OUTGOING Sydney Swans chairman Richard Colless has launched a strong attack on Essendon and its suspended coach James Hird, describing it as "extraordinary" that the club's supplements program was not stopped sooner, and saying Hird had been "anything but heroic" in accepting his penalty.
Speaking on Fox Footy's On the Couch program on Monday night, the outspoken Swans boss made no secret of his feelings about the Bombers, who were disqualified from this year's finals, fined $2 million and stripped of draft picks by the AFL last week.
"The health and safety of players has clearly been compromised," Colless said.
"I'm not a lawyer or a pharmacist, so I look at these things through the eyes of an administrator, [and] I just think it's extraordinary that so much of what's now well documented occurred, and yet no one seems to take any ownership for it.
"It really strikes me as remarkable.
"I reckon in a well-run club, within two days the CEO would know about it, and within three days the coach would know about it.
"These are not isolated incidents."
Colless then targeted Hird and his lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, who described the Bombers coach as "heroic" for accepting a 12-month suspension as part of the negotiated outcome to the saga despite, in his opinion, having done "nothing wrong".
"I don't have any ill will towards James Hird – I don't know him – but to be called 'heroic', to me is really showing contempt for the football public," Colless said.
"I think he was anything but heroic.
"He might be a very nice guy, and a very decent person, but I think he was singularly unheroic, quite frankly."
Colless also gave details of a recent meeting with his Collingwood counterpart Eddie McGuire, as the pair sought to mend their fractured relationship.
Having already clashed over the Swans' cost of living allowance, tensions between Colless and McGuire increased in the wake of the Magpies president's King Kong gaffe on Melbourne radio, the week after Adam Goodes was racially abused by a Collingwood fan at the MCG.
An angry Colless slammed McGuire at a press conference, which in turn angered McGuire.
"Eddie and I met privately a month ago," Colless said.
"We had left previous meetings not as close friends.
"We spent two hours together.
"It was warm and humorous, we talked about a whole bunch of things, there was a big man hug at the end of it."
However, the highly respected administrator said he still didn't see eye-to-eye with McGuire on all issues.
"I don't agree with some of his views, and I think he takes advantage of calling football to push agendas, but that doesn't mean I don't like him," Colless said.
