Someone mention Sarah? Original radio transcript, 22 August 2013.
’Essendon Player’s Mother On Triple M’
On Thursday morning a mother of an Essendon player called in anonymously to Triple M’s Hot Breakfast to vent her frustration with the Essendon supplement saga. The woman claiming to be the mother of one of the Essendon players says the supplement scandal is taking an unbearable toll on her family describing it as her worst nightmare as a parent.
She says it’s now at the point where her son’s thinking about walking away from football.
Sarah, which is not her real name, told Triple M’s Hot Breakfast Thursday morning that she fears her son has been used as a guinea pig.
EDDIE MCGUIRE: We let you have your say there because it is hugely emotional and we can feel you every step of the way on this. And youʼre quite right sometimes it gets down to lawyers and PR people and you forget about the people and the issues at home. Sarah, were you at the meeting at Essendon the other day?
SARAH: I wasnʼt, my son was there, my husband was there sorry.
EDDIE MCGUIRE: And are you happy with the information that you have been getting? Clearly you are taking a different point of view that it is not about saving the Essendon Football Club, it is about the processes that got them to this situation. So can you tell me what has been the agony around the dinner table, and you, your son and your husband are there and your talking, whatʼs the feeling?
SARAH: Itʼs the unknown Eddie. You know I talk to my son and I ask him questions whether he knows what he has been given. No answer, no knowledge. Half the things theyʼve been told, they havenʼt even been told what theyʼve been given. You know they donʼt know anything. They is only a few that are aware, that are completely aware of what they were injected. You know, they donʼt know.
EDDIE MCGUIRE: And you have not received any information at any of these briefings at all have you?
SARAH: No. Most who went to the meeting, when my husband went to the meeting the other night, the whole meeting was centred, the whole meeting at Essendon was centred from Essendonʼs point of view. All of it was from Essendonʼs point of view. And a lot of it was in, how can I say it, a lot of it was in legal speak so he just, you know the whole thing is about Essendonʼs point of view and I think people need to remember there are kids involved. James Hird can say what he likes and Mr Little can say what he likes and Mr Dank can say what he likes but I challenge them to inject their own children with the same substance and see whether they would do it willingly.
EDDIE MCGUIRE: Sarah thank you for calling this morning. Our phones, and our emails and our text and twitters have gone off the richter scale here just in their support of you as a mother and the sympathy that everybody has for you that you find yourself in this situation and quite obviously the desperation that you felt it compelling to ring us this morning on Triple Mʼs Hot Breakfast. Can you just give us an insight, one final question to you, as to why you felt compelled to ring us this morning anonymously, and we will protect your identity, but why you decided you needed to talk to somebody and to Triple Mʼs Hot Breakfast?
SARAH: Because Eddie, the parents havenʼt been given a voice. You know we go to meetings and we get told this is whatʼs happening, but we havenʼt been given a voice and you know, I commend Tim Watson for actually coming out and actually speaking to the media. But he is in the same situation. Heʼs a legend of the game. But he has also got a son playing there. So he is in an untenable situation as well. You know, the reason I rung is basically frustration. Frustration because weʼve been muzzled and a lot of our children have been muzzled.
EDDIE MCGUIRE: And Sarah can I ask you, weʼve seen the Bombers form dropping off, is that an obvious manifestation of what has happened?
SARAH: Yeah, my son has no, come game day there is no enthusiasm that was there. He used to jump out of bed. There is no enthusiasm. The enthusiasm is gone. And itʼs the unknown. Thereʼs fear. There is fear because he thinks well, you know, there is fear because he thinks well you know I may be rubbed out for three months, I may be rubbed out for a year and it is just the complete unknown. You donʼt know, plus the morale, regardless of whatever is actually put to the media, the morale is awful.
MICK MOLLOY: Sarah, Sarah can I ask, what would you like to happen now? As a parent, what would you like to see happen now?
SARAH: What I would like to happen now is I would like for the Essendon or ASADA or whoever to disclose everything that the individuals were given and for Essendon and Mr Little or whoever to admit, you know for whoever to admit that they did something wrong. Itʼs not about cheating. I donʼt actually think that the club went into this with cheating in mind. I actually think they did it thinking they could improve the health and fitness of their players. But it is the way they have gone about it. And you know, to get young men, not just my son, to get young men to sign documents, a waiver, you know that in itself, that in itself was a huge flag to me. You know if the club didnʼt think they had any issues, why get them to sign documents?
EDDIE MCGUIRE: Did you try and intervene with your son and say donʼt do it because of the documents? Did you have a family discussion about that Sarah?
SARAH: I only found out about the waiver after the fact. My son signed it because everybody else signed it.
LUKE DARCY: Sarah do you think the four people charged by the AFL should be punished, including James Hird?
SARAH: Well as I said before I donʼt think it is about cheating, I think the word cheating needs to be dropped. What they have done is they have done things that are unethical from a moral aspect there on, and that is bringing the game into disrepute. Whether they choose to believe it or not, they have brought Essendon and the game into disrepute. And they should acknowledge theyʼre wrong and as I said everything in the media that has been coming out of the club at the moment is all about Essendon, the board, Mr Little, itʼs all about James Hird. Nothing is about the future health concerns or future health repercussions about my child and every other parentʼs child that is playing in Essendon at the moment.
EDDIE MCGUIRE: Sarah, thank you for calling.
Then there is Eddie admitting he talked to Sarah for 30 minutes but had no idea what she was going to say on air - courtesy of Mark Robinson, HS, 25 June 2014.
So, after 24 hours of tit-for-tat between Essendon and the AFL, up pops “the
Essendon mother” on Triple M on Thursday, August 22.
“I spoke to her before she came on air extensively,” McGuire told SEN on Saturday. “And while she would absolutely not give me any information who she was, and I don’t know who she is, I was convinced enough to put her on air at a very volatile time.
“If she was an actress, she was the best actress in Australia.”
Challenged as to why he put her on air without knowing her identity, McGuire
likened her to being a newspaper source, although it was pointed out reporters usually knew the names of their sources.
“You’re going my journalistic integrity,” McGuire said.
McGuire said he “interviewed’’ her for a half-hour, and spoke to her three times, and then stressed it was himself and his producer who spoke to her.
McGuire said he spoke to the woman for 30 minutes, including input from a producer, and he insists he did not know what she was going to say on air.
“I didn’t know she was going to go the way she did,’’ he said. “It was a good
interview.”
Asked if it changed the landscape for Essendon, McGuire said: “I think it did.”
That is not in dispute. Whether she was a genuine caller is another story.