I'm a minister of religion and I am NOT offended. Very clever.The spin doctors are claiming the penalty the severest ever. What a load of horse excrement. The fines are meaningless, Skull Little will simply extract it from some coterie of club billionaires. The move to 9th place and subsequent exclusion from finals similarly laughable, even the Essendon faithful aren?t stupid enough to believe they can win this year.
And when it comes to the draft penalties, it?s the exactly the same as Adelaide got for Tippett (whether the picks were lost of volunteered is a meaningless distinction). No wonder their president thought the penalty ?tough but fair? ? they have been treated with absurd leniency. Whether it was because of Essendon?s threats and bombast or just the AFL?s pro Victorian bias I don?t know but the result sucks.
And as for Little?s press conference, he described Hird as a martyr (Little?s response to one question was James accepted the penalty to save Essendon). Which I thought was amusing because when he returned as coach he was seen as a messiah. And of course like another well regarded messianic figure, after 12 months he will rise again. Some reporters have descriped faith in Hird as being like a cult, at the risk of possibly causing offence:
We believe in one Club,
the Bombers, the mighty Don?s,
winner of more premierships,
than any other club, ever.
We believe in one Messiah, James Hird,
the truest Son of the Club,
begotten of a Bombers Father (and Grandfather)
Coached by Sheedy, toached by Brownlow.
For us and for our salvation
he undertook the coaching job:
with the power of absolute faith
he became incarnate in the coaches box,
and was made messiah.
For our sake he was crucified under Andy Demetriou;
he chastisement and was suspended.
On the twelfth month he will rise again
in accordance with the Comission;
he will ascend to the coaches box
and may be seated at the right hand of Kevin Sheedy.
He will come again in glory to win more premierships,
and his kingdom will have no end.
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