Too many questions left unanswered from a horrible AFL season Essendon coach James Hird was a victim of the supplements scandal, writes Graham Cornes. WILL history expose 2013 as the year that Australian football lost its innocence? It has been a horrible year for our indigenous game, which for all its flaws has always been accepted for what it is: a working class game that can be, and has been, played by anyone. The game, and the men who play it, have always had their faults, but we've accepted them - even celebrated them. It's been different this year. There has been a sinister element that even our inherently easy going Aussie nature won't overlook. Indicative of changing attitudes has been the overall reaction to a couple of incidents that several years ago would not even have rated a raised eyebrow. Kurt Tippett ended up at Sydney, but not until he served an 11-game suspension. Adelaide fans hated to see him go and still haven't had the satisfaction of being able to vent their anger at him, but as becomes that permanently perplexed expression of his, he was pretty much an innocent participant in all the skulduggery that flourished around him. Too many Adelaide fans wanted their chief executive, Steven Trigg, to pay the ultimate price for Tippett's defection. So Trigg became the scapegoat who served an unprecedented suspension and paid a $50,000 fine for what was little more than an administrative error. His critics needed to feel the fulsome support he received from the true Adelaide supporters at the club's AGM. The biggest story of the season was that which erupted around the Essendon Football club's supplements program. The club was disqualified from the 2013 final series, paid a million dollar fine and had its coach, the previously untainted golden boy of football, James Hird, suspended for a whole season. And yet, 12 months on, there is still no definitive evidence that Hird, or the club, did anything wrong. Hird was the victim, as much as anything, of a tranche of journalists who were desperate to make his transgressions fit their stories, instead of simply reporting the facts. In reality, Hird was guilty of nothing more than pushing the boundaries. His determination to stand up for himself and challenge his critics has been portrayed as selfishness. Pushing the boundaries is not breaking the law and any man of substance will fight those allegations. In the end, however, he and the club had to accept AFL negotiated penalties, which has satisfied no one. Again the court of contemporary public opinion, fuelled by some journalists with egg on their faces, is demanding the heads of Hird and AFL chief, Andrew Demetriou. One of the elite competition's basket cases, Melbourne, was fined for not trying to win matches. Its coach of the time, Dean Bailey, was retrospectively suspended, even though he was at another club. Bailey, who had been ridiculously sacked after taking the club within touching distance of a finals series, has paid a massive penalty, both physically and professionally, when other clubs who have manipulated results for draft picks have escaped without scrutiny. The same club then sacked its next coach at the same time as accumulating multi-million dollar debts. This, on top of gouging $10 million from communities who can afford it least with their poker machines. Its corporate ineptitude is matched only by St Kilda, which sacked another coach just as pre-season was starting. Allegations of rape, and subsequent court actions have further sullied the image of St Kilda, as well as the game itself. Financially, the results from a majority of AFL clubs, have been dismal. Never have so many clubs reported such astounding losses. Yet, as the AFL achieves so many pluses in its key performance indicators, the game has never seemed to be in better shape financially. But for how long can the AFL afford to bail out underperforming clubs? Australian football is the most popular game in the country, but are we guilty of taking it for granted? Has it become too elitist and are we guilty of taking it further from reach of the people who made it great? And are we simply blind to its imperfections? Too many questions.