Opening up on footy’s darkest chapter, Mark Bomber Thompson concedes indefensible mistakes were made at Essendon over the 2012 drug scandal and says he wishes he had done more to put an end to the supplements regime. He also shares his view on who is to blame, his biggest regrets and his hope that one day the truth will come out.
Mark “Bomber” Thompson scoffs at the suggestion Essendon chairman David Evans and chief executive Ian Robson didn’t know anything about the disastrous 2012 injections programme.
In his most candid interview yet on footy’s greatest saga, Thompson concedes indefensible mistakes were made at Essendon.
“They probably didn’t know the intricacies of the program, but they knew the program - they were paying for it, for God’s sake,” Thompson says.
Pressed on his regrets over the saga that saw 34 Bombers players rubbed out for doping, Thompson says: “If I had my time again, I probably knew the whole thing was wrong. I knew that it wasn’t being run properly.
BOMBER’S CONFESSION OVER SUPPLEMENTS SAGA
“I was probably derelict in my duties not to say something more. I just put the cue in the rack a bit, you know. I made sure we weren’t doing anything illegal but we were doing something unethical.”
In part III of his tell-all interview with Michael Warner, Thompson opens up on footy’s greatest saga and talks about his desire to one day reach out to Jobe Watson, who lost his 2012 Brownlow because of the program.
MW: Can I fire a few names at you from the days of the Essendon drugs saga, Bomber? Andrew Demetriou (AFL chief from 2003-14). What would you say about him?
MT: When Demetriou started that was when the AFL stopped listening and talking to clubs and coaches. Instead it was just going in and being talked to. ‘This is the way it’s going to be and you’re going to do it’. And I thought from that moment on there was no input from any clubs. You had people there who had been in footy for a long period of time, Sheedy, Pagan, Malthouse - all these people with a wealth of knowledge just brushed over.
MW: What about Gillon McLachlan (AFL deputy in 2013 and current CEO)?
MT: I didn’t think he handled the supplements program well. He tried to steer it. Direct it. So that the game never took a great hit on their image but it wasn’t about the game, it was about people.
I thought the way he treated people was pretty poor. They should have been working with us as we were one of the clubs in the AFL.
ASADA came in and they should have been the administration of the whole investigation but not an integral part of the investigation. Not trying to shape outcomes. They should have just let the outcome become the outcome.
It would have been so much better if the investigators were able to do their job the way they did most of their other work, and that is independently.
ASADA was an independent group set up by the government for that very reason, so that a sport wouldn’t get involved and influence it to save the image of their sport. That is the very reason why it was established but from day dot the AFL were in there trying to shape it.”
MW: Which brings me to (Essendon chairman during the supplements regime) David Evans.
MT: Yeah. I didn’t really think he helped the situation by conceding and taking the side of the AFL. I thought that the players and their wives and girlfriends and family deserved their club to stand up and fight for them. They didn’t expect to have their club, their employers, to be in bed with the sport, who were in bed with the government department.
MW: What would you say to David Evans if you saw him?
MT: I’d be fine with him. I’d say hello to him. I think he was put in an awful situation. He was obviously getting advice from both sides, which were poles apart. One was saying we didn’t and the AFL were saying ‘you did, you were, you have’.
They should have allowed ASADA to run it independently instead of each day, whatever took place in confidential interviews, being in the papers the next day.
MW: What about ASADA?
MT: I didn’t have a problem with ASADA or their interview process. Maybe some of their questions were a bit harsh.
I don’t think any of them did enough work to find out what players took what and when they took them.
They probably just asked generic questions. But I think it was a big, big job for them.
MW: You did obsess over the Essendon saga. Do you think you are better off without thinking about it? Have you given up fighting?
MT: I’ve actually given it up. But I’ll never forget it. I’ll forgive and I’ll move on but I don’t ever want to go back and right the wrong because I’ve tried that and it’s got me in a bad place. And I don’t want to go back to a bad place.
MW: Do you think one day the truth will come out?
MT: I hope one day that the truth does come out.
MW: What is the truth?
MT: The truth is that they (the AFL and ASADA) actually don’t know. They don’t know. Nobody knows. I think the propaganda, the fake news, was working at full pace.
Vitamin C by intravenous is quite popular now. Some of the amino acids that Dank was giving are all on the shelves of the supermarkets now. It’s all OK to have.
MW: What about Stephen Dank (the architect of the supplements program)?
MT: We just weren’t equipped to manage someone like Dank. As far as administering the program, in a healthy level and an acceptable level and as far as paperwork is concerned, he was nowhere near the task and we probably didn’t have enough support at the club to be able to handle that because we botched it.
MW: What about The Weapon (Essendon’s 2012 fitness boss Dean Robinson)?
MT: He should have been more alert. When you are involved in management, in a job like that, and you implement that program, you’ve actually got some responsibilities you know.
It’s about doing things right and The Weapon was in charge of Dank and Dank was very disorganised and in the end not that helpful to the players or the club because he’s got no answers for us - and we should have answers.
MW: What about Bomber Thompson in 2 years or 5 years or 20 years? Do you think that far ahead? What are your goals now?
MT: Goals are interesting. I’m going to share my story a bit.
I’ve been a bit missing and I think there is public interest and they probably want to know. I’m going to go and talk about the mistakes I made and how I was feeling and how I got in that position.
It’s going to be a form of therapy for me. There’s possibly some good messages in there for people.
MW: What is the main one?
MT: Gee, I tell you what.
I think if I had my time again, I probably knew the whole thing was wrong. I knew that it wasn’t being run properly. Essendon.
And I was probably derelict in my duties not to say something more.
I tried to say something a few times about how we were as a club and what we were capable of but I think I just put the cue in the rack a bit, you know.
But I made sure we weren’t doing anything illegal but we were doing something unethical, I think.
MW: You did think that did you?
MT: I thought we were unethical, yeah.
MW: But unethical doesn’t equal drug cheating and you got to hell?
MT: No. Not at all.
MW: So what would you say to people about that moment where you probably should have done more?
MT: I should have spoken up and I should have gone to the CEO and maybe if he didn’t do anything, then and go into the president and Hirdy probably didn’t know better, you know, because he was the head coach and his head was buzzing around.
He was busy and I was there, just watching. I thought our structure was just wrong, how our footy department was run.
MW: (CEO Ian) Robson is an interesting one. He says he didn’t know anything.
MT: They probably didn’t know the intricacies of the program, but they knew the program. They were paying for it for God’s sake.
MW: Your advice in these talks that you’ll do is that if you feel like something is not right - say it?
MT: In today’s world, where people don’t say things, things happen for the worst.
The recall - it will always go back to you if you are responsible for it.
So you’ve actually got to deal with it. You’ve actually got to put something in the system to say, ‘I’ve tried this and I tried that’, so that you can defend yourself.
In the end, we couldn’t defend ourselves because we had no paperwork.
Because if that’s your job, you’ve got to know what your job is and you’ve got to do your job. I didn’t really know my job but I knew that there was something wrong.
MW: What about Jobe Watson (Bombers captain from 201-15). Have you spoken to him?
MT: I haven’t spoken to him.
MW: Would you like to?
MT: Yeah. I’d love to speak to Jobe anytime.”
MW: Why do you think you haven’t?
MT: I haven’t spoken to anybody. I’m in my own little world, plodding along. Building my tables. But he lost his Brownlow and became the face of it. It was devastating. He got charged with the biggest crime, mate. All he’s done was tell the truth. And he knows he never cheated. He never had a Thymosin. He had the AOD. He admitted that. He’s telling the truth.
Jobe is a great man and he thoroughly deserved his Brownlow.