In announcing his time at Essendon had come to an end, James Hird spoke first about the beginning. Of the day in 1991 he walked into the club as a 17-year-old and how he fell in love over the years with the place, the people and the supporters.

Hird's grandfather was an Essendon premiership player, his father a senior footballer for the Bombers, and he of course was one of the greatest ever: a five-time club champion and premiership captain who won a Brownlow and a Norm Smith.

He has football-loving sons who might well aspire to taking that relationship into a fourth generation.

And Essendon fell in love with him. So much so that when Hird became available, the prospect of the messiah returning to lead the rebuilding of a kingdom on the brink was irresistible. And the cavalier manner in which the poorly governed club handed its favourite son the keys has become a cautionary tale for football clubs across the country.

Five years have passed since the Bombers paid out Matthew Knights' two-year contract, worth at least $1 million. Over recent weeks Essendon chairman Paul Little has carefully managed Hird's departure from the club, saving the Bombers from the wrongful dismissal claim Hird threatened last October and putting a good face on at the end when it finally came.

Little, who always planned to step down at the end of this season, confirmed his departure along with that of the coach, and rightly so. His chairmanship was born in acrimony and has not been a success. He has tried but failed to control Hird's seething resentment and damaging blame game, and put in place executives and football bosses ill-equipped to handle a club in crisis.

The many millions of dollars drained out of club coffers during Little's tenure has continued to the finish, with Hird negotiating a payout of between $700,000 and $750,000. That on top of the similar amount the suspended Hird demanded not to coach in 2014.

As with so many coach sackings and forced resignations, Tuesday's announcement came accompanied with tears, words of praiseworthy thanks and sombre-faced players and officials.

Except these players' faces seemed more drained than usual – a silent, shell-shocked Greek chorus to the press conference. The players who everyone in power at Essendon insists have been their priority, except when they weren't; when winning and overpowering their opponents with that extra little something saw a program put in place that remains unexplained and ill-defined, and could yet lead to punishment from the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Little – having informed key Essendon stakeholders including the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews early on Tuesday of the decision to remove Hird immediately – stated in writing and verbally that "James Hird's place in our history of our club should never be questioned".

Certainly not as a player. But as a coach the facts show he oversaw the most catastrophic period in Essendon's history.

Essendon was a kingdom in disarray when he took over, but now it is a fallen power, which even the most committed supporters believe will take up to four years to turn around.

Woefully unprepared for the senior role, Hird seems to have been surrounded by four distinct groups: sports science fanatics; yes men; men with their heads in the sand; or men who tried, but not hard enough, to stop the multiple injections and other dubious drugs.

The program Hird was warned to avoid but still put in place when he empowered Stephen Dank and Dean Robinson to oversee it led to two years of crucial draft restrictions and a $2 million fine, and saw him become the first senior coach suspended for a season. He fought legally to avoid a charge of bringing the game into disrepute, but the AFL sanctions said his actions caused Essendon to do that.

It is true the players were invigorated when cleared to play by the AFL's anti-doping tribunal at the start of the season, and that the WADA appeal proved crippling. But Hird cannot avoid responsibility for that, nor should he fail to see the irony each time he pleads with others to look after the players. Not every player stopped supporting him, but enough had come to see he had to go.

Little sowed the seeds for his removal after the 110-point St Kilda loss in early July. Since then the losses have compounded, attendances fallen to an all-time Etihad Stadium low and even those so-called powerful coterie groups and threatening members were no longer so defiant in supporting the coach.

None of the all-time greats Little lured back to the club to tape over the cracks had come close to healing Essendon's wounds.

Defiant to the end, Hird made it clear again on Tuesday that he did not believe the damage was in any way due to his actions. His ongoing anger at the AFL and belief that he was shafted came through, along with the vow to one day tell his version of the truth. He had agreed to go, said Hird, because the club needed clear air, and his financial settlement will keep him silent for a period.

The players needed space to play, he said, and the club needed to become a normal club again.

Hird also stated that a friend had recently advised him that perhaps it was time for him and his family to enjoy their lives and enjoy "how wonderful life really is".

It is hard to imagine him working in the AFL industry again, although Hird jokingly asked one media representative whether their organisation was interested in a "belligerent personality who doesn't back down and works reasonably hard".

Hird also said: "I don't quite love the game like I used to."

Conversely, his legacy will never be quite the same. Even for those who loved him.