James Hird's latest defeat in court – this time being slugged with a bill for $660,000 – is another chapter in a saga that could eventually cost more than $35 million.
The fall-out of the Essendon injecting program is now in its fourth year after the Bombers self-reported to the AFL and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority over fears players had been administered performance-enhancing drugs.
While there has been untold damage to individuals and the sport, in terms of pure finances, the figures already are astounding – and will jump when the Bombers settle compensation claims for the 34 past and current players.
Specific details for all charges are not publicly available but Fairfax Media has used available documents and considered estimates.
Two lawyers involved in the Essendon case and another in the NRL anti-doping saga have estimated legal fees in the Bombers' case would have topped $10 million – so far.
This includes lawyers and Queens Counsel – the latter can charge more than $15,000 per day in court – representing Essendon, the AFL, ASADA, the 34 players, former player Hal Hunter, the World Anti-Doping Agency, sports scientist Stephen Dank and former fitness chief Dean Robinson.
The Bombers, according to their 2015 annual report, had spent almost $5.5 million fighting the anti-doping charges – and this has not included ongoing expenses ahead of the players' appeal against the ban imposed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Essendon spent $460,681 last year, $1.07 million in 2014 and $3.9 million the previous year, which included the $2 million fine imposed by the AFL.
They had also sought independent media advisors through the saga.
Hird has faced significant costs himself, including the $750,000 payment a mystery benefactor paid on his behalf to ASADA.
On Tuesday, he lost his bid for Chubb Insurance to pay his Federal Court trial costs of $572,691.25 and the Full Court appeal costs of $86,828.75, a total of $659,520. He will have legal fees of his own added.
Justice Kim Hargrave said Hird had failed to establish any of his claims and formally dismissed the case.
The Bombers paid out a $1 million settlement in 2014 to Robinson to end his wrongful dismissal claim, and were fined $200,000 by WorkSafe for failing to provide a safe workplace for the players.
On the August night in 2013 when Hird was suspended for a year by the AFL, he agreed to a two-year contract extension – having been off contract a year later.
While it's likely he would have been given an extension had the Bombers not engaged in the supplements program which ultimately destroyed his career, the financial cost of this was felt more dearly as a result of the scandal.
Hird would be paid about $750,000 in 2014 during his year off, $750,000 in 2015 when he was sacked late in the season and is said to have pocketed most, if not all, of what he would have been entitled to this year.
Mark Thompson, Hird's senior assistant and caretaker coach in 2014, would eventually pay his AFL-sanctioned fine of $30,000.
Essendon has agreed to cover the contracts of the dozen banned players still at the club this year, while those clubs who have taken on former Bombers who have been banned – Paddy Ryder, Angus Monfries, Stewart Crameri, Jake Melksham and Jake Carlisle – want the Dons to also cover these contracts.
This is likely to be about $7 million. The Dons have also borne the costs of top-up players this year and, briefly, in the pre-season of 2015 when the banned players had been provisionally suspended. While these payments are understood to not be major, they add to the bottom line.
The next challenge facing the Bombers is settling compensation claims brought by the 34 players for health-and-safety breaches and loss of earnings and reputation. This has been estimated at between $10 million and $20 million.
Bombers' chairman Lindsay Tanner has said this will be covered by insurance and the club.
While still seeking over-arching advice from the AFL Players Association's lawyers, the players also have drafted in independent advice, including from personal injury law firm Holding Redlich.
The $35 million figure also includes the cost of the peptides, including a $60,000 invoice for 112 different "amino-acid" treatments from the South Yarra clinic Hypermed, where players were treated between April and August in that clinic's hyperbaric chamber and repeatedly injected with substances in 2013.
