A precarious halo

It’s somewhat amusing that Alastair Clarkson feels it appropriate to comment about James Hird and the supplements program at Essendon.

 

It was, after all, Hawthorn who in September 2012 were being promoted in The Age as the innovative leaders in using injections to speed the recovery of injured players.

 

Let’s also remember that eleven or twelve other clubs have been fingered as having run supplements programs not dissimilar to Essendon’s and with the same administrative and governance inadequacies. It was the AFL’s own doctor who made this public.

 

It’s a reasonable assumption that Hawthorn were among the clubs found to have been nudging the boundaries.

 

And Clarkson would have us believe he would have stopped Hird in his tracks, had he had the opportunity? Pull the other one Alastair.

 

And Jeff Kennett’s now-expected ‘rent-a-quote’ does nothing to shore up Clarkson’s position, not least because it’s the coach he wanted to move on a year ago that he’s now anointing as a seer.