UPDATE: ESSENDON coach James Hird was hoping for just another normal week in the lead up to Friday night’s clash against Fremantle at Patersons Stadium.
Instead, it has become one of backlash following claims that he injected a WADA blacklisted drug, while his players were given an extract from pig’s brain according to a media report today.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said today that he couldn’t think of a more serious allegation than this one.
“Notwithistanding that, it is very clear that … if any coach or official puts a duty of care of their players at risk, then they will be held accountable,” Demetriou said.
“There is no place for them in our game.
“As a parent, and not just as the CEO of the AFL, the issues as reported surrounding the potential use of various substances is something that is disturbing, very disturbing, particularly when we’re talking about the health and welfare of young men.”
Former ASADA chief Richard Ings said that Hird’s case would be more governed by the AFL than ASADA.
“The use of illegal substances is banned for players but not for coaches,” Ings told SEN radio on Thursday morning.
“The issue of use of a performance enhancing drug by a coach doesn’t tick off any box so it’s not an issue for ASADA. But it is potentially a very serious issue for the AFL’s code of conduct for coaches and players.
Stephen Dank, the clubs’ former sports scientist, said Hird had taken hexarelin according to today’s report in The Age.
“He asked me if players could use it and I said no. Mind you, he wasn’t the only coach who was a regular user of it,” Dank said.
“They were using something to give them a bit of lift to help with the stresses of their job. It was something they were well entitled to do. It is not a bad example. It is medicine,” he told The Age.
A investigation which is ongoing. There are still solid claims that ASADA could suspend the players for at least six months – but any charge on the coaches would be conducted via the AFL, under the law of bringing the game into disrepute.
The futures of key figures Hird, Mark Thompson and chief executive Ian Robson are all still unclear – with at least one and maybe all likely to go by the end of the season. It has been touted that these key figures had prior knowledge of what was being injected into their players but none have publicly declared this.
It has been also revealed that players had been given AOD9604 – an anti-obesity drug – which ASADA believe should be on the banned list.
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