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ESSENDON is consigned to being the all-time AFL villain after the most dramatic day in AFL history.
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Unprecedented and, frankly, unbelievable, the club stands shamed and embarrassed after having been banned from the finals, their prized draft picks swiped from them over two years, as well as incurring a $2 million fine.
Probably more stunning was that coach James Hird, who aggressively undertook a journey to challenge the AFL, accepted a 12-month suspension.
He did it for the good of the club. Chairman Paul Little personally asked Hird late yesterday to take the suspension for the good of the club, and the players.
Last night, he was the sorriest person in football. Sorry for the predicament his players found themselves in.
Essendon the villain says Mark Robinson.
He returned home and spent the remainder of the night with his wife, Tania, and their children.
The club's most loved living icon stood before the AFL Commission and apologised for his role in the club's supplement program.
He admitted mistakes, as did the club, and now he is out of the game he cherishes.
He will go believing he is not a drug cheat but, so fickle is the football world, he will forever be taunted that he is.
Hird made mistakes because he was a rookie coach hell-bent on striving for perfection.
His high standards came back to bite him.
Those same high standards, however, are not lost on the club. He and the club have agreed that Hird will return in 2015, on a contract of two years.
Always, football clubs look after the champions, as their champions look after them.
What a strange night it will be on Saturday.
His replacement against the Tigers is assistant coach Simon Goodwin, but three others have offered to stand in in Hird's absence next year.
The logical replacement is Mark Thompson.
Together, Hird and Thompson were the golden ticket, the caped crusaders who were to come in and return the club to a place of high achievement.
Thompson has yet to speak to the club about taking over, but he has told the Herald Sun it could be an option.
He's filthy he copped a $30,000 fine and perhaps the whole experience might finally send him scampering from a game that has more than challenged him in the past 12 months.
Perhaps it's in the hands of Hird to convince him.
The seven-month investigation found answers, but more questions hang in the air.
Hird's claims that AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and his second-in-charge, Gil McLachlan, polluted the investigation have been consigned to hearsay and innuendo.
"The commission had confidence in the administration," AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said.
Will Stephen Dank ever tell his side of the story? "He has a lot to answer for," Demetriou said.
Will the club ever know what took place through 2012? "No," said Little.
Little said last night his club did not roll over.
Instead, he wanted to end the scandal that began in 2011 and spread throughout 2012. "This is the start of the beginning," he said.
At the death, there was a stench.
The club accepted its failings about the injections program and the lack of duty of care for the players.
It was an investigation of great substance. There were 130 interviews, 13,000 documents, email trails, telephone records, back-up tapes, text messages and computer files.
"We had a commitment to finding the truth," Fitzpatrick said.
The Bombers accepted their failings. Hird is gone for 12 months; head of football Danny Corcoran for four months. And Thompson copped a $30k fine.
Club doctor Bruce Reid will resume his fight.
"This is a wake-up for our sport," Fitzpatrick said.
Demetriou defended the AFL's pursuit to protect the integrity. "This is the most significant sanction in AFL history," he said.
Little said negotiations over the past two days were "tough but fair".
The Bombers start the road to recovery.
They have to win back supporter confidence and recover from crippling financial losses.
"We have let down a lot of people," Little said. "It's an incredibly tough time for all supporters and members. We're terribly sorry for what happened."
Those bloody supplements. Designed to help build strength and achieve greatness, they have banished the club to the wastelands. And who knows how long they will stay there.
The football department is gutted, they have lost a chief executive and a president, and a 32-year club doctor is off to defend himself as a medical practitioner.
Forever and a day the Bombers will rue undertaking a cutting-edge injection program, which, as Essendon admitted, was reckless in its administration.
They will rue the appointment of Dank, who, it must be said, denies any unlawful or irresponsible behaviour.
They will rue the appointment of high-performance manager Dean Robinson, who brought Dank to the club, and who also denies wrong-doing.
Hird will rue he made mistakes, so will Reid for not speaking up more, and Corcoran for allowing such a dark chapter to unfold on his watch.
They are not alone.
Former chief executive Ian Robson must be wondering what he could've done better, and former chairman David Evans must wonder what he did overall.
At the end of the day, the Bombers could not guarantee the players were not administered banned drugs.
They wanted to believe they did the right thing, but the AFL found they had not.
This story is the most controversial, mysterious and truly stunning in AFL history. The results leave a stain on the competition and a stain on one of its long-time member clubs.
People can forgive, but one wonders if they will ever forget.
