I hope there's just enough delusion left in the board for them to think that hiring Malthouse is a good idea...

You know Kevin Sheedy is right there under their noses and not doing very much at the mo...

Essendon and James Hird: Club reduced to laughing stock
August 18, 2015 - 3:59PM
Rohan Connolly
Senior AFL writer for The Age


Essendon is a former power of the AFL competition right now reduced to little more than a laughing stock both on and off the field.

Essendon's administrators might as well have spent the past few years standing outside their new high performance centre at Tullamarine throwing wads of cash into the breeze.

If a series of on-field humiliations haven't been bad enough, those running the club continue to make decisions bordering on farcical. James Hird's departure as coach is just another.

On Tuesday, they terminated a coach still with a year left on his contract, after effectively paying him not to coach in 2014. A coach who replaced a predecessor in Matthew Knights also paid out for not completing the final two years on his contract. This follows millions of dollars spent on the legal ramifications of the drawn-out supplements saga.

Essendon's administrators might as well have spent the past few years standing outside their new high performance centre at Tullamarine throwing wads of cash into the breeze. And the damage done to the club's reputation over the long-term could amount to far more even than that.

Just what do the Bombers stand for now? Apart from seemingly attempting to write their own football version of Fawlty Towers?
Is James Hird headed in the right direction? The powerful Essendonians have supported the club's wide-ranging review as pressure builds for changes in the football department.

First they backed Hird. They agreed to a two-year contract extension as the original supplement saga club penalties were being handed down so he'd accept a 12-month suspension.

Then, when his fill-in Mark Thompson got the Bombers into last year's finals, they made an in-principle decision to offload Hird but backed off, spooked by legal threats and supporter angst.

Essendon spent much energy re-affirming their support for Hird when the AFL anti-doping tribunal found in March that it was not comfortably satisfied the Essendon players took banned substances. Last week, they announced a rather vague "review" of all football operations.

The review had barely had time to commence before they did finally off-load their coach, three games before the end of the season. With the WADA appeal still hanging over their heads, player's futures uncertain, any prospective long-term replacement for Hird is obviously taking an enormous gamble.

In terms of the supplement saga, Essendon has alternately cosied up to the AFL then made a big show of taking the league on. And the club's public relations during the entire soap opera have been an incompetent joke, leaving their fans either ill-informed or uninformed.

This is a club for which the better part of 15 years has luxuriated in its reputation as an AFL heavyweight, refusing to make tough decisions and watching on as its status as such continued to slide.

Those responsible for this latest move will probably pat themselves on the back for what they will see as courageous and swift action. They'll probably also desperately hope this will convince fans and foes alike that recovery from these depths is imminent.

But it's not. And it won't be until those who have allowed this once-proud club to degenerate into a sick joke have fallen on their swords. They've been able to serially avoid responsibility for this colossal mess. They certainly don't deserve to once more.

There's so much more Essendon need to do beyond getting rid of their coach to recover their reputation. In effect, this is ground zero.

And a good start from there, both with whoever the new man is, and whoever else comes into the fold, is to make sure they come from a club with better practices both on and off the field, one not tainted by scandal, ego, arrogance and lack of principle.

In effect, from anywhere but the Essendon Football Club.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-and-james-hird-club-reduced-to-laughing-stock-20150818-gj1sd4.html

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-and-james-hird-club-reduced-to-laughing-stock-20150818-gj1sd4.html

This coming from a self identified Essendon supporter.

Some posters cry about how much of a shambles we are now supposedly.

Remember kids... This was us 2 years ago!

Thanks for posting Daisy.

Essendon and James Hird: Club reduced to laughing stock
August 18, 2015 - 3:59PM
Rohan Connolly
Senior AFL writer for The Age

...
Just what do the Bombers stand for now? Apart from seemingly attempting to write their own football version of Fawlty Towers?

...

when speaking to his family he said "I'm sorry for what I...." and then changed what he was going to say. The next words should have been "have done". Maybe he almost said it.

i wonder if the board paid out james on the basis of a confidential non-disclosure clause

crazy if they

took your mother,Dorothy,out for a socially acceptable reason .

took your mother,Dorothy,out for a socially acceptable reason .

yeah ", sorry to tell you that mate”

yeah ", sorry to tell you that mate”

"she loves it"

NO OFFENCE

Here's a good one.

Even a lion can be taken down by enough rats.

Any word on who will be taking over? We laugh but they do actually have a fair amount of proven guys who can step in, then they also have Neeld.

This was a LONG time coming, funny thing is that I reckon if he'd taken a step back when this all came out and resolved to not return as coach until it was sorted he probably would've been given a lot more respect by the wider AFL community.[/quote

Not even essendon are stupid enough to give the interim gig to neeld

It's also Brendon Goddard's turn on 360 tonight.

Apparently Hird has lost more than any of them. Not counting the cash, that is.

Not even essendon are stupid enough to give the interim gig to neeld

Oh, I dunno. Maybe the Ess players are in the right head space to respond to being called soft pansies who need to harden up or they'll be out on their ears tomorrow.

I love salt

I gather something was said regarding Zaharakis being weak or soft? Is that correct? Would love to see him in the red and blue if he wants out of bomberland

U watch the dons next season pass us just like the dogs, port Adelaide and to a certain degree the Saints.

U can take that to the bank!

U watch the dons next season pass us just like the dogs, port Adelaide and to a certain degree the Saints.

U can take that to the bank!

Don't think so.

I do.
They're at rock bottom and still beat us only a few weeks ago.

Edited August 18, 201510 yr by Fork 'em

It just goes to show superstar players dont always make great coaches. Shaw, Voss, Watson and even buckley havent had the success as a coach. At the beginning when bomber left geelong to join Hird secretly I hoped it would fail. I would never have guessed it would turn out like this.

It sort of funny the golden boy screwed up. The fans still stand by him well some, but if it was any other coach with the same results the fans would be screaming for his head.

This is why im glad Garry Lyon never put up his hand to coach, because I would have hated seeing our fans bagging him and calling for his sacking if it didnt work put properly.

I reckon essendon need to look away from past essendon greats to be there next coach. Look at Clarkson no association with hawthorn yet is the most dominate coach, Ross lyon is doing well at freo, chris scott coached geelong to a flag in his 1st year.

Well they have 20 players without contracts at the end of the season. It will make for an interesting off-season. Anyone we would want?

Bellchambers, Tom - 2015

Browne, Alex - 2015

Carlisle, Jake - 2015

Chapman, Paul - 2015

Dalgleish, Lauchlan- 2015

Dempsey, Courtenay - 2015

Fletcher, Dustin - 2015 vet

Gwilt, James- 2015

Hams, Will - 2015

Kavanagh, Elliott - 2015

Melksham, Jake - 2015

O'Brien, Nicholas - 2015

Pears, Tayte - 2015

Stanton, Brent - 2015 vet

Winderlich, Jason - 2015 vet

Rookies;

Aylett , Kurt - 2015

Long, Jake - 2015

McKenna, Conor- 2015

McKernan, Shaun - 2015

Steinberg, Ariel - 2015

Can anyone in the know please annotate this list with the names of the players who are still under threat from WADA?

It will be very interesting to see just how many are prepared to recommit to the club that has used them as experimental animals outside normal protocols.

Neeld will be able to recommend to Tird a good hotel in Thailand to go hide in.

Thailand??? Surely only Georges V - the place Keating used to frequent at our expense at several thousand AUD a day - would do Monsieur Jacques Merde.

Edited August 18, 201510 yr by monoccular

#stand,byehird

I'd pay Keating several thousand a day to come back .... get rid of the idiot we've got now..... sorry I digress.

Surely the contracted players should, could, would be available too if all goes according to my wishful thinking.

Thanks for posting Daisy.

Cybil : where are you going Basil?

Basil : I'm going to see Mr Oriley(marching out the door with the garden gnome tucked under his arm)

Can anyone in the know please annotate this list with the names of the players who are still under threat from WADA?

.

According to this article:

Bellchambers, Tom - 2015 - Yes

Browne, Alex - 2015 - Yes

Carlisle, Jake - 2015 - Yes

Chapman, Paul - 2015 - No

Dalgleish, Lauchlan- 2015 - No

Dempsey, Courtenay - 2015 - ? I could have sworn he was, but the HS list I found didn't have him on it.

Fletcher, Dustin - 2015 vet - Yes

Gwilt, James- 2015 - No

Hams, Will - 2015 - No

Kavanagh, Elliott - 2015 - No

Melksham, Jake - 2015 - Yes

O'Brien, Nicholas - 2015 - No

Pears, Tayte - 2015 - Yes

Stanton, Brent - 2015 vet - Yes

Winderlich, Jason - 2015 vet - No

Rookies;

Aylett , Kurt - 2015 - No

Long, Jake - 2015 - No

McKenna, Conor- 2015 - No

McKernan, Shaun - 2015 - No

Steinberg, Ariel - 2015 - Yes

Today, football is the winner.