any more clues to that enticing snippet?
any more clues to that enticing snippet?
Thatâs almost my favourite ever James Hird quote.
â â â â â â â 10/10 quote holy â â â â .
This one is a little easier to read
Thanks. Looks like Mick wants blood.
Nothing new but itâs great to get it out there and push for a Senate enquiry.
Should be a fun 48 hours1
Thanks. Looks like Mick wants blood.Nothing new but itâs great to get it out there and push for a Senate enquiry.
Maybe nothing new. To us. But putting it on the front page of the Hun might make some of the non believers and haters start to contemplate whether the AFaiL and itâs approach to the SAGA can be believed/tolerated any longer. Or am I being overly optimistic?
One hour in and Iâve come back to read all the outraged posts. Nuthin. Thought it might have been a big story. Oh well, think Iâll go and find a pun thread.
Thanks. Looks like Mick wants blood.Nothing new but itâs great to get it out there and push for a Senate enquiry.
Maybe nothing new. To us. But putting it on the front page of the Hun might make some of the non believers and haters start to contemplate whether the AFaiL and itâs approach to the SAGA can be believed/tolerated any longer. Or am I being overly optimistic?
Youâre being overly optimistic.
For four years we have been blasted by the biggest conspiracy in Australian history. Is it too much to hope this is the beginning of the beginning in gaining justice for our Club, our players, for James�
Thanks. Looks like Mick wants blood.Nothing new but itâs great to get it out there and push for a Senate enquiry.
Maybe nothing new. To us. But putting it on the front page of the Hun might make some of the non believers and haters start to contemplate whether the AFaiL and itâs approach to the SAGA can be believed/tolerated any longer. Or am I being overly optimistic?
Youâre being overly optimistic.
Just heard the tape. I am farken furious all over again!!
Full 18 minutes up (behind the paywall) on the Herald Sun website. Doesnât really reveal a hell of a lot. Might have strengthened my love for James Hird but thatâs about it.
I know I said I wouldnt post again in this thread but one quick fact:
Gil is scheduled to do an hour in the studio on SEN breakfast tomorrow morning.
Whoever leaked this and ensured it was published this evening/tomorrow did it deliberately to cause maximum damage to Gil, and to make sure he couldnt avoid questions about it.
Me likey
In that case, stand by for another Lukin special.
Secret Dons tape: Dons crisis meeting recording emerges
Michael Warner, Herald Sun
35 minutes ago
Subscriber only
Secret tape exposes rage over AFL âbetrayalâ
A SECRET tape recording has emerged of a crisis meeting held at the height of Essendonâs drugs war with the AFL.
The extraordinary 2013 recording of Bombers chairman Paul Little, coach James Hird, senior assistant Mark Thompson and football manager Danny Corcoran lays bare their fury as they come to the view they have been betrayed by the AFL and its deputy chief, Gillon McLachlan.
In the recording an angry Little says: âI rang him Â(McLachlan) last night and I said, âYou know, youâve really upset me here, because youâve gone back on your word, Gilâ.
âHe said, âNo no, I havenât, I havenâtâ. I said, âYou have. You told me one thing, and now youâre doing something elseâ.â
A clearly desperate Hird says: âTheyâre a pack of fâing lying Âprâs â and they have done from the start ⌠â
Little also says McLachlan told him the previous night, âthere is a 99 per cent chance that the players wonât be chargedâ for doping.
The August 8 meeting at Windy Hill was called just hours after lawyers for the AFL told Essendon that charges would be laid against the club and officials over the 2012 drug injections program.
The tape, until now a secret, exposes how the Bombers felt the AFL was threatening them to either accept sanctions or be âstood downâ as a club. Little says: âThatâs the gun at our head.â
After reading excerpts of the recording, Labor federal MP Kimberley Kitching has now joined a push for a Senate inquiry into the conduct of the AFL and ASADA.
Senator Kitching said on Thursday night: âIt is clear mistakes were made by regulators and others, and those mistakes must never again be repeated.â
The league has always maintained that the AFL Commission âhearingâ to decide the fate of Essendon and its officials â held two weeks after the recorded crisis meeting â was not compromised by backroom deals and negotiations.
The leaked tape throws serious doubt on those claims.
Campaigners for an inquiry have questioned whether it was appropriate for the AFL to attempt to strike a deal with Essendon and to provide assurances over whether the players would be charged.
Corcoran, Thompson, Hird and Little can all be heard on the tape, and have given approval for it to be released to the public.
At the start of the recording, a clearly stunned Little tells the group: âSo, I think what theyâre saying is ⌠if we donât co-operate they have the power to stand down.â
He continues: âAnd we donât know if that refers to individuals or the club. But they have used that as a veiled threat.â
Little further laments: âEvery single issue that I agreed on with Gil McLachlan, and I met with him the other night, has pretty much been reversed now in this note here.â
Detailing another conversation with McLachlan about the clearing of the Essendon 34 from doping charges, Little says: âHeâs now saying to me, âOh, I was referring to (AOD)-9604â, and I said, âThat is fâing crapâ.
âI said, âWe parked 9604, we all agreed that that was going nowhereâ, and then we spoke about getting the players cleared, âunconditionallyâ was the word I used âŚ
âAnd he said âWhat do you want from me?â. And I said â no, he then said to me, âThere is a 99 per cent chance that the players wonât be chargedâ.
âAnd I said âWell, Iâd like to believe you, but are you happy for me to use that language in front of the players?â
âAnd he said âOh no, you canât do thatâ. And I said âWell, fâk, youâre telling me one thing and over here we canât say anything to the playersâ.
âAnd he said âLet me work on it. I will try and give you some language that will give you the comfort that the players so desperately needâ.â
Referring to the interim report of the ASADA investigation, handed to the league just six days earlier, Hird says: âEvery bit of advice weâve been given by everyone we know is that that is not a legal document. It cannot be used. It is in breach of ASADA Act.ââ
Little responds: âAnd itâs questionable whether ASADA should have even handed it over to the AFL âŚ
âYou know, to give someone an interim report where 20 per cent of it is blacked out and you canât even read it is a fâing joke, and then make a decision based on that âŚ
âAnd Gil McLachlan says, âOh, by the way, the redacted parts, weâll give them to you in a day or two.â Oh, fâk, I havenât seem them, they havenât come. You know, so, mate, that story can be told and the fact that (Andrew) Demetriou has put himself up as being not able to talk to us because heâs conflicted.
âWell, fâing whatâs happened to his confliction for the last six months?â
The meeting was five days before the AFL charged Essendon, Hird, Thompson, Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid with bringing the game into disrepute. Two weeks later, the club agreed to penalties including a $2 million fine, banishment from the finals, and being stripped of prized draft picks; Hird and Corcoran accepted suspensions.
The Herald Sun was not involved in recording the meeting and did not pay for the tape.
Betcha bottom dollar there is plenty more where this came from. Not sure whose idea this was or whether itâs a great one but I do look forward to hearing how Gill and Lukin squirm their way outta thisâŚ
If only there was a recording of Gil making assurances to Little, would be damaging.
I want Ben McDivitt on the â â â â â â â witness stand under otah.
Makes my blood boil that there was stuff in the report that could have helped clear the club and players but were blacked out and just left the stuff that makes Essendon look bad.