I’ve reached the last stage.
Acceptance.
Whatever happens, and despite what I believe are the best efforts of all involved at Essendon I don’t think it will be what we would hope for, history won’t judge us over the next two days.
History will judge the key players in this over the course of years.
It’s not much to hang your hat on, but I have no doubt that in time the real heroes and villains in this will be recognised.
And forever.
He's got a lot more patience and hope in people than anyone I knowThat was pure catharsis, listening to him speak. Felt so much emotion, and so much peace in my turbulent essendon heart seeing him like that.
You know what struck me the most?
The way he treated the PRESS with respect and patience. The same press who have been tearing him down daily, calling him a narcissus, he had every right to rip into them.... I hope they took a lesson for it.
But
The interesting thing is who he was talking to.
Not Wilson
Not Yobbo
Not Stevens, or Healy, or Hinds or anyone
They're all *far* too important to actually go to a footy coach's presser, even if he's their golden goose.
Hard to imagine any of them looking in the eye, or taking the same line if they deigned to do so
Cowards.
Jake Nial was there.
Made the mistake of checking BF thread about Hird' presser.
The third poster just likened Hird to Hitler. Wow. Just Wow.
If it's called Big Footy, how come all their members are so small?
He's got a lot more patience and hope in people than anyone I knowThat was pure catharsis, listening to him speak. Felt so much emotion, and so much peace in my turbulent essendon heart seeing him like that.
You know what struck me the most?
The way he treated the PRESS with respect and patience. The same press who have been tearing him down daily, calling him a narcissus, he had every right to rip into them.... I hope they took a lesson for it.
But
The interesting thing is who he was talking to.
Not Wilson
Not Yobbo
Not Stevens, or Healy, or Hinds or anyone
They're all *far* too important to actually go to a footy coach's presser, even if he's their golden goose.
Hard to imagine any of them looking in the eye, or taking the same line if they deigned to do so
Cowards.
Jake Nial was there.
Made the mistake of checking BF thread about Hird' presser.
The third poster just likened Hird to Hitler. Wow. Just Wow.
If it's called Big Footy, how come all their members are so small?
They've got big egos and small minds
So what was the BIG announcement on Hird all about? Did l miss anything?
James Hird is an absolute champion. I will never stop supporting him!
After all, he is our future premiership coach.
For anyone who has asked for him to resign needs to have a good look at them selfs, this man has given more to this football club than most people should.
Amazing. He has every right to eviscerate the press and rigourously defend himself.
He takes the high road. No man under this kind of duress could be so dignified.
We must defend him to the death.
He is an amazing man.
Now that the moderators have closed down another ASADA thread here is the latest Bruce Francis Article: (worth considering)
TAKING AUSTRALIAN OUT OF THE AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
It is a dangerous thing when free people become slaves to an ideology, particularly an ideology that regards money as more important than the rights of free people, where bullying is normal workaday practice, where the assassination of a person's character is done as ruthlessly as a hit man killing an underworld rival.
It is a dangerous thing for the presidents of AFL clubs, 17 in number, to form a collective against the 18th club, particularly when the outside world knows they were railroaded into it by a system that owes more to Orwell than to one of the basic tenets of sport – fair play.
Dangerous, too, because those 17 men, yes all men, interesting that too, must be aware in the back of their minds that the treatment meted out to club number 18 could one day come their way, and they would be left alone to fend for themselves as their fellow presidents gang up against them and their club.
David Koch, Peter Gordon, Colin Carter, you could all one-day find yourself subjected to the same hate-mail as Paul Little.
Ken Hinkley, Brendan McCartney and Chris Scott could see confidential documents and their mobile phones handed to an investigator because of a claim splashed on the front page of a newspaper.
Couldn‘t happen to us ... bet they would have said that at Essendon seven months ago.
When the bully gets away with it once, he‘ll always try to get away with it.
Ask yourself this.
How would your wife, your children, your parents, cope with the level of character assassination being levelled against Paul Little, James Hird and co?
"Mum and Dad, it's just not that way at all."
But it is that way; it says so on the television every night.
How would you cope with Caroline Wilson and Patrick Smith writing the same hateful words every day, particularly when you believe they have been leaked information, when you have been expected to be silent?
How would you cope with the most vexatious charges being laid against you, and then being made public when a normal court would dismiss them in short order?
How would you cope with a situation where the prosecutor, jury and judge (the AFL) claims it has an open mind about Hird and Essendon‘s guilt, has been trying to do deals about punishment for weeks if not months?
How would you cope with the knowledge that the AFL‘s governance flaws in health and safety appear to you far worse than yours, yet you are in the dock to be judged by the organisation whose own actions/inactions contributed to the saga?
How would you cope with Eddie McGuire letting a woman cry on air for an excruciatingly extended period of time about the drug her son took, when the anti-doping authority, ASADA, couldn‘t find any evidence to issue infraction notices after a six month investigation?
How would you cope with feeling betrayed by a system and the perpetrators of that betrayal, despite possibly breaking the law, being allowed to continue with their betrayal, unabated?
People are wondering how we got to this in Australian football.
We got here because selflessness has been replaced by selfishness – a greed so appalling that it demands that individuals be sacrificed to what is laughingly called the greater good.
You all should be doing your best as individuals to ensure Essendon and James Hird receive natural justice rather than seeming to be scared of alienating Mr Demetriou and Mr Fitzpatrick.
You would all be much better people if you embraced the ideals espoused in the following three anecdotes:
My father spent eight months in a hole with four mates (400 yards from the nearest Allied soldier) in Tobruk in WWII. He was shot up at El Alamein and his four mates stayed with him for six hours holding the Germans at bay until they were rescued. The same as Dad would have done for them.
That‘s how it was with that generation.
Our family motto was based on James Russell Lowell‘s poem Stanzas of Freedom:
They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak
They are slaves who dare not be, in the right with two or three
In 1970, the New South Wales Cricket Association banned its players from wearing adidas cricket boots. The NSW players were angry about this decision. However, captain, John Benaud, told his players that under no circumstances were they to wear the banned boots, though he intended to do so. John Benaud was banned. He risked his career for principle and his brother Richie Benaud resigned as a life member of the NSW Cricket Association.
I can‘t recall my father ever expressing disappointment with me about anything – not about my Smiths Chips and Coca-Cola diet, nor my lackadaisical attitude to training and fielding, nor my relaxed attitude to university studies.
However, when he learnt that I didn‘t stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches with John Benaud he gave me a tongue lashing that Ron Barassi would have been proud of. Although I was only 21, and had some potential to go on with cricket, he told me a team sport obviously wasn't my go and that I should consider playing an individual sport such as tennis, golf or ten pin bowling. He gave me a week to think about it. I didn‘t need a week. I knew he was right.
In 1977, more than 20 Australian cricket players had signed to play World Series Cricket. Rod Marsh was not one of them. Rod had a huge decision to make. Should he stay with the establishment and receive the most prestigious job in Australia – the captaincy of the Australian cricket team - or should he stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his mates and join WSC. Rod made the biggest sacrifice of those who joined WSC by foregoing the opportunity to be the Australian captain.
WSC was a turning point for Australian sport. You, your club and your players have benefitted enormously from the stand those WSC cricketers made against authoritarian sporting regimes.
Sadly, they too, had to resort to the courts to receive the freedoms to which they were so clearly entitled.
You have also benefitted from our Diggers who went to war to ensure Australia is the freest country in the world.
Freedom ...just think about that word for a moment, of the men and women like my dad, probably some of your dads or grand dads, who suffered enormous privations, or even paid the ultimate sacrifice, as it is known.
What would they make of your mob mentality now, herded into a collective thinking seemingly by fear and perhaps even a desire to cherry pick the best Essendon players?
Imagine if the Diggers had let fear overwhelm them as the bombs were raining down and the bullets were flying.
You would not enjoy the freedoms you have now. In honour of their sacrifice it is time for you to reflect on what is now being sacrificed, seemingly for something so utterly unworthy as a media deal with a Pay TV network, sponsorship deals with gambling companies, and a need to save the Australian Crime Commission and Justice Minister, Jason Clare, and former Sports Minister, Kate Lundy, from embarrassment.
The Rats of Tobruk who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and there were Australian football men among them – such as Ron Barassi senior - would be turning in the grave at the actions of those in the AFL who daily are deserting their mates.
It is time you embraced the ideals in these three anecdotes and supported James Hird and Essendon‘s right to natural justice – shoulder-to-shoulder.
Otherwise you become nothing more than a slave of the worst and most cowardly type - those who would not dare to be, in the right with two or three.
Here‘s two more things to ponder.
Mr Demetriou‘s right to sit in judgement of James Hird has long ago evaporated.
First, he declared the “Bombers would not get a soft landingâ€.
Second, if James Hird‘s version of the infamous Demetriou-Evans phone call is accepted by the ACC, or by the Victorian Supreme Court, Andrew Demetriou himself could purportedly be subjected to criminal charges.
Even Stevie Wonder and Kumar Dharmasena could see that Demetriou couldn‘t be objective in these circumstances.
Forget everything else for a second, your acceptance of Demetriou sitting in judgment on Hird is indefensible and will leave a stain on your characters and legacies forever.
Didn‘t it occur to you that if Fitzpatrick and Demetriou could not only convince you in a short meeting that Hird and Essendon were guilty, but also what the punishment should be, that justice for Hird & Co wouldn‘t seen to be done in a hearing that Fitzpatrick and Demetriou were on the jury?
To demand that Demetriou stand down would require courage on the part of the clubs that they aren‘t exactly famous for displaying. Yet courage should be a central theme of the game at all levels.
One of the reasons we love Australian football so much is because of the courage of the players. Every week, they back back into packs, or throw their body at the ball. When one of their team-mates gets whacked, they don‘t back away, they rush to his aid, ready to accept a fine or suspension. It is writ large on every coaches‘ whiteboard in the AFL – get around your mates, stick up for them – if they pick one of us, they pick all of us.
The seemingly craven behaviour in the face of bullying of the 17 club presidents is a deeply disturbing thing for those of us who cherish what the likes of my dad and Ron Barassi‘s dad fought for.
When people with leadership roles in the game in this country show so little courage, perhaps they forfeit the privilege of having the word Australian in the title of their game.
Bruce Francis
23 August 2013
He's got a lot more patience and hope in people than anyone I knowThat was pure catharsis, listening to him speak. Felt so much emotion, and so much peace in my turbulent essendon heart seeing him like that.
You know what struck me the most?
The way he treated the PRESS with respect and patience. The same press who have been tearing him down daily, calling him a narcissus, he had every right to rip into them.... I hope they took a lesson for it.
But
The interesting thing is who he was talking to.
Not Wilson
Not Yobbo
Not Stevens, or Healy, or Hinds or anyone
They're all *far* too important to actually go to a footy coach's presser, even if he's their golden goose.
Hard to imagine any of them looking in the eye, or taking the same line if they deigned to do so
Cowards.
Jake Nial was there.
Made the mistake of checking BF thread about Hird' presser.
The third poster just likened Hird to Hitler. Wow. Just Wow.
If it's called Big Footy, how come all their members are so small?
They've got big egos and small minds
It was a small room - their egos wouldn't fit!
Now that the moderators have closed down another ASADA thread here is the latest Bruce Francis Article: (worth considering)
TAKING AUSTRALIAN OUT OF THE AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
It is a dangerous thing when free people become slaves to an ideology, particularly an ideology that regards money as more important than the rights of free people, where bullying is normal workaday practice, where the assassination of a person's character is done as ruthlessly as a hit man killing an underworld rival.
It is a dangerous thing for the presidents of AFL clubs, 17 in number, to form a collective against the 18th club, particularly when the outside world knows they were railroaded into it by a system that owes more to Orwell than to one of the basic tenets of sport – fair play.
Dangerous, too, because those 17 men, yes all men, interesting that too, must be aware in the back of their minds that the treatment meted out to club number 18 could one day come their way, and they would be left alone to fend for themselves as their fellow presidents gang up against them and their club.
David Koch, Peter Gordon, Colin Carter, you could all one-day find yourself subjected to the same hate-mail as Paul Little.
Ken Hinkley, Brendan McCartney and Chris Scott could see confidential documents and their mobile phones handed to an investigator because of a claim splashed on the front page of a newspaper.
Couldn‘t happen to us ... bet they would have said that at Essendon seven months ago.
When the bully gets away with it once, he‘ll always try to get away with it.
Ask yourself this.
How would your wife, your children, your parents, cope with the level of character assassination being levelled against Paul Little, James Hird and co?
"Mum and Dad, it's just not that way at all."
But it is that way; it says so on the television every night.
How would you cope with Caroline Wilson and Patrick Smith writing the same hateful words every day, particularly when you believe they have been leaked information, when you have been expected to be silent?
How would you cope with the most vexatious charges being laid against you, and then being made public when a normal court would dismiss them in short order?
How would you cope with a situation where the prosecutor, jury and judge (the AFL) claims it has an open mind about Hird and Essendon‘s guilt, has been trying to do deals about punishment for weeks if not months?
How would you cope with the knowledge that the AFL‘s governance flaws in health and safety appear to you far worse than yours, yet you are in the dock to be judged by the organisation whose own actions/inactions contributed to the saga?
How would you cope with Eddie McGuire letting a woman cry on air for an excruciatingly extended period of time about the drug her son took, when the anti-doping authority, ASADA, couldn‘t find any evidence to issue infraction notices after a six month investigation?
How would you cope with feeling betrayed by a system and the perpetrators of that betrayal, despite possibly breaking the law, being allowed to continue with their betrayal, unabated?
People are wondering how we got to this in Australian football.
We got here because selflessness has been replaced by selfishness – a greed so appalling that it demands that individuals be sacrificed to what is laughingly called the greater good.
You all should be doing your best as individuals to ensure Essendon and James Hird receive natural justice rather than seeming to be scared of alienating Mr Demetriou and Mr Fitzpatrick.
You would all be much better people if you embraced the ideals espoused in the following three anecdotes:
My father spent eight months in a hole with four mates (400 yards from the nearest Allied soldier) in Tobruk in WWII. He was shot up at El Alamein and his four mates stayed with him for six hours holding the Germans at bay until they were rescued. The same as Dad would have done for them.
That‘s how it was with that generation.
Our family motto was based on James Russell Lowell‘s poem Stanzas of Freedom:
They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak
They are slaves who dare not be, in the right with two or three
In 1970, the New South Wales Cricket Association banned its players from wearing adidas cricket boots. The NSW players were angry about this decision. However, captain, John Benaud, told his players that under no circumstances were they to wear the banned boots, though he intended to do so. John Benaud was banned. He risked his career for principle and his brother Richie Benaud resigned as a life member of the NSW Cricket Association.
I can‘t recall my father ever expressing disappointment with me about anything – not about my Smiths Chips and Coca-Cola diet, nor my lackadaisical attitude to training and fielding, nor my relaxed attitude to university studies.
However, when he learnt that I didn‘t stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches with John Benaud he gave me a tongue lashing that Ron Barassi would have been proud of. Although I was only 21, and had some potential to go on with cricket, he told me a team sport obviously wasn't my go and that I should consider playing an individual sport such as tennis, golf or ten pin bowling. He gave me a week to think about it. I didn‘t need a week. I knew he was right.
In 1977, more than 20 Australian cricket players had signed to play World Series Cricket. Rod Marsh was not one of them. Rod had a huge decision to make. Should he stay with the establishment and receive the most prestigious job in Australia – the captaincy of the Australian cricket team - or should he stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his mates and join WSC. Rod made the biggest sacrifice of those who joined WSC by foregoing the opportunity to be the Australian captain.
WSC was a turning point for Australian sport. You, your club and your players have benefitted enormously from the stand those WSC cricketers made against authoritarian sporting regimes.
Sadly, they too, had to resort to the courts to receive the freedoms to which they were so clearly entitled.
You have also benefitted from our Diggers who went to war to ensure Australia is the freest country in the world.
Freedom ...just think about that word for a moment, of the men and women like my dad, probably some of your dads or grand dads, who suffered enormous privations, or even paid the ultimate sacrifice, as it is known.
What would they make of your mob mentality now, herded into a collective thinking seemingly by fear and perhaps even a desire to cherry pick the best Essendon players?
Imagine if the Diggers had let fear overwhelm them as the bombs were raining down and the bullets were flying.
You would not enjoy the freedoms you have now. In honour of their sacrifice it is time for you to reflect on what is now being sacrificed, seemingly for something so utterly unworthy as a media deal with a Pay TV network, sponsorship deals with gambling companies, and a need to save the Australian Crime Commission and Justice Minister, Jason Clare, and former Sports Minister, Kate Lundy, from embarrassment.
The Rats of Tobruk who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and there were Australian football men among them – such as Ron Barassi senior - would be turning in the grave at the actions of those in the AFL who daily are deserting their mates.
It is time you embraced the ideals in these three anecdotes and supported James Hird and Essendon‘s right to natural justice – shoulder-to-shoulder.
Otherwise you become nothing more than a slave of the worst and most cowardly type - those who would not dare to be, in the right with two or three.
Here‘s two more things to ponder.
Mr Demetriou‘s right to sit in judgement of James Hird has long ago evaporated.
First, he declared the “Bombers would not get a soft landingâ€.
Second, if James Hird‘s version of the infamous Demetriou-Evans phone call is accepted by the ACC, or by the Victorian Supreme Court, Andrew Demetriou himself could purportedly be subjected to criminal charges.
Even Stevie Wonder and Kumar Dharmasena could see that Demetriou couldn‘t be objective in these circumstances.
Forget everything else for a second, your acceptance of Demetriou sitting in judgment on Hird is indefensible and will leave a stain on your characters and legacies forever.
Didn‘t it occur to you that if Fitzpatrick and Demetriou could not only convince you in a short meeting that Hird and Essendon were guilty, but also what the punishment should be, that justice for Hird & Co wouldn‘t seen to be done in a hearing that Fitzpatrick and Demetriou were on the jury?
To demand that Demetriou stand down would require courage on the part of the clubs that they aren‘t exactly famous for displaying. Yet courage should be a central theme of the game at all levels.
One of the reasons we love Australian football so much is because of the courage of the players. Every week, they back back into packs, or throw their body at the ball. When one of their team-mates gets whacked, they don‘t back away, they rush to his aid, ready to accept a fine or suspension. It is writ large on every coaches‘ whiteboard in the AFL – get around your mates, stick up for them – if they pick one of us, they pick all of us.
The seemingly craven behaviour in the face of bullying of the 17 club presidents is a deeply disturbing thing for those of us who cherish what the likes of my dad and Ron Barassi‘s dad fought for.
When people with leadership roles in the game in this country show so little courage, perhaps they forfeit the privilege of having the word Australian in the title of their game.
Bruce Francis
23 August 2013
That's a good read, pretty spot on.
Hird was amazing. About as candid as he could have been, I said last night, to me that wasn't the performance of a team that wasn't playing finals. And to me, that wasn't the presser of a coach standing down. He is a fighter, fight n Sir James.
To.
There were some ordinary tweets about him last night too, likening him to Hitler, Lance Armstrong etc. the man just butters up and gets on with it.
Not much press this morning about what was described by Luke Darcy and possibly one of the most amazing press conferences ever...
Another example of media manipulation sending work experience journos aswell. Why did channel 7 film the media when they usually dont? Think about it..
Bottom line is we will not get the press we deserve from last night...
If there was any doubt this is a story about abuse of power (in its many forms) then you should push those doubts aside.
It's a pity Rebecca Wilson didn't see that press conference before she had her random spray at the "now dis-credited Essendon coach".
I always reserve my pity for those who are deserving.
James Hird has more class in his little finger than some of those media scumbags.
James spoke beautifully..
Now that the moderators have closed down another ASADA thread here is the latest Bruce Francis Article: (worth considering)
TAKING AUSTRALIAN OUT OF THE AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
It is a dangerous thing when free people become slaves to an ideology, particularly an ideology that regards money as more important than the rights of free people, where bullying is normal workaday practice, where the assassination of a person's character is done as ruthlessly as a hit man killing an underworld rival.
It is a dangerous thing for the presidents of AFL clubs, 17 in number, to form a collective against the 18th club, particularly when the outside world knows they were railroaded into it by a system that owes more to Orwell than to one of the basic tenets of sport – fair play.
Dangerous, too, because those 17 men, yes all men, interesting that too, must be aware in the back of their minds that the treatment meted out to club number 18 could one day come their way, and they would be left alone to fend for themselves as their fellow presidents gang up against them and their club.
David Koch, Peter Gordon, Colin Carter, you could all one-day find yourself subjected to the same hate-mail as Paul Little.
Ken Hinkley, Brendan McCartney and Chris Scott could see confidential documents and their mobile phones handed to an investigator because of a claim splashed on the front page of a newspaper.
Couldn‘t happen to us ... bet they would have said that at Essendon seven months ago.
When the bully gets away with it once, he‘ll always try to get away with it.
Ask yourself this.
How would your wife, your children, your parents, cope with the level of character assassination being levelled against Paul Little, James Hird and co?
"Mum and Dad, it's just not that way at all."
But it is that way; it says so on the television every night.
How would you cope with Caroline Wilson and Patrick Smith writing the same hateful words every day, particularly when you believe they have been leaked information, when you have been expected to be silent?
How would you cope with the most vexatious charges being laid against you, and then being made public when a normal court would dismiss them in short order?
How would you cope with a situation where the prosecutor, jury and judge (the AFL) claims it has an open mind about Hird and Essendon‘s guilt, has been trying to do deals about punishment for weeks if not months?
How would you cope with the knowledge that the AFL‘s governance flaws in health and safety appear to you far worse than yours, yet you are in the dock to be judged by the organisation whose own actions/inactions contributed to the saga?
How would you cope with Eddie McGuire letting a woman cry on air for an excruciatingly extended period of time about the drug her son took, when the anti-doping authority, ASADA, couldn‘t find any evidence to issue infraction notices after a six month investigation?
How would you cope with feeling betrayed by a system and the perpetrators of that betrayal, despite possibly breaking the law, being allowed to continue with their betrayal, unabated?
People are wondering how we got to this in Australian football.
We got here because selflessness has been replaced by selfishness – a greed so appalling that it demands that individuals be sacrificed to what is laughingly called the greater good.
You all should be doing your best as individuals to ensure Essendon and James Hird receive natural justice rather than seeming to be scared of alienating Mr Demetriou and Mr Fitzpatrick.
You would all be much better people if you embraced the ideals espoused in the following three anecdotes:
My father spent eight months in a hole with four mates (400 yards from the nearest Allied soldier) in Tobruk in WWII. He was shot up at El Alamein and his four mates stayed with him for six hours holding the Germans at bay until they were rescued. The same as Dad would have done for them.
That‘s how it was with that generation.
Our family motto was based on James Russell Lowell‘s poem Stanzas of Freedom:
They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak
They are slaves who dare not be, in the right with two or three
In 1970, the New South Wales Cricket Association banned its players from wearing adidas cricket boots. The NSW players were angry about this decision. However, captain, John Benaud, told his players that under no circumstances were they to wear the banned boots, though he intended to do so. John Benaud was banned. He risked his career for principle and his brother Richie Benaud resigned as a life member of the NSW Cricket Association.
I can‘t recall my father ever expressing disappointment with me about anything – not about my Smiths Chips and Coca-Cola diet, nor my lackadaisical attitude to training and fielding, nor my relaxed attitude to university studies.
However, when he learnt that I didn‘t stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches with John Benaud he gave me a tongue lashing that Ron Barassi would have been proud of. Although I was only 21, and had some potential to go on with cricket, he told me a team sport obviously wasn't my go and that I should consider playing an individual sport such as tennis, golf or ten pin bowling. He gave me a week to think about it. I didn‘t need a week. I knew he was right.
In 1977, more than 20 Australian cricket players had signed to play World Series Cricket. Rod Marsh was not one of them. Rod had a huge decision to make. Should he stay with the establishment and receive the most prestigious job in Australia – the captaincy of the Australian cricket team - or should he stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his mates and join WSC. Rod made the biggest sacrifice of those who joined WSC by foregoing the opportunity to be the Australian captain.
WSC was a turning point for Australian sport. You, your club and your players have benefitted enormously from the stand those WSC cricketers made against authoritarian sporting regimes.
Sadly, they too, had to resort to the courts to receive the freedoms to which they were so clearly entitled.
You have also benefitted from our Diggers who went to war to ensure Australia is the freest country in the world.
Freedom ...just think about that word for a moment, of the men and women like my dad, probably some of your dads or grand dads, who suffered enormous privations, or even paid the ultimate sacrifice, as it is known.
What would they make of your mob mentality now, herded into a collective thinking seemingly by fear and perhaps even a desire to cherry pick the best Essendon players?
Imagine if the Diggers had let fear overwhelm them as the bombs were raining down and the bullets were flying.
You would not enjoy the freedoms you have now. In honour of their sacrifice it is time for you to reflect on what is now being sacrificed, seemingly for something so utterly unworthy as a media deal with a Pay TV network, sponsorship deals with gambling companies, and a need to save the Australian Crime Commission and Justice Minister, Jason Clare, and former Sports Minister, Kate Lundy, from embarrassment.
The Rats of Tobruk who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and there were Australian football men among them – such as Ron Barassi senior - would be turning in the grave at the actions of those in the AFL who daily are deserting their mates.
It is time you embraced the ideals in these three anecdotes and supported James Hird and Essendon‘s right to natural justice – shoulder-to-shoulder.
Otherwise you become nothing more than a slave of the worst and most cowardly type - those who would not dare to be, in the right with two or three.
Here‘s two more things to ponder.
Mr Demetriou‘s right to sit in judgement of James Hird has long ago evaporated.
First, he declared the “Bombers would not get a soft landingâ€.
Second, if James Hird‘s version of the infamous Demetriou-Evans phone call is accepted by the ACC, or by the Victorian Supreme Court, Andrew Demetriou himself could purportedly be subjected to criminal charges.
Even Stevie Wonder and Kumar Dharmasena could see that Demetriou couldn‘t be objective in these circumstances.
Forget everything else for a second, your acceptance of Demetriou sitting in judgment on Hird is indefensible and will leave a stain on your characters and legacies forever.
Didn‘t it occur to you that if Fitzpatrick and Demetriou could not only convince you in a short meeting that Hird and Essendon were guilty, but also what the punishment should be, that justice for Hird & Co wouldn‘t seen to be done in a hearing that Fitzpatrick and Demetriou were on the jury?
To demand that Demetriou stand down would require courage on the part of the clubs that they aren‘t exactly famous for displaying. Yet courage should be a central theme of the game at all levels.
One of the reasons we love Australian football so much is because of the courage of the players. Every week, they back back into packs, or throw their body at the ball. When one of their team-mates gets whacked, they don‘t back away, they rush to his aid, ready to accept a fine or suspension. It is writ large on every coaches‘ whiteboard in the AFL – get around your mates, stick up for them – if they pick one of us, they pick all of us.
The seemingly craven behaviour in the face of bullying of the 17 club presidents is a deeply disturbing thing for those of us who cherish what the likes of my dad and Ron Barassi‘s dad fought for.
When people with leadership roles in the game in this country show so little courage, perhaps they forfeit the privilege of having the word Australian in the title of their game.
Bruce Francis
23 August 2013
WOW.
A standing ovation from me, Mr Bruce Francis.
has anyone got a link to the Bruce Francis article/blog? Thanks
GO BOMBERS!!
Cried when the siren sounded last night.
Cried during the presser
Cried during the extended presser
Cried reading this.
*Note to self. Stop crying, it’s embarrassing!
great article by Francis
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFGu_DOiZqc[/media]
So impressed with the Press Conference - what an inspiration. But what a sad person is Sam Lane
Not one question about the game.
Unbelievable !
Given the last six months, its not THAT unbelievable.