The year the Essendon drugs saga broke (Llordo's Deep Dive) - Sunday Footy Show | Footy on Nine

In this week's Llordo's Deep Dive, we look back at 2013, one of the most infamous seasons in footy history.
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[@moregoldmoregold]

Gary Ablett was insane. Way better then anyone in the league for a good decade.

[@andrewbaverstock2672]

Spot on

[@Bloodynine606]

I’d say Chris Judd was almost as good but for a much smaller period

[@bossleonie7658]

Respect only really happens in the afl when players come back from long injuries or deaths of family members or past players. Gary Ablett gets respect for kicking a goal! Possibly the greatest player in my lifetime (2001-present).

[@usbeingrandom]

Strange to think the Essendon saga was 10 years ago when it feels like damo and his friends bring it up every 2nd week. Move on

[@porsella]

100% its just poor at this point

[@happy-ej2cc]

11 years later and Elliot has another mark of the year!

[@donna25871]

Watched the GF with my Aussie friends in Hungary (where we were studying at the time).

[@raven4475]

That's right Richmond and Essendon fans!!! Carlton finished 9th, but still won a finals game.... Ironically against a team that would always finish 9th

[@GiggleGroup]

Tony Jones speaking over someone and completely killing the vibe and direction of the commentary. Why is he still in media.

[@tubester4567]

He tries to be funny but hes not funny,

[@aidanthomas2510]

Yeah I wondered why he changed the subject like that

[@AdamSandaver]

agreed, a tool

[@makagio]

1080p please

[@jamiekelly6851]

Gotta love how awkward everyone is when damo brings up the drugs saga....almost like they know he's got a bone to pick.

[@meecrob1261]

Because he hates the club. And he froths over the fact that he broke the story.

[@huonbyrne-ockerby852]

Didn't seem awkward to me at all

[@aidanthomas2510]

@@meecrob1261 technically he wasn't, there had been murmuring's about what happened at Essendon the prior Christmas because Dank had gone to the AFP & ACC and I'd love to know what he told them, probably blew the whistle on what happened at Cronulla, Essendon & even Gold Coast (though that was a drop in the ocean compared to the other two) before refusing to co-operate with ANYTHING else, which now that I think about it would make sense cause how else did they get onto it? It was to the point that other clubs were saying to journalists off the record 'check out Essendon' and Danny Corcoran got asked about it at an Athletics Australia event. So it went far and wide before it 'broke' and all hell broke loose, setting off a chain reaction that ruined friendships, robbed the club of what would have been a historic finals birth, and saw 34 players suspended (and Jobe lose his brownlow). Really you could argue the club is only just starting to recover from it 10 years on. But yeah that Kyle Reimers footy show interview was what started everything. That whole Canberra thing was, as Andy Demetriou later admitted, clearly a stitch up cause what the hell else came of it. David Evan's was mistaken in believing that co-operating with ASADA was the right thing, though I don't think Paul Little's strategy of fighting them head on worked too well either. After Jobe admitted he thought he'd taken AOD 9604 (which is probably what got his brownlow taken in hindsight) they went to Perth, the media attention was rife (as it always was that year really) and he got booed. And then when the whole ACC tip off thing happened that was when Hirdy and David Evans' friendship was over. So to wind up this long comment (sorry about that) when you think about it, February 4 2013 was the start of a 3 year battle that it really has taken EFC 10 years and possibly more to get over. And really, for what? For all everyone say's about EFC, a lot of scientific names were thrown up but that suspension was really in hindsight on such shaky legal grounds because nothing was PROVEN and still hasn't been to this day. That resulted in all the sanctions of 2013 including Essendon loosing a historic finals berth which I'll get into my thoughts on that in another comment, 34 players being suspended and a player having his brownlow, really probably stolen in hindsight. & let's not forget it's taken the club 10 years and possibly more to get over. Hard to believe it's 10 years ago.

[@aidanthomas2510]

@@meecrob1261 also I forgot about that ASADA interim report which is what formed the basis of those 2013 sanctions. For starters it had nothing to do with the actual program that would all come later, that was all to do with duty of care failings (which I'll admit, given the fact that they don't 100% know what happened that's the one thing I will say EFC is a bit guilty of). BUT, given I've read up on what happened (that's how I knew about there being chatter to do with it all the Christmas prior to it all breaking) I can confidently say that the AFL strongarmed ASADA into giving them that report, which they should never have given them, purely to get Essendon out of the finals and give them those sanctions. That's now even ASADA's view. Not only that, but when Essendon finally got that report A LOT of it was redacted. There's a recording of a meeting between Paul Little (who had just become president after Evans resigned), Hirdy, Bomber and Danny Corcoran out there on KZbin to prove that. Even the parts of it that are avaliable and weren't redacted for legal reasons proves that. Why am I saying this? Well, in hindsight EFC would have had a pretty strong legal case to go all of them had this all been known back then. And I think they did try, Hirdy did at least. But by that point I think everyone was sick of it and really it didn't mitigate the eventual punishments so. Plus I can only imagine it was draining the clubs finances (EFC prior to that had been one of the wealthiest clubs in the league). That does seem like a pretty strong legal case to me though, and I'm not even a lawyer.

[@aidanthomas2510]

@@meecrob1261 unfortunately I think another casualty of the drug saga is that it's made people who aren't hardcore Essendon fans forget not only the career Hirdy had as a player, but that of all the 'club prodigy coaches', Hirdy was probably the most successful for one reason. Vossy never got near finals at Brisbane, Bucks did make it with what was still a pretty good team but after rebuilding it took until 2018 6 years after taking over from Mick in 2012. Hirdy had Essendon on track to make finals in 2013, 2 years affer he became coach and in the midst of all that was going on. Given no one had done that since Sheedy at EFC and none of the prodigy coaches to that point had really done it well, that is quite a feat and sadly because of what ultimately happened is probably largely forgotten.

[@ZackVitus]

TJ is awkwardness personified

[@GiggleGroup]

He’s completely not self aware, takes himself too seriously, interjects and is basically irrelevant.

[@samdonaldson8216]

Still the worst response from the AFL in protecting its players and sanctioning a club and the people in charge of the program. Pathetic!!!!