Essendon is targeting me: Robinson

UPDATE: Former Essendon high-performance manager Dean Robinson has named Bombers coach James Hird as the man who interviewed controversial bi-chemist Stephen Dank for his job at the club.

Robinson will appear in a one-hour program on Channel 7 tomorrow night, but 7 News tonight unveiled some of his explosive answers.

Robinson, who was stood down by the Bombers on February 5 after then chairman David Evans approached the AFL to investigate the club, spoke in depth about his relationship with all the key players in the saga.

Robinson said Hird and football operations manager Danny Corcoran met with him and Stephen Dank and asked for the supplements program, which was codenamed Black Ops, to proceed.

Robinson said: “They put a scenario to Steve, and Steve said to Danny and James - specifically to them – 'what you are asking me to do is Black Ops?'"

Darcy interviewed Robinson for four hours on Saturday, just one day after the man known as “The Weapon” quit the club. He had previously been under suspension for his role in the controversy.

An emotional Robinson is concerned his career is over.

“I am in tears,” he said.

“I am shaking and the worst thing is walking in and seeing my kids and realising that everything I have worked for, everything that I have tried to do for my family, Essendon is targeting me.”

Essendon released a statement shortly before the claims went to air on 7News, saying that neither Hird nor Corcoran had used the term "Black Ops".

"As has previously been stated, James Hird emphasised that the 2012 supplements program run by Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson must be legal according to WADA and the AFL, must be approved by the club doctor, must be given with the consent of the player and must not harm the player," the statement said.

"Contrary to reports, James Hird and Danny Corcoran never said the program should be run as a 'black op'. This is nonsense and categorically rejected by the Club. This assertion is slanderous."

In an interview with Yahoo!7 Sport today, Darcy said that Robinson wasn't hiding behind anyone, and that he just wanted to tell his side of the story.

"He's well aware that in his role as a high-performance manager at the Essendon football club he was responsible for all the staff in that department, including Stephen Dank," Darcy said.

"He was involved in all the meetings and he certainly can't suggest he was a side player.

"There will be people involved who I'm sure will have a very different version of events but he was ready to tell his story and my role was to ask everything we could and not leave anything on the table."

The Seven commentator refused to be drawn on whether current coach James Hird, or any players, would face consequences once the report was handed down.

He did, however, suggest that those who had prejudged people at the Bombers may regret it.

"There's been a lot of running commentary on various things and I think people might regret some of the things people have said along the way about wanting people's Brownlows stripped and judging certain people," Darcy said.

Darcy, who spent hours talking with the man known as "The Weapon", felt that the experience at Essendon had left the former Bombers man devastated.

"My initial impressions were that I was meeting with a very shattered and very broken guy, and that the saga had taken an enormous toll on him," Darcy said.

"He and his family had been affected by it severely."

Darcy said it was fair to say that Robinson had felt he had been made a scapegoat.

Robinson resigned from the Bombers on Friday, and is expected to sue the club over the damage to his health and reputation the saga has caused.

New Bombers chairman Paul Little said the club was still confident they would be playing finals in September and Hird would be coach for the rest of the season.

"The board and the club remain very united about how we should approach the challenges of the investigation that we currently have in front of us," Little said in a message to supporters on the club's website.

"Not only are we united in relation to meeting those challenges but we're also united in our support of James Hird, who we believe can lead us into a successful finals campaign."

Tomorrow in The West Australian Luke Darcy speaks about his interview with Dean Robinson.