I understand exactly what you say Terminator, and cast no aspersions on Dr Reid, but, fact is, with all the protocols, all the relevance of a 'club doctor', and a 'supplements program', the program was implemented, practiced and 'well developed enough' to "get past / get through " the good doctor, until he got to a point where he was not satisfied/comfortable with what was going on.
Without trying to defend Hird and paint him as "cruelly dealt with", I do think he has been "tarred and feathered" a bit more then he actually deserves. I guess I base my 'defense with limits' on articles such as this :
www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-15/james-hir...ndon-bombers/7090080
Certainly, as coach, the 'buck stopped with him', as for any head of any organisation. He was naive and stupid to get involved with Dank and Robinson. But he set out to do no more than what all the other 17 clubs try to do -ie 'find an edge" ,and, I really see no difference between what he - James Hird - actually did, and what the revered Leigh Matthews did with IV re-hydration drips at half time, and low altitude flying during the Brizzy Lions triple premiership years.
All clubs are trying 'to get an edge over their competitors' and no one can tell me that in the past, and even now , James Hird is the only coach who has gone done the wrong path to find that 'edge'. As a coach, we would all do 'whatever it takes' to get that edge. ...(
of course, I accept that all the good people of DL would always do it legally...!!)
At the end of the day, there is a 'person / human being' at the back of all this, and, without again trying to paint him as 'blameless', I've really struggle to find anything that suggests he actually was the one that instructed a banned substance to be used, for him to be deserving of the catergorisation and pillorying that he has copped over the past 6 years.
I think there's a lot of merit in an article such as this( even though its fox news), and personally, I agree with his father.
www.foxsports.com.au/afl/james-hirds-fat...d12b8b6fd331d9241d6d
This whole saga started with a Federal government trying to distract attention from its 'woes', -particularly the Prime Minister's woes at the time - and once they got involved, there needed to be a pariah at the end of it.
That just happened to be James Hird.
All I am saying, is that the bloke knows how to play the game, was a damn fine player, with damn fine skills - let alone the ability to win a Brownlow. And I think we need that type of fellow on our coaching panel because I reckon a bloke like that could help fix a lot of the woes we have had. And, more worryingly, we haven't got a lot of 'his type' on our coaching panel!
His football experience & knowledge would be great for the younger fellows on our playing list, and I don't think we should stop at having him as a 'Melbourne based opposition analyst coach". If he's interested , I'd have absolutely no problems with getting him on board.
