when his mind was in another place.
Perhaps Hird and Sheedy truly became a team after the final siren on Saturday when they embraced and agreed that they deserved all this.
Hird said of his coach: “We’re not as different as he thinks we are.”
Except that Hird is clearly not as comfortable in the spotlight as Sheedy. As the dream drew closer to reality on Brownlow Medal night, Hird avoided the occasion to spend a night at home with Stephanie, just out of hospital. But he is the type who would have been more than happy to miss getting up on the stage with all the other past winners.
Hird is good-looking and well-spoken, but television has never suited him as well as the MCG. As the quarter-time siren sounded on Saturday, he thought twice about marking at centre-half forward and went for a one-hander instead, exhibiting the grace of the ballet dancer, a pursuit he briefly followed as a teenager.
There isn’t much in football that James Hird, at 27, hasn’t won now. The 1996 Brownlow, three times an all-Australian, three Essendon best-and-fairests, two flags, the premiership captaincy and the one that every footballer wants to win - the Norm Smith Medal.
Being an Essendon man - whose grandfather Allan played 102 games in succession for the Bombers and was later president of the club, and whose father Allan also played for Essendon during the mid-1960s - Hird also made it clear that it was special to be the skipper who led the Bombers to their 16th flag.
“There’s always a question mark on players who don’t come up in big games, so to be recognised in that way was enormous,” Hird said of the Norm Smith Medal.
Of course, there were other question marks on Hird, too. In the three years before 2000, he had managed only 22 games out of a possible 69. His 1999 season ended in round two and, up until Saturday, perhaps the most memorable frame of Hird’s face was also a tearful one, sitting on the bench that autumn night last year and knowing his season - and maybe much more - was over.
Towards the end of 1999, Sheedy had virtually decided to allow Michael Long to retain the Essendon captaincy with Hird as his co-captain. There was a genuine fear at Windy Hill that Hird would be unable to see out this season. Worse still, that his best was behind him. This hurt Hird, who had begun to believe that he would come back.
Coming back as a leader was another proposition entirely. Bombers fitness expert John Quinn famously rattled Hird on the end-of-season trip in Spain last year, telling him it was time to think of his teammates who looked up to him and to stop dwelling on his own problems.
Hird stewed over this and ignored Quinn, a close friend, for two days before apologising and telling him he was right. The Bombers captain said this week he was lucky to be surrounded by close friends who enjoyed taking the mickey out of him.
This was the year Hird truly became a great captain. He singled out Mark Johnson and Dean Solomon as two players “living their lives in the fast lane” with whom he had worked closely this season. And the Essendon hierarchy believe that John Barnes’ resurrection has not been without Hird’s regular and personal input.
Hird said yesterday that the 2000 season had erased all his pain. “It makes up for everything that’s happened and it made every bit of it worthwhile. In fact, I would go through it all again to achieve what we did on Saturday.”
And was it like his dream when he held up the cup?
“It was better,” said the captain.
.
Oh, and did I mention this piece was written by SWMNBN?
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Perhaps the new track and trace technology will tell us who she came in contact with after this to make her so bitter and twisted towards our Jimmy 13 years later.
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