James Hird’s right-hand man Mark Thompson has staunchly defended the Essendon coach, saying no senior AFL coach can know everything that is happening within his football department.
Pressure is mounting on Hird and the Bombers ahead of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s (ASADA) report into last year’s supplements program at the embattled club.
A major drug company released its own statement yesterday and a key club figure in management of the saga has resigned.
Even if ASADA clears Essendon, the AFL is running its own investigation and there is scope for the league to hand down a range of penalties, including individual suspensions.
But Thompson insisted on Monday night that Hird had done nothing wrong.
“As far as I know and the way good football clubs run, the coach doesn’t know everything,” Thompson told Fox Footy’s AFL360 program.
“Yes he employs someone and he talks about the program, but as far as the management of the program …
“They’re called wingmen, they’re called people you trust that do the job for you.
“You just expect that it be done.
“The good coaches at the good clubs have these people, (they’re) surrounded by them – that everything is done right by the right person.
“That’s the most important thing to come out of this.”
Thompson was passionate in his defence of the club, saying no one had been involved in deliberate doping.
“From what I know – and I probably know I lot of people – I’ve read a lot of stuff and I know it’s not true,” he said.
“The club has made mistakes, we’ll admit that when the time comes, but as far as drug cheats, we certainly didn’t deliberately go out to do any of that.
“Why would we? Why would I start doing that now? Why would Doc Reid after being in it for 40 years start cheating now?
“It’s just crap to think we’d be part of that.”
But it was also put to Thompson that he would be out the door immediately if ASADA suspended Essendon players for doping offences.
In an earlier development Essendon refuted a claim that four of their AFL players were unwittingly involved in a trial for the banned drug AOD-9604.
The use of the anti-obesity drug is at the centre of one of anti-doping investigations.
Captain Jobe Watson has revealed he believes he took the drug last year.
The Age reported on Saturday that four unnamed Bombers were involved in a secret trial of AOD-9604. The report quoted a patent application that detailed case studies of footballers using the synthetic drug for injury recovery.
“Essendon wish to refute the suggestion that four of their players were the subject of the case studies referred to in the patent application of AOD 9604 lodged by Metabollic Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd as reported in (the) media,” the club said in a statement.
“Both doctors at the club have reviewed all MRI reports of all players from August 2011 to the end of 2012.
“They are both of the opinion that the case studies in the application are inconsistent with the MRI reports in their possession and therefore do not relate to any of the players at Essendon.”
Metabolic Pharmaceuticals is a subsidiary of Calzada, which released its own statement on Monday.
“Metabolic has not been involved in any human clinical trial activity since early 2007,” the company said.
“Metabolic has never commissioned third parties to use AOD9604 for the purpose of generating patient data or any other purpose.”
Essendon’s headaches continued today with The Age reporting that the senior media strategist employed by the club at the start of the ASADA investigation has quit.
Media consultant Elizabeth Lukin told the club she was resigning.
