Essendon players kept faith

The 34 current and former Essendon players say they’ve always believed they did nothing wrong and feel bonded after more than two years of the supplements scandal.

Captain Jobe Watson says the players just want to move on.

Watson said the players were all completely open in their interviews.

“We were totally open books about the whole process,” he said.

“All we wanted to know was the truth and we were honest about everything that we knew.

“We hid nothing from anyone.”

Asked if he knew what he was given and was comfortable with it, Watson said: “What I do know is that every player told exactly what they knew to the investigating officers.”

“I don’t think you sit comfortably with this. I don’t think it sits comfortably at all.”

The AFL Players Association says the tribunal decision does not absolve the Essendon Football Club of blame.

Watson said the players did find it concerning.

“I think the players and anyone involved feels if when you go to your employer and they can’t tell you exactly what went on, that’s concerning.

“I think the players are well within their right to have had anger over a period of time, to be concerned about that.

“But I know that the playing group want to move on.”

He says Bombers fans had supported the players group through the worst period in its history and the toughest period of any club in the history of the AFL.

“I think a lot of clubs perhaps would have fallen down but with the support that we’ve had from the loyal fans that we have and the strength of this playing group we’ve held together.”

Watson said he hadn’t thought about the issue of compensation or the talk that his 2012 Brownlow Medal could have been taken away if the players had been found guilty.

“I haven’t really thought about it being taken away because if you believe you’re not guilty of something it doesn’t really enter your mind,” he said.

“For all of us, what we believed was that we weren’t guilty and that we would exhaust every avenue possible to prove that.”

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