f..... hird wont go, will be sacked before long, doult if he will coach them in the future,teflon hirdy at the moment,how the mighty have fallen

should be booted from the comp for a year at least and all the players made free agents so they have to rebuild when readmitted to the comp , got to fell sorry for blokes likes Dustin Fletcher who has given his all for that club , the only honorable thing golden boy Hird could do now is fall on his sword, he has lost all credibility , hmmm maybe he could join Chopper Read and Warrick Capper on the footy club booze night circuit

 bombers got done but that could be the skape goat why are the eagles gone from top 4 contenders to shit, why have geelong been so good for so long think we gotta come to except  that no matter how many test they come up with theres always gonna be some chemist that finds something new that footy teams are gonna try, to get the edge its a competive nature and people are gonna try anything to get a jump on the competion just my opion

Hird gets 12 months, backdated from 25th August, so it seems he can still coach from later next season....unless I've read it wrong.

The AFL with their wet lettuce leaf.

any other code would have given him a life ban , I seem to remember a certain Collingwood resy player that lost the plot and pushed over the umpire and he coped life. What a joke , Andrew D should be sacked , his handeling of this joke shows he cant run the AFL repace him with Brian Cook ex Eagles and now Gelong CEO

sold his soul and got rubbed

Hahaha

 thought you had a bit more class than that b.j , oh well. do ya want your 4 points back from anzac day ?

By Ben Shafir 

I have been a passionate Essendon supporter my entire life. My membership card states I have been a member for a year longer than I have been on this planet. Mysteriously I was born almost nine months to the day after we miraculously defeated Hawthorn in the 1984 Grand Final. Coincidence? I don’t know, ask my parents.

I have stayed somewhat silent over the last six months since the drug scandal first broke. Maybe I was naive or maybe I was just hoping that my beloved football club and their coach (James Hird, the greatest player I have ever seen wear the red and black) could not have made such a monumental mistake. But I can no longer remain silent.

The game of football relies on skill, fitness and tactics to beat one’s opposition. When you step outside that philosophy and employ the use of ‘boundary pushing substances’ there is something fundamentally wrong. Regardless of whether those substances were legal or illegal is no longer such an issue in my mind. The point is that the club undertook a regime where the players’ health was no longer considered the primary objective; rather it was a series of pharmacological experiments aimed at developing a competitive edge. It appears that the club and Hird totally lost sight of their duty of care to players and their families. More so a lack of transparency and accountability in the pharmacological experiment made it even more dangerous.

As the coach, James Hird, was in on this program and may have even spearheaded it he bears great responsibility for its outcomes. Investigations have proved there is a blurring of what was legal and illegal but one thing for certain is that the program was totally out of control and not conducive to winning premierships in the spirit of the game. To harness a drug culture and actively promote it among young men sets a dangerous precedent and is not something I want in my football club.

So the time has come. The time has come for the Essendon Football Club to remove those that were responsible for this audacious and irresponsible regime. I don’t expect those in question to admit their guilt and I’m sure their versions of events are somewhat different to what has been published through independent investigations, however the longer this goes on the more damaging it will become.

I want my club to get back to basics and begin its quest for a seventeenth premiership the old fashioned way – skill, fitness, tactics and above all, hard work. It is of my belief that the presence of James Hird at the football club no longer fits in with this culture.

I therefore believe that there is no other option than for James Hird to hand in his immediate resignation to the Board of the Essendon Football Club and for the club to accept all punishment that it is dealt by the powers that be. Monumental errors were made by the Essendon Football Club. It is time to accept all responsibility and move on.

I want my club to rise to the top yet again; likewise I want this darkest chapter in the club’s 140 year history closed.

"Would love to have seen if EFC wasn't a Victorian club what the penalty would have been,'' @texwalker13 wrote

 IMO what a pathetic penalty $2 mil is nothing for this club of cheats and a year for the boss cheat unbelievable.

I just hope ASADA will do thier job and boot at least 11 of them out.

What with 3500 injections you would think they are gone

But hang on they are Victorians arn't they.

They copped a fair whack for 'governance issues', not sure how any of you see the penalty (biggest handed out to a club ever) as soft.

The admissions they agreed to were significantly different to the charges the AFL released to the media.

Life ban for a governance indiscretion - get a grip, and comparing it to an assault on an umpire is a long bow to draw.

Bombers will be back next year, Hird will return as coach for the 2014 finals series and I look forward to hearing what Essendon and Hird have to say now they will be allowed to talk.

wonder what the fall out will be, how many players will leave,how many support staff will leave,a lot to play out yet,ps will they win this week???

 but not sure that it's soft as some have said. They will be hurting for years as a result of the draft ban... One thing I dont quite understand is how they can be banned from the first two rounds of the draft this year and next, but apparently have a pick at the end of the first round next year - I must be missing something.  

 What do you call a group of drug cheats?

A Hird.

 Yep the draft ban fu^%^%ed Carlton for years after they topped the salary cap when they did. Not soft fairly appropriate, but Hird should be sacked by the club. Or is the yail wagging the dog.

In my opinion the penalties are pretty soft though the draft ban will hurt somewhat.

Let me get this right. What we know so far (correct me if I'm wrong)

AOD 9604 is a banned substance.

Essendon gets players to sign consent forms to inject substances including AOD 9604. (why would you get players to sign consent forms to inject something you weren't going to inject).

Jobe Watson admitted he was injected with AOD 9604.

But Essendon and Hird deny giving players banned substances or they don't know what they were given (why did the CLUB get the consent form listing AOD 9604 then).

Hirdy is still in denial that he has done anything significantly wrong and has only agreed to cop his penalty so the "club and players can move on"

Hird has been given an extension to his contract. The fact this has been completed now is pretty poor timing by the club under the circs. They could have announced this in say 6 months or so once things have died down.

Hirdy by all accounts could be coaching Essendon in the finals in 2014.

Biggest question will be what will the parents of the young Essendon players think about the fact Hird will/could be coaching their sons in late 2014 and into 2015. Would you be happy if this involved your son??

 That's a fair summary Paul, only thing to add is that ASSDA told essendon (then told the accc as evidenced by their report) that AOD9604 wasn't banned. 

told anyone that AOD9604 wasn't a banned drug. This statment came from a paid essindoping employee.

 No not happy about it and certainly not impressed with the players being put at risk but the club have not been charged or found guilty of taking illegal substances. Big difference between doping and poor management though. 

Like I said above, Paul h summary is pretty accurate just added the grey areas about AOD 

I will be glad when 2014 comes about and we can start fresh. 

" Governance Issues " thats what it was negotiated down to .. Hird is a lying piece of shit . Seems as though the club thinks it's in their best interests to retain him and Thompson and live with the stench . If it was my club I'd be wanting a clean slate .

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Farkin photobucket with the double post, sorry about that.

How funny will it be if the team who makes it into the eight by default wins the premiership.

reportedly there was 3500 injections to players , cant tell me they just went into the league players lots would have been there vfl team and maybe into there under age players no wonder that woman bawled her eyes out on radio if it was my son I would be tearing sir james a second arsehole

When you look at the amount of injections given for which essendon have no records or idea of what they players were actually given I think "governance issues" is really understating the facts.  Some of the things injected into players have concerns regarding the fact they can be cancer inducing!!

Why didn't at least one of the players raise concerns or talk about this with family etc who surely would have raised issues a lot earlier.  Don't get me wrong I feel for the players and I know the players tend to follow what the club is telling them they need to do and everyone else is doing but they also go through the AFL drug education courses don't they.

How the f can Essendon not ask questions of what players were being given (they aparently had blind faith in Dank who was a club outsider), not keep any records or allow only Dank to have the records.  Why did they allow /have most of these injections occur off site.  If this happened in any other workplace....... 

way too many questions unanswered

Nah this is beyond comprehension. Just a cheating bunch of arseholes lieing all the way to save their arses.

If ASWADA who is being closely watched be AWADA do their job at least 11 druggie players are gone compliments of all sorts of chemicals like the Mexician [ no one knows what is was shit ]

Even Doc Reid who new what they were on did f*ck all. Shame shame shame boot the f*ck wit out too.

I know two dons supporters one a member and it is amazing the self denial coming through. Not one hint of guilt. Its the AFL and that barstard Demetriou out to get them.

What were the players managers doing when this was all going on?

I find the AFL commission a joke. Individula players get 3 strike if they get caught taking illegal drugs.

Essendon have been used as a scape goat in this instance. Why should the players be penalised for a good season when they were only doing as instructed by the coaching staff. They believed they were not doing anyting wrong.

Anyone caught either using or providing drugs whatever the type should be banned for life.

That's how it is in other sports.

I fear that this whole issue will rub off on other sportsmen and women. The rules are that if you as the athlete has taken/was given a prohibited or banned substance you ARE guilty of doping. Ignorance is no excuse.

Now we know that players has taken banned substances (or a non listed medication that is automatically considered Banned), but it appears they are going to get away with it.

Surely the precedent is set now. Any athlete can now use the excuse that it wasnt me, it was my coach/manager etc. And if found out go to a court and use the Essendon case as an example. They got away with it, why cant I?

Unless there is one rule for all the whole ASADA, WADA cases will just fall apart.

Do I think Essendon got off lightly - from a club point off view its probably fair. For the support staff like Hird etc no way. Piss poor form IMO. For the involved players they used substances that were either banned or not listed (ie Automatically banned) and thus they got off very very lightly, and I DONT think that sets a good example at all. There should be sanctions on them, even if only fines but I think bans would be more appropriate. To get nothing is just wrong.

trianed and tried out with essendoping in may last year???????

 The Bombers ain't finished yet VFL Premiors 2013...

Go the Bombers!!!!!