UPDATE: James Hird has revealed in court he signed a deed of settlement with the AFL last year over Essendon’s supplements program under “duress, threats and inducements”.
On the first day of the trial in which Essendon and its suspended coach are claiming the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority acted unlawfully in running a joint operation with the AFL, Hird sat in the witness stand for the last hour of the day and said he disagreed with some of the things the club’s then leaders divulged when they confirmed the club had self-reported to ASADA.
Hird also twice inferred to the Federal Court that it was former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou who told then Essendon chairman David Evans that the club was being investigated by ASADA for possible for anti-doping violations.
“I was never present when Essendon made a request to ASADA,” Hird said when asked about Essendon self-reporting to the anti-doping body, on February 5 last year.
“I was only present when Andrew Demetriou rang David Evans … and Evans said we had taken performance-enhancing drugs.”
Hird told the court he disagreed with what Evans and then Essendon chief executive Ian Robson told the media in announcing the Bombers had self-reported.
He said he was told by Gillon McLachlan, the AFL’s deputy chief executive last year and now the head of the league, that he, Hird, should appear next to Robson and Evans at the press conference, “for the look of the club and my reputation”.
With wife Tania watching from the back corner of the courtroom, Hird said he also did not want to settle with the AFL on charges of bringing the game into disrepute, for which he was suspended for one year.
“I signed a deal of settlement under duress, threats and inducements,” he said.
The court was told Hird was reluctant to meet with ASADA investigators but did so once he knew he was contractually obliged to do so, and in April last year met with two ASADA investigators and an AFL investigator. Under cross-examination from Sue McNicol, QC, representing ASADA, Hird again brought Demetriou’s name into the fold.
“I was told to tell the truth but not what Andrew Demetriou said to David Evans on the 4th of February,” he said of being told he had to undergo an interview with investigators.
Demetriou has repeatedly denied leaking ASADA’s investigation of the Bombers to Evans, and has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Australian Crime Commission.
Under the sanctions imposed by the AFL in August last year, Essendon was fined $2 million, kicked out of the 2013 finals series and stripped of draft picks. Hird was suspended for one year, his then assistant coach Mark Thompson was fined $30,000 and Essendon’s then football chief, Danny Corcoran, was handed a six-month ban, suspended for three months.
