Essendon and James Hird pay price for drug saga Disgraced Essendon coach James Hird with his wife Tanya yesterday as he heads to AFL House to hear of the Bombers' fate in the wake of the supplements scandal. JAMES Hird has agreed to do the time but not pleaded guilty to the crime. In a settlement to the Essendon supplements scandal reached with the AFL last night, Hird accepted a year's ban from coaching but no liability for the chain of events that has resulted in Essendon being dumped from next month's finals series. Hird's 12-month ban is effective from last Sunday, with a club promise to return as senior coach in 2015. Football manager Danny Corcoran, a long-time mentor of Hird, will serve a six-month ban, with two months suspended. Assistant coach Mark Thompson will pay a $30,000 fine. Club doctor Bruce Reid is the only Essendon official who refused to accept penalty following two days of protracted negotiations at AFL House. His case will be heard on Thursday at a special administrative hearing. None of the Essendon officials admitted guilt. Essendon pleaded guilty to conduct unbecoming or prejudicial to the interests of the AFL. In addition to forfeiting its place in the finals, the club will lose picks in this and next year's national draft and accept a $2 million fine. The penalties are the most severe the AFL has imposed against one of its clubs. AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said the club's 2012 supplement program had raised "deeply disturbing" issues. "On behalf of the AFL Commission, I want to send a clear and unequivocal message to everybody that nothing and no one comes ahead of the duty of care owed to our players and the need to safeguard the fairness of our competition," he said. The pursuit on on-field success can never be allowed to obscure a commitment to these principles. As part of the settlement, Essendon agreed it did not set out to cheat the doping code but that its supplements program, designed by sports scientist Stephen Dank, was experimental, inappropriate and inadequately vetted. The club admitted it failed to adequately protect the health, welfare and safety of its players and that it was still unable to determine whether its players had been administered a banned substance. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said Hird, in addressing the AFL Commission last night, was "genuinely remorseful" and had accepted responsibility. "He will serve his suspension and he is entitled to be welcomed back into the AFL family," Mr Demetriou said. Hird's counsel, Julian Burnside QC, last night described Hird's decision to accept penalty as heroic. As part of the settlement, Hird will abandon Supreme Court action against the AFL. Essendon and its officials were charged by the AFL following an Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation into its supplement program and particularly the suspected use of banned peptide hormones by the club. The ASADA probe, conducted jointly with the AFL, has not resulted in any Essendon players being charged with a doping offence. A 400-page "interim" report provided by ASADA to the AFL formed the case against the club, Hird, and the other officials. The fallout from the seven-month scandal had already resulted in former club president David Evans and chief executive Ian Robson quitting their posts. Dank left the club in September last year. Former high performance manager Dean Robinson was stood down on February 5, the day Essendon revealed concerns about its supplements program and invited ASADA and the AFL to investigate. On February 7, the Australian Crime Commission released its "blackest day in Australian sport" report into the links between organised crime and sport, which examined the proliferation of peptide hormones. Essendon was been under intense pressure to settle its dispute with the AFL and accept agreed sanctions despite new club president Paul Little declaring no confidence in the AFL's handling of the complex issue. Ill-feeling between the club and the league came to head when the AFL last week released a 34-page statement of grounds that detailed the accusations against the club. The removal of Essendon from the finals series means five other clubs - Carlton, Brisbane, North Melbourne, Adelaide and West Coast - now have a chance to take its place.