Essendon coach James Hird's day of reckoning in fast approaching as the AFL prepares to hand down its sanctions. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: George Salpigtidis / HeraldSun
THE complex nature of the Essendon drugs saga may become slightly clearer today or tomorrow when the AFL announces its charges against the club and individuals, including coach James Hird.
We say "slightly" because after several days of talks with AFL representatives, the Bombers have yet to yield on the league's demands.
The AFL, the Herald Sun has been told, wants the Big Mac: premiership points, personnel, draft picks and a fine.
But there's also a belief the AFL would forsake premiership points if Hird resigned. The AFL has denied this.
If it's true, that means it's a choice for Essendon between Hird and the players.
The Bombers won't sell Hird down the river because they are hellbent on protecting their points and their personnel.
Hird is almost certain to be charged, as will club doctor Bruce Reid and head of football Danny Corcoran, with conduct unbecoming or prejudicial to the interests of the AFL, in that they failed properly to govern and administer the club's supplements program in 2012.
Hird will fight any charge.
Essendon insiders say the only way one of the club's favourite sons will leave Windy Hill is in a body bag.
There's no evidence the AFL visited the city morgue in recent days but, make no mistake, the AFL is playing for keeps on this one.
Bombers chairman Paul Little has spoken to Hird and senior assistant Mark Thompson in recent days and his support for them is absolute. He said as much in his pre-match speech yesterday.
The Bombers board might accept that its governance and management-level diligence was poor, but there's a strong undertaking that if the club accepts premiership points being stripped, it also accepts it is pleading guilty to cheating on drugs.
The Bombers have argued that after seven months of investigation, the players have not been found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs.
That the AFL is acting on an interim report is also of concern for the Bombers, and individuals, who are speaking to their lawyers as much as they are talking to their players.
More to the point, how can the AFL take premiership points if the players are yet to be found guilty of anything?
A fine and loss of draft picks for its governance issues would be more to the club's liking.
The difficulty is the need for the AFL and Essendon to find penalties that will satisfy both parties.
At the moment it's a face-off. And if it continues over the next fortnight, the possibility of court action is real.
The Bombers are open to the suggestion. They could then tell their side of the saga, as they have been promising, and that would probably include league heavyweights Andrew Demetriou and Gillon McLachlan being called to give testimony, as well as former Dons chairman David Evans, Hird, Reid, Corcoran and others.
Some at Essendon stand by their belief - which has been denied by Demetriou and Evans - that Demetriou warned Evans his club was under investigation for use of performance enhancing drugs.
We know of conversations Demetriou had with Evans on the eve of the club reporting itself on February 5, and claims were reported in The Weekend Australian about conversations held between Demetriou, McLachlan and Evans on Sunday, February 3, the day before the infamous meeting of Essendon figures at Evans' home.
Demetriou has stated he did not have information that Essendon was being investigated on February 3 and 4.
The Weekend Australian report said Evans had passed on the Demetriou information to a club official.
That official is Reid, who was asked by Evans: Did the players take performance enhancing drugs? Reid said no.
Despite the AFL denials, just why the Bombers self-reported remains an issue.
Indeed, there are issues galore.
Among many, one has intrigued the Bombers.
It's understood the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's 400-page interim report does not detail what correspondence was had between Essendon and ASADA about the status of AOD-9604, the drug central to the investigation.
Chief investigator Paul Simonsson has been quoted as telling the players it would be very unlikely they would be charged for taking the anti-obesity drug, despite the World Anti-Doping Agency announcing in April the drug was banned under its S.0 category.
Former Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank says he has documentation that allowed the drug's use, although the documentation has not seen the light of day.
As it stands, today or tomorrow will be about the club and Hird. If he does go for being irresponsible in his duties, and Corcoran and Reid are the same, Thompson would also walk from the club.
That would mean Hird, Reid, Corcoran, Thompson, Evans, chief executive Ian Robson, football manager Paul Hamilton, Dank and high performance manager Dean Robinson would be the casualties.
That's what you'd call a Big Mac - with fries and a bucket of blood.
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