Bombers rely on the silent treatment

Essendon coach James Hird is becoming an expert at swatting away anti-doping investigation queries. Picture: Quinn Rooney. Source: Getty Images

IT was all quiet in the national capital on Friday night as Essendon was confronted with another series of questions after the Cronulla debacle played out just hours before.

It is a delicate situation and arguably the silence from the Bombers hierarchy was either a silence wrapped with confidence or a silence cloaked with fear.

The Bombers flew out of Canberra within 90 minutes of dismantling Greater Western Sydney, and Cronulla, which earlier that day stood down its coach Shane Flanagan after findings of "serious management failures", was a topic for another day.

Bombers' chairman David Evans wouldn't even pass comment about the Cronulla situation.

Chief executive Ian Robson would only say Flanagan was stood down and not sacked to correct a mistake at James Hird's press conference, while Hird has quickly become a pro at swatting away queries about the anti-doping investigations.

We'll talk about the Essendon Football Club and we won't talk about anyone else

"I've said a number of times there's an investigation going on, but the resilience of the players of the Essendon Football Club to go out and play and train the way they're training shows the character of the people and sometimes you need events to happen to work out where the quality of people are," Hird said.

The day before, Hird said it would have been impossible for his players to have not noted the events at Cronulla, where more than a dozen players had been offered six-month suspensions if they came forward to ASADA.

Asked if he, as coach, had noted the controversial actions to stand down Flanagan, Hird said: "I've heard second-hand but, as I said yesterday, we'll talk about the Essendon Football Club and we won't talk about anyone else."

The Cronulla situation has similarities but is not entirely mirrored.

The Bombers might be naive, but they remain extremely confident their players were not given performance-enhancing drugs.

The key plank at both clubs is Stephen Dank, who was employed as a sports scientist briefly at the Sharks in 2011 and who worked for 12 months at Essendon last year.

Dank maintains he has done nothing wrong. The Cronulla investigation suggests otherwise.

What's intriguing is the startling revelations that equine supplements were given to Cronulla players.

That will cause more concern for the Bombers.

The internal Cronulla investigation, which saw Flanagan stood down and four others sacked, was run by ASADA's former deputy chair Dr Tricia Kavanagh, who took no prisoners.

The Bombers also have an internal inquiry, but theirs is being run by former Telstra chief Ziggy Switkowski.

At the centre of both is the management processes.

Evans has admitted Essendon is aware of mistakes it has made, and AFL boss Andrew Demetriou recently made it crystal clear what he thought of the practices of Essendon players being taken off site to be given injections, with suggestions an external doctor was used, as well as a registered nurse.

We can only wait to see what further blood-letting happens at Essendon.

Dank was let go after Essendon learnt of his activities, which included a serious questioning of his expense accounts, which were revealed by the Herald Sun to be of tens of thousands of dollars.

High performance manager Dean Robinson has been stood down. He is unlikely to return, and has started legal proceedings against Essendon.

And football manager Paul Hamilton resigned. Hamilton is said to have not known of Dank's activities.

Internally, the Bombers believe they haven't been inactive as they confront the club's biggest scandal.

The critics say they should have been as active when players were being shuttled across the road from Windy Hill, where maybe police had surveillance on the clinic.

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