Cooney unfazed by Bombers supplements saga

Essendon recruit Adam Cooney has scant regard for the AFL club’s ongoing supplements saga.

Cooney joined the Bombers on the final day of trade period, having made the “bittersweet” decision to leave the Western Bulldogs.

North Melbourne were keen to sign the midfielder, who played 219 games with the ‘Dogs, but Cooney suggested he was always keen to join Essendon.

He cited the Bombers’ impressive base at Tullamarine and conversations with coach James Hird as some of the major reasons for that decision.

ASADA amended show-cause notices, reissued to some of Cooney’s new teammates on Friday, were not even an afterthought for the 29-year-old.

“I don’t take too much notice of that, to be honest,” Cooney said on Friday, speaking before ASADA reissued the 34 notices.

“I obviously wasn’t here at the time.

“It’s not my concern. It’s got nothing to do with me.

“I’m looking forward to getting into some training and I’ll be ignoring all that.”

It’s an approach the 2008 Brownlow medallist learned long ago, when he kept reading and hearing about the sorry state of his knee.

“There’s been a lot documented about my knee, but I haven’t actually missed a game in two years because of it,” he said.

“It’s probably been blown out of proportion a little bit … I passed my medical with flying colours.”

Cooney admitted at times he and former Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney had issues, but said that wasn’t the reason he left Whitten Oval.

“For both parties, it was probably better I moved on,” he said.

“It’ll fast track the development of some of the kids at the Bulldogs, open up a spot in the midfield.”

And Cooney is thrilled to have signed a two-year deal with a club in a much better position to make finals in 2015.

To boot, the on-baller is now playing under a a coach he “matches up pretty well” with.

“We spoke about what I wanted to get out of the rest of my football (career),” Cooney said of Hird’s pitch.

“He had some really great ideas about how he wanted me to play and where he wanted me to play.”

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