The AFL is unsure whether James Hird will accept the invitation to present the Norm Smith Medal at this year’s grand final.
As the 2000 Norm Smith Medallist, the Essendon great is next in line to present the coveted award, for the player judged best afield in the premiership decider.
But the ongoing fallout from the Essendon supplements debacle means it is unclear whether Hird will be involved.
He has had no official involvement with the game since quitting as Bombers coach during the 2015 season.
It emerged earlier this month that Hird had started to re-establish ties with the Bombers, travelling to Hobart in June for a local club coterie function.
“He’s next in the roster and we’ve written to him, but we’re yet to hear anything back,” an AFL spokesman told AAP.
Hird was a central figure in the supplements saga and it took an enormous toll.
In August 2013, the AFL suspended him for 12 months.
Hird was involved in an unsuccessful Federal Court challenge against the joint AFL-ASADA investigation into the supplements program.
He then proceeded with his own appeal, which also failed.
Earlier this year, Hird said he had been in deep clinical depression in January when he took an overdose of sleeping pills and was taken to hospital.
Regardless of the supplements debacle and its brutal fallout, Hird remains one of the most-revered figures in Essendon’s history.
Hird captained the Bombers to the 2000 premiership, their most-recent flag.
He kicked the opening goal of the comfortable grand final win over Melbourne and was clearly best afield, with a game-high 29 disposals and two goals.
North Melbourne’s Shannon Grant, the 1999 winner, presented last year’s Norm Smith Medal to Western Bulldogs defender Jason Johannisen.
For several years, former medallists have presented the medal in the order they won.
Geelong legend Gary Ablett Snr, the 1989 winner, is the only medallist in the past few years to decline the AFL’s invitation.
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