AFL-Dons talks to resume Tuesday

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ESSENDON leaders remained defiant as the AFL Commission hearing into footy's doping saga failed to reach a resolution after marathon talks.

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Bombers chairman Paul Little and chief executive Ray Gunston were still trying to hammer out a deal for the embattled club late last night.

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But senior assistant coach Mark Thompson said officials in the commission's sights were "nowhere near" accepting many aspects of the damning disrepute charges laid by the AFL last week.

Embattled coach James Hird was believed to be considering running with the legal action he started last Thursday, when he lodged a writ against the AFL in the Supreme Court.

Thompson said he believed he had been charged as a drug cheat and "I am not - so that's what I am fighting on, my reputation and integrity, and I want to clear my name".

The Bombers will resume talks at 11am about penalties that could see them stripped of premiership points and fined.

Thompson described the sanctions being negotiated as "possibly more severe than anything in the history of the game".

Thompson told AFL 360 on Fox Footy it would be "disastrous" if Hird were suspended for 12 months.

"The rap sheet that got put into the media last week, it is nowhere near that at the moment. We are trying to scrub as many (charge particulars) off at the moment to be reasonable and be charged for what we believe is fair in our eyes ... we have all been quite reasonable.

"The fines and punishment the club are going to receive, it is quite severe, it is probably more severe than anything in history. No one has ever had their points taken off them.

"Draft picks as well, and then you look at it and say, actually we haven't been charged, no players have been charged.

"We have broken no rules or codes, and no players have used prohibited substances, so for us to accept what has been offered is being very generous and kind."

Little, Hird, Thompson, Corcoran and Reid all fronted up before 2pm yesterday with an army of lawyers - including human rights lawyer Julian Burnside, acting for Hird, and QC Jack Rush - in tow.

Hird's wife, Tania, was also present.

Key players including Thompson, Reid and Corcoran began leaving at 7 o'clock last night.

The Bombers had been locked in intense negotiations with the league since Thursday, when a meeting of club presidents and the AFL Commission left Essendon isolated in its fight against the league. The presidents declared unanimous support for the AFL on Thursday and agreed the commission was the right forum to hear charges.

Earlier that day, Hird lodged a writ in the Supreme Court aimed at blocking the AFL Commission from hearing his charge and forcing the league to hand over more specifics about the charges and potential witnesses.

An emotional phone call from an unidentified mother of a Bombers player to a Melbourne radio station early on Thursday morning is believed to have turned the tide of public opinion against Essendon and Hird.

The more conciliatory mood from the Essendon camp came as a stark contrast to comments from Little and Hird last Wednesday, when they fronted the media after the release of a damning 34-page summary of charges was released by the AFL.

Little said then the league was determined to punish the Bombers "as though we are drug cheats", while Hird described the release of charge particulars as an "ambush".

The charge sheet alleged Essendon players may have been given the banned drug Thymosin Beta-4 among 15 substances administered in its supplements program in 2011-12. It also said Hird had suffered unspecified "significant" side-effects from drugs.

The Herald Sun had earlier revealed an allegation from the charge sheet that players were to receive 1500 injections of AOD-9604 and a version of Thymosin and more than 16,500 doses of Colostrum and 8000 doses of Tribulus.

Footy's biggest drugs scandal erupted on February 5 this year when Essendon "self-reported" its potential performance-enhancing drugs problem to the AFL and invited the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority to investigate.

Since then, ASADA has interviewed more than 130 witnesses and referenced 13,000 documents for an interim report into the Bombers.

The anti-doping body's investigation will continue, with the no guarantees that individual players won't face doping charges in the future.

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