A defiant Essendon coach James Hird has forecast the Bombers will fight any charges handed down by the AFL over their supplements saga.
With charges believed to be imminent, after the AFL received ASADA’s interim report more than a week ago, Hird said he was staggered that any charges could be laid against the club or individuals.
“I think we all find it hard to believe that charges can be laid on individuals or the club when none of our players have (been) shown to take performance-enhancing drugs, none of our players have shown that they’ve been harmed by anything that’s been given,” Hird told reporters on Tuesday morning.
“And we’re dealing with an interim report – the report’s not finalised.
“We’re all sitting back staggered and shocked that any charges could possibly be laid on those points.”
Hird said for those reasons the Bombers would fight.
“Our players haven’t taken performance-enhancing drugs, we don’t believe they’ve been harmed in any way and that’s primarily why we’re fighting,” he said.
“We don’t believe we’ve done anything wrong on those lines.
“We will fight.
“It’s about our reputation, it’s about the football club, our football club’s the greatest football club in Australia and we’re going to protect it’s name.”
Bombers great Matthew Lloyd said Hird’s defiance was no surprise.
“I think there may come a time where James admits to some fault. But the moment he probably takes a suspension he looks like a drug cheat,” Lloyd told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“So I think that’s where I can understand why he’s digging his heels in along with others at the football club.”
He predicted that if individuals were charged, the case would end up in court.
“If, as we expect, that (Mark) Thompson, Danny Corcoran, Bruce Reid, James Hird are all charged, I expect all of them to fight for their names,” Lloyd said.
He said saga was taking a huge emotional toll on the Essendon coach.
“It’s tearing him and his family up, I know that for a fact,” he said.
Lloyd also said the mood at the club was “horrible”, Hird’s mind was elsewhere when he was talking to players and he doubted they would win another game this season.
“You admire them for how well they’ve gone up until the last three weeks because I expected this to happen,” Lloyd said of their three big losses in the past three rounds.
