A PROMINENT national sports columnist says James Hird is responsible for the downfall that led to his drug overdose.
The Australian’s Patrick Smith has taken issue with those laying the blame for the former Essendon coach’s hospitalisation elsewhere in a scathing piece published on Monday.
Mark Thompson — who was a senior assistant coach at the Bombers when the supplements scandal that led to 34 players being suspended for 12 months erupted — and former Adelaide Crows coach Graham Cornes are among those who have targeted the AFL’s handling of the matter since Hird’s overdose was revealed.
But Smith says the criticism is misdirected, writing that Hird plotted his own course by cobbling together “a group of lawyers, barristers and public relations gurus who helped shape his future” instead of quickly accepting blame for his role in the saga.
“Essendon and the AFL sent Hird off for a study course in Paris. He was paid $1 million for the 12 months of his disqualification. His contract was extended. Oh, please. Someone bully me, bully me,” Smith wrote.
“Hird is ill and we should all pray that he makes a full recovery. But to suggest that his present condition is the fault of anyone else is folly and a falsehood.
“Hird, sadly, drove himself to the intensive care unit, calling the directions all the way.”
Cornes has been a staunch defender of Hird and pointed an accusatory finger at the media, the AFL and supporters of other clubs who criticised the Bombers coach in his own column in The Advertiser.
“Those of you who have vilified James Hird — the media, particularly the Fairfax Press, who hounded and ridiculed him; the keyboard cowards who act from their cover of anonymity and lack of any moral filter,” Cornes wrote.
“The opposition fans whose prejudice and hysteria blinded them to the facts; the AFL, which lost control of what should have been an internal matter; the football world in general, which has ostracised him; and indeed those from within the Essendon Football Club who were desperate for a scapegoat — must all face the consequences of their comments and their actions.
“For it is you who have driven James Hird to what could have been his last, desperate act.”
AFL player manager Liam Pickering was another to slam the media’s treatment of Hird in recent days.
“My view is I think the toll on James and his family has been enormous and it’s a very sad state of affairs that James is in,” Pickering told SEN.
“Some of the stuff that’s been said has been disgusting ... He’s a legend of the game and it’s sad.
“Push the bloke to the depths then try and bring him back up again. Why push him down to begin with? It’s disgusting.”
“(Hird) was part of what was wrong. It wasn’t him that did it all, there were other people involved,” he added.
“Getting the story is what it’s all about isn’t it? It doesn’t matter what the consequences are for the people involved. You just write the story, write down whatever you want.
“There’s no recourse. Just write what you want, say what you want and then all care, no responsibility for where it all leads.
“People seem to get off in laying the boot into people. It’s easy to do and it’s cheap and it’s nasty.”
Thompson, one of three Essendon figures punished for his role in the 2012 supplements program, took aim at the AFL.
“I felt sick in the guts — it just didn’t have to be like this,” Thompson told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“I think the AFL has taken it all way too far.
“Everyone makes mistakes but James Hird should have been welcomed back to the footy world a long time ago.
“We almost lost a great person and a great player of the game tragically too young.”
Danny Corcoran, who was in charge of Essendon’s football department when the supplements program was introduced, also expressed his sympathy for Hird in the Herald Sun.
“I walked out of (Hird’s) ICU unit and just felt the total despair of how systemic bullying and harassment of a person had caused him to fall into such a dire state,” Corcoran said.
“I can’t believe it. He’s in an ICU in a secure ward. A great man — a great champion, reduced to this ... it’s just horrendous to think that it’s got to this point.”
Hird’s father Allan labelled AFL officials as “thugs” and “bullies” without a “moral compass” for their treatment of his son in the aftermath of Essendon’s supplement scandal.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78.
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