My interest in sport is, well, about less than Zero but I do find some of the machinations and politics of various codes rather amusing for the passions that they invoke. The rather neat way that Essendon have managed to find a way to keep James Hird in grocery money while he is suspended during 2014 would have to get a very big tick for ingenuity though:
In a joint statement, the AFL and Essendon said: “The AFL has accepted the Essendon Football Club’s position that James will not be paid in 2014 and equally the AFL have accepted that the Essendon Football Club has the right to make payments to James Hird in the 2013 year as it sees fit.”
Sir Humphrey Appleby would be beaming with absolute approval at this bit of nonsense. Personally I think that it proves for once and all that there is no sportsmanship once the spivs and lawyers get involved with sport.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- AFL comes out swinging over Hird (news.theage.com.au)
- Tania Hird takes aim at AFL (theage.com.au)
- Hird to get lump sum in pay deal with AFL (theage.com.au)
- Bombers set to face ‘several’ charges: Fahey (theage.com.au)
- The Essendon SAGA continues: (getrealaussierules.com)
- Hird has big win over AFL (news.theage.com.au)
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
You are almost spot on with your opinion on the James Hird farce, Iain, except that it’s not so much the ‘spivs & lawyers’ who have brought this ridiculous situation about, but more James Hird himself … with the help of the Essendon Football club.
You see – and I hate to bore you with this – the point is:
James Hird is clearly THE person most responsible for the Essendon footballers being injected 4,000 times with unknown & unapproved suspicious substances throughout the 2012 season.
Yet Hird (and Essendon) claims he (and they) are the victims of the subsequent ASADA investigations resulting (so far) in Essendon being stripped of a finals appearance in 2013, Essendon being fined $2 million by the AFL and Hird being suspended from coaching for 12 months.
Yes, according to James Hird and Essendon, they did nothing wrong.
F*cking bullshit they didn’t.
In my opinion, Essendon and Hird should be permanently banned from the AFL.
What they did can be summed up in a few words:
THEY F’CKING TRIED TO CHEAT
… and got caught out.
Footy rant over …. you may have your blog back now, Iain. Although you raised it, mate!
Frankly I think James Hird is very clearly a Spiv Ray and this scheme has also obviously been cooked up by a lawyer…
The lawyers acting on his instructions, yes, they put the farcical $1 million advance salary together, but Hird is the architect of the whole scandal, the whole mess. I am amazed at the gall and audacity of James Hird who seems to have a Messiah-like complex where he thinks he can do no wrong and is above the law and norms that apply to others. And the behaviour of the Essendon administration is no better – this is a club that will do ‘whatever it takes’ to get an advantage regardless of the legal and moral codes it may break in getting there. Essendon and Hird show no conscience and no remorse for what’s been done. And it defies all logic that the AFL seems reluctant to take harsher action against them.
Its the curse of professional sport that has large amounts of money involved Ray. When such big money and great prestige is involved in winning such skulduggery is sadly inevitable and really unavoidable.