Saga leaves Dons coach colder

JAMES Hird has revealed Essendon’s supplements saga has made him “colder” and “more ruthless” as a coach as he confirmed the club would look to regenerate its list through youth.

While Hird again detailed the toll the issue had taken on his players, he said he had become “emotionless” to certain aspects of his role.

“Emotionally it’s a big thing, it has been a big part of my life,’’ he said.

“Everywhere you get reminded about it.

“I actually think it has made me a little bit colder and a little bit more ruthless about the way that I coach because you go through something like that you become a bit more emotionless about certain issues.’’

Hird’s future was the subject of debate last week after the Bombers’ 110point loss to St Kilda, but the team responded with a nine-point win over Melbourne on Saturday.

The Bombers’ coach praised the performance of his young players against the Demons, with the team fielding 12 players with fewer than 40 games’ experience.

He confirmed youth was the path the club needed to take in the draft at the end of the season.

“There is no doubt we need to regenerate our list and bring in youth,’’ Hird said on SEN.

“We’ll go to the draft table. I don’t think we are the most appealing club for players to come to from other clubs, so we are committed to going down that youth path — but with a balance.’’

He told 3AW the saga had changed his view of many people in the AFL industry.

“Some people in the AFL I have got no time for and I think are ordinary individuals and don’t speak the truth and have agendas and drive them very hard for their own agendas,’’ Hird said.

“The biggest issue in this is the truth was never the desired outcome or the truth got lost along the way. There are plenty of examples of people who are working in the AFL now who have said the truth doesn’t matter any more, it’s not about the truth.

“The truth, from the start, wasn’t what was sought. And people who have tried to seek the truth have been closed down or haven’t been able to talk about it.

“There is no doubt there was an intention [from the AFL] to look after the players but somewhere along the line the truth got lost.”