No doubt. But they've been kicked out of a finals series, lost draft picks and now have most of their best 18 out for a year. I can't even imagine the financial consequences they'll cop too.
If I put myself in their shoes you'd like to think they've paid their dues, no need to keep rubbing it in over and over again. I'm sick of the whole saga, move on.
1 final series exclusion - instead of not playing for premiership points in 2014 (considering news broke in 2013 re indiscretions in 2012)
$2m fine.
Lost rnd 1 and 2 draft picks for 2 seasons.
(Hird suspended, Thompson fined)
That is the club fine for Essendon.
Compare this to what Carlton got for systemic rorting of the TPP which broke in 2002;
Fined 930k. (870 odd +50 odd, previous amoutns included 125k & 50k in '01)
excluded from the 2nd and third round of one draft ('01), excluded from the PSD of 2002 (2001 breaches before it broke of the nature of their breaches) then banning of the 1st and second round of the next draft ('02).
Excluded from the draft of the next year as well, 1st and second picks ('03).
So in effect for a club who treated more than 34 men and boys as guinea pigs with regards to prohibitive substances and substances not cleared for human use the sum amount is;
$1m and change
Got removed from a finals series.
Had more picks in drafting.
The reason this has dragged is because Essendon as a club and people in general (ie Hird, Dank, Charters, Little) decided that they did not want to cop this, they did not want to be the bad guys, they wanted everyone to know that it wasn't their fault and it's all a conspiracy and screw you, your sister, your mother, your dog we will fight you. They did, with AFL backing, Reimers was absolutely hounded down in public mediums, Hal Hunter was a delisted scrub who was simply doing this for money, Ryder was a wimp, a sooky la la who screwed Essendon by leaving and we will fight him.
And here we are, 4 years in and the backtracking is goddamn astounding that it'd win gold at the Olympics, no contest. I mean shit, the AFL have the balls to ask Hal to pay their costs, a TV program airs an interview with the bloke and inform them it's going to air and the AFL say "nah, don't worry about it, we were so kidding". It's a joke, it's hilarious how far Essendon and the AFL have retreated from their initial stances and you know why?
Because the parents of these men started to come out in tears, gutted, and absolutely betrayed by the club and by the AFL wanting their boys out of there. Except for Timtam because hurr durr, and one of the players in Hunter decided to take them to court to find out what the hell they did to him, on the back of several players (Monfries, Ryder, Crameri, Carlisle) wanting out of the club.
Essendon, as a club needed to literally emulate the Melbourne Storm and exist for a year, playing the game but being able to win nothing. Nada. Ziltch. Their gains since 2012 should have been taken from them, individual and club wise, AFL funds Essendon got from the Commission? Pay it back you abused it, cap the TPP, no increase for you, you abused it, literally tell them that they are housing AFL sanctioned medical practitioners for the next 1-2 years to ensure that they have learned their lesson and there will be no repeat and they will goddamn be humble, and you can only trade into the drafts, your last 3 picks will be your first 3 live picks for the next year at least (maybe the next one as well), you want in that draft, you're trading out a Jobe, a Ryder, a Heppell, you're not trading in a Goddard for instance.
Again, instead we got spat on and told how wrong we were and that they would fight us for it.
You might be sick of it, you might think that people need to move on from it, I would not mind if this dogged the AFL for the next decade, because there are still people who believe in their heart of hearts that this was just an Essendon thing, this was insular, this was a mistake as opposed to a catastrophic failure of sporting governance in the AFL which lays squarely at the Commissions feet for being inept and unable to deal with it. because they're buying up Gills "family friendly" push hook line and bloody sinker.