Michelangelo,

RE: Essendons undercover rush to serenade John Worsfold says too many
bad things of the Bombers, 10 September 2015.
As you paid me the courtesy of responding to my email I thought I owed it to you to respond
to your article, which was clearly written in response to my email.
Item (Rucci) 1: And there will be many, particularly those from the old James Hird cult at
the Bombers, who have no problem with Little as Essendon Football Club chairman
loading up his private jet with club chief executive Xavier Campbell, captain Jobe Watson
and team-mate Dyson Heppell to serenade Crows coaching director John Worsfold in
Adelaide on Tuesday night.
My Comment:
1. My understanding is those who supported James Hird revile Paul Little. On 9 February
2013, five days before the AFL / ASADA investigation started, Essendon Chairman
David Evans agreed with Gillon McLachlans decision to exonerate the AFL
commissioners, the Essendon board and Essendon players but to find Essendon and Hird
guilty. That inexplicable, and arguably treacherous, decision was apparently endorsed by
the Essendon board, which included Little. As I have stated on numerous occasions all
board members should have been kicked out of the club at that point.
2. In May 2013, the Essendon board, in what I have been advised was a breach of its
fiduciary duty, gave the hopelessly flawed Switkowski Report to the AFL to use against
the Essendon members and Hird. Little was a member of that board and to this day I dont
understand why the members didnt ask the board members to pay the $2 million fine to
the AFL from their own pockets.
3. Little persuaded / forced Hird to abandon his intention to defend himself at the AFL
hearing, which was never going to take place, and forced him to abandon his Victorian
Supreme Court case in return for a promise that he would coach Essendon in 2015 and
2016. Littles actions since September 2013 suggest a case could be made that he had
little intention of honouring that promise. In September 2014, Little asked Mark
Thompson if he were prepared to coach Essendon in 2015. So much for Littles contract
with Hird for him to coach in 2015 and 2016. Then in 2015, we discovered that Little
sacked Hird and then had the audacity to claim that Hird had resigned.
Item (Rucci) 2: Former Australian Test cricketer and Sydney-based business consultant
Bruce Francis is among these cult members. He has put on wide media distribution a
simplistic and flawed attack on those such as the Crows and inaugural Adelaide captain
Chris McDermott for holding Little and his posse to account.
My Comment:
1

1. I havent lived in Sydney since the mid-1980s. I have been virtually house-bound since
2003 so I havent referred to myself as a business consultant since then.
2. Michelangelo you must not be high enough up the pecking order to have received the
email about me. My understanding is my name isnt supposed to be mentioned in News
Limited newspapers. I was told I wouldnt even get a run in the death notices.
3. You got your knickers in a knot because I said you and McDermott were dills for not
questioning Worsfolds decision to attend the meeting. Well, I am furious you would
suggest I am a member of a cult. I am too egotistical to worship anyone else. I have never
met Hird. I refused to speak to him on the phone. Eighteen months after his original
request to speak to me I phoned him to tell him Peter Gordon had done a deal with the
AFL for the two Bulldog players and two Port players to receive a two-game ban if they
pleaded guilty to taking a banned substance. At that stage no one at Essendon, including
the legal team, was aware of the deal. I dont know Hird but to the best of my knowledge,
he, unlike the AFL and media, has been honest. I have 54 arch lever folders with over
14,000 pages in them and in my view no one has made a case that he did anything wrong.
No journalist has even had the decency to publish the Essendon organisation structure or
Hirds job description. Hirds determination to fight for justice should be admired by
everyone.
4. Unlike you and your media colleagues, I have studied the Victoria OH&S Act, the
Essendon matrix organisation structure, Hirds job description and the AFL / Essendon /
Player Agreement and the law says Hird wasnt responsible for anything that happened,
or didnt happen, at Essendon. As you will shortly find out, the AFL commissioners, the
Essendon board, Paul Hamilton and Dean Robinson were the people responsible for the
governance failures at Essendon.
5. My so-called simplistic and flawed attack on the Crows and Chris McDermott was
based upon McDermotts claim in your newspaper that Worsfolds behaviour

was outstanding, advising the Crows well in advance of the

meeting [my emphasis]. I believed Worsfield should not have agreed to meet Little
and Campbell. I also, like a dill, believed that what McDermott said about Worsfold
informing the Crows was true. Silly me, you assure me that McDermott wasnt telling the
truth. You claim Worsfold didnt tell the Crows. I look forward to seeing the retraction in
tomorrows newspaper. And lets not forget that I look forward to reading an attack on
Worsfold for meeting the Bombers in the dark.
Item (Rucci) 3: Critically, Francis, the cult members and those who seek to defend the
Bombers will say Essendon owes the Adelaide Football Club nothing at all not even a
courtesy call. This is the arrogant attitude that has tarnished Essendon and cost it respect
across the AFL in the past three years as the Bombers have broken AFL rules again and
again.
My Comment:
1. Talk about arrogance. What right have you to assume what I will say? You dont
know me. Id back my manners, etiquette and proprietary against anyones
particularly anyone who works for Rupert Murdoch or Peter Blunden. No one was
2

brought up in a stricter home than I. I am sure June Daly Watkins used to phone my
mother for advice. As you have made my cricket background part of this story I dont
believe I am big noting to tell an anecdote about my appearance in the Lords Test.
My mother sent me a letter wishing me good luck and reminded me that I had to take
my baggy green off when walking through the long room because it was bad manners
wearing a hat indoors. Shame, she didnt tell me to watch the ball because I was
bowled first ball. You have no idea whether I think Essendon owed the Crows a
courtesy call. If you were transparent, as you claimed in an email to me tonight, you
would have quoted what I said, which was substantially different from what you are
implying here. I have never defended the Bombers. I have defended Hird and will
continue to do so until Fitzpatrick, McLachlan, Little and Chris Heffernan are forced
to resign.
2. The closest I have come to defending the Bombers is to say at this point in time there
is no evidence, let alone proof, that the players had taken a banned substance. I did
say it was wrong for ASADA to claim Stephen Dank intended giving the players 1102
AOD-9604 injections, when in fact my spreadsheet indicates they received a total of
40 AOD-9604 injections. NB To give the readers a chance to judge for themselves
whether you have misrepresented my position, I shall insert the relevant points from
our email exchange at the end of this dissection
3. Your comment this is the arrogant attitude that has tarnished Essendon and cost it
respect across the AFL in the past three years as the Bombers have broken AFL rules
again and again doesnt stand up to scrutiny. I think the following behaviour displays
a lack of intestinal fortitude rather than arrogance:
i.

The Essendon board agreed to the AFLs demand to sack Dean Robinson on 5
February 2013.

ii.

Essendon chairman David Evans agreed to the AFLs request to employ

Elizabeth Lukin.

iii.

Evans agreed to the AFLs request to pretend that Essendon self-reported.

iv.

Hird agreed to Lukins demand that he accept full responsibility, despite his
belief he wasnt responsible.

v.

Hird agreed, after bullying by McLachlan, to toe the untrue AFL line at the 5
February 2013 media conference.

vi.

Evans, acting on behalf of the Essendon board, agreed to McLachlans

demand to exonerate the AFL commissioners, the Essendon board and the
Essendon players, while accepting Essendon and Hird were guilty and needed
to be punished.

vii.

Evans agreed to the AFLs request to contract Ziggy Switkowski to undertake

a review of governance at Essendon.

viii.

Evans and the board were kind enough to give the AFL a copy of the
hopelessly flawed Switkowski Report so that it could be used against the club
and Hird.

ix.

Evans agreed to the AFLs request to approach Hird about standing down as
coach.

x.

Evidence suggests that the Essendon board must have run dead in not
complaining about Demetriou claiming every other day that Essendon and
Hird were guilty.

xi.

Evidence suggests that that the Essendon board must have run dead in not
complaining about the continuous leaks from the AFL / ASADA investigation.

xii.

Evans agreed to the AFLs decision in June 2013 to ban Essendon from the
final series in 2013.

xiii.

Little agreed not to defend the unlosable vexatious charges against Essendon.

xiv.

Little agreed to pay the AFL $2 million and accepted the loss of draft picks.
When one considers that the law states the AFL commissioners were equally
responsible with the Essendon board for OH&S at Essendon, it is outrageous
that Little agreed to these penalties.

xv.

Little agreed to persuade Hird to accept a 12-month suspension and to

withdraw his Supreme Court action against the AFL.

xvi.

Essendon agreed to throw its greatest servant, Dr Bruce Reid, under the bus.

xvii.

Little agreed to the AFLs demand to pay Robinson an estimated $1 million

out-of-court settlement.

xviii.

Michelangelo, if you understand cricket terminology Ill declare now with

about eight wickets in hand and let you detail examples of Essendons
arrogant attitude to see if it matches my above examples of Essendons craven
capitulation to the AFL. While you are at it, I should appreciate it if you
detailed the AFL rules that the Bombers have broken again and again. And
dont forget to explain how serious those broken rules were in comparison to
the Crows cheating in respect of the Kurt Tippett affair. I know News Limited
newspapers repeatedly claimed Essendon cheated by administering banned
substances but I thought as we speak the players had been found not guilty.

4. As we are talking about arrogance we may as well list just a few of many examples of
the AFLs arrogance:
i.

It colluded with the Gillard Government, ASADA and the Essendon board to
find Essendon and Hird guilty before the investigation had started.

ii.

Finding Essendon guilty enabled the AFL to receive a $2 million windfall.

iii.

It ran an investigation with ASADA without ever having established a Terms

of Reference. Unbelievably, there were no rules or protocols for running the
investigation. It is beyond my comprehension that any organisation could
think they could get away with such arrogant behaviour.

iv.

The investigation was alleged to have been set up to prove Essendon players
took banned substances. As it transpires, ASADA and the AFL secretly
created a second investigation, which looked into governance issues at
Essendon. The fact that the ASADA Act precluded ASADA from checking
whether Essendon undertook reference checks didnt concern it. Apparently,
nor did the fact that none of the investigators was qualified to investigate
human resource and OH&S issues.

v.

The AFL sold access memberships to Essendon members after it had banned
Essendon from playing in the final series. In laymans terms it appears the
AFL may have been selling a product that didnt exist.

vi.

On 9 August 2013 Demetriou claimed that points would not be taken away
from Essendon, but we were subsequently to learn that the decision to take
points away was made in June 2013.

vii.

Demetriou claimed on a number of occasions that the Australian Crime

Commission (ACC) and ASADA had cleared him of any wrong-doing with
respect to him divulging confidential information to Evans. Given neither the
ACC nor ASADA conducted an investigation into the matter, I fail to see how
Demetriou was arrogant enough to claim both organisations had cleared him.

Item (Rucci) 4: And it seems they do not care what the world thinks of them. Or maybe they
do. Why else would Little make an undercover, in-the-dark rushed trip to Adelaide rather
than have his club chief touch base with the Crows to inform them of their intent to meet
Worsfold in secret in Adelaide?
My Comment:
As I told you in my emails, I agree with you. Id hang the bastards. If you bothered to read
the Essendon blogs you would know that countless numbers of members want to be in the
Campbell / Little firing squad.
Item (Rucci) 5: There are two points that need to be underlined from this appalling moment.
AFL Coaches Association chief Mark Brayshaw made it clear on Wednesday that he had
asked the three clubs seeking coaches Carlton, Essendon and Adelaide that they would
be upfront, respectful and courteous to their rival clubs when seeking interviews with
prospective candidates. The Blues were. The Crows are. The Bombers are not.
My Comment:
5

As I said in my email, I agree with you.

Item (Rucci) 6: Worsfold, on reflection, is said to regret the meeting. Adelaide may not have
had the power to stop the session, but they should have known about it first hand.
My Comment:
Let me be clear here. As I understand it, Essendon asked for the meeting and are the bad
guys, and Worsfold agreed to the meeting and he is still smelling of roses. Im not sure
whether this is a good analogy but if a bloke asked a married woman for sex and she said yes,
Id have thought she was at least equally as naughty as the bloke. By all means slam
Essendons behaviour but please dont try and make out Worsfold is the innocent party.
When your column appears in a city newspaper instead of your normal town newspaper you
are supposed to be objective.
Item (Rucci) 7: Campbells apology to Adelaide is described as forced and sarcastic
more proof of the Bombers arrogance.
My Comment:
1. Earlier this evening you waxed lyrical about your transparency. Why then didnt you
reveal the name of the person who described Campbells apology as forced and
sarcastic? You used the word sarcastic in your email to me. I hope you are not
elevating yourself to such a height you feel as though your unsourced quote somehow
gives your article more authority.
2. Michelangelo, let me give you a little advice. You claiming an unnamed source said
Campbells apology was forced and sarcastic is not proof of the Bombers arrogance.
I suggest you, your colleagues, ASADA and WADA buy a dictionary and look up the
word proof.
As promised above, here are the relevant extracts concerning my attitude to Essendon from
our earlier email exchange. I think they prove that you misrepresented me in your article
when you implied I defended the Bombers:
Michelangelo: One day Essendon will realise the best way to behave in this world is to treat
others in the way they want to be treated.
Bruce: I thought that was so obvious that it didnt need to be said. However, I

couldnt

agree with you more. On a number of occasions I have suggested that all board
members elected before this year should be sacked. I think Little is incompetent and unlike
silly James Hird (who did trust him), I dont trust him. I think he should have been forced to
resign for agreeing to find Hird guilty in early 2013. However, I didnt want to distract
readers from the point of my email.
Michelangelo: They agreed to not approach any coaching contender without telling his
current employer.

Bruce: I am quite happy to hang the bastards. I have been told a number of times I have the
numbers to move against them and Campbell at an EGM. I just thought that as the Crows
knew of the approach five days before the meeting they could have expressed the same
indignation to Campbell and Little by phone. That would have saved a flight to South
Australia and the crocodile tears from the Crows, McDermott and yourself.

Essendon

sinned and should be punished, but the Crows made it a major issue and
brought unnecessary adverse publicity to the code. NB I accept your claim that McDermott
was wrong and I acknowledge I was wrong in claiming the Crows knew about the meeting.
Michelangelo: But any respectful football club and organisation would have stayed true to
its word that it would abide by the code - be upfront, transparent and admirable in its
behaviour.
Bruce: Couldnt

agree with you more. Unfortunately, if Essendon had done

that it would have made the AFL and the other 17 clubs self-conscious. Im only a Johnnycome-lately to the AFL but their response to Phil Walshs death notwithstanding, I dont
associate upfront, transparent and admirable with the AFL, the 17 clubs or the media,
which acts as a branch office of the AFL.
Michelangelo: But this seems beyond Essendon and Mr Paul Little.
Bruce:

Couldnt agree with you more. But what else would you expect.

The Essendon board agreed with the AFL, and by association, the seventeen other clubs, to
find Essendon and Hird guilty on 9 February 2013, which was five days before the first AFL /
ASADA witness was interviewed.
Michelangelo: Xavier Campbell's attitude and sarcastic "apology" to Andrew Fagan was yet
another example of a football club that has a long way to go to earn respect from its
colleagues in the AFL.
Bruce: Snap. In my capacity as a member, Ive sent over a dozen letters to the board and
have only received acknowledgement once. As we have seen, protocol is not a strong suite at
Essendon. Mind you, its non-existent at the AFL and the vast majority of clubs. The ABC is
still waiting for a reply from every club as to whether they have ever complied with clause
7.4 of the AFLs Anti-Doping Code.
Michelangelo, just to clarify things is it okay for the Crows to meet in secret to sack a coach
two years before his contract expires but its not all right to approach a coaching consultant
about a job after the consultancy finishes.
I look forward to further exchanges.
Bruce Francis