ESSENDON coach James Hird has been left "flabbergasted" by Mark Thompson's claim the Bombers are
"drowning" in the wake of the ongoing anti-doping saga surrounding the club.
Thompson, who was the Bombers' interim coach in 2014 while Hird was suspended from coaching for 12 months, told radio station 3AW on Saturday he believed the club was "just treading water, going backwards - it's drowning".
"You look at the playing group, which is the most important, most significant group of people in the brand of Essendon - they're just nowhere, they're lost," Thompson said.
"We've damaged them mentally."
After Essendon's 32-point loss to Greater Western Sydney on Sunday – the club's fourth straight defeat – he was asked if he was disappointed by the continuing negative commentary from people outside the club.
Click here to watch James Hird's full post-match press conference
"I think everyone was a bit flabbergasted by that," Hird said in response.
"I think the players were genuinely flabbergasted by those comments."
Pressed further, Hird was asked if he disagreed with Thompson's comments.
"I am not going to get in a slanging match with Mark Thompson," he said.
"Mark has been an Essendon premiership player, a terrific person at Essendon, he has done some good things here but I really don't want to. That's not in anyone's best interests, I don't think."
Five talking points: GWS v Essendon
The AFL's Anti-Doping Tribunal cleared 34 past and present Bombers players in March of having been administered the prohibited substance thymosin beta-4.
However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed the AFL Tribunal's ruling, with the case set down for November.
Hird said the WADA decision to appeal had "knocked the stuffing out of the players".
Regarding Sunday's loss to the Giants, Hird lamented some poor ball use and an inability to capitalise on the scoreboard when the Bombers were on top during the first and second terms.
Hird said described the line-up that ran out to face GWS on Sunday as a "totally different team" to the one that started the season 3-3, given the injuries that have affected the club.
"We've gone from being quite an experienced team in rounds one and two to almost the youngest team on the park most weeks," Hird said.
"We really haven't had our best contested ball players in all year."
Hird said the club would use the last four matches to give some more young players on the list a run, with a view to building towards the 2016 campaign.
James Gwilt was expected to miss one or two weeks after hurting his groin during Sunday's loss, he added.
