ESSENDON midfielder David Zaharakis has expressed his shock at the recent revelations regarding premiership-winning player and coach Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson who was charged with drug trafficking and possession on Tuesday.

A stunned Zaharakis shed light on his reaction towards the former AFL champion’s demise, particularly given Thompson's attitude at the club during his four-year stint as an assistant and then senior coach.

“Yeah, I was (shocked), you don’t expect to hear anything like that,” Zaharakis said on Wednesday afternoon.

“You heard about it when it first was reported a couple of months ago… I’m shocked about everything.”

A three-time premiership player for Essendon, Thompson joined the club as the senior assistant coach in late 2010, before being appointed as senior coach for the 2014 season when he coached Zaharakis.  

“You saw him come in (to the club) … He was so analytical with his footy, that’s all you saw about him, just how invested he was in his football career, you didn’t know anything else was happening," Zaharakis said.

“Purely from footy, a ‘reading [the] game’ point of view, he was unbelievable, one of the best, as a lot of players reiterate.

“He just knew the trends of the game and knew how a game was going to play out five minutes from the actual point it was.”

Zaharakis reminisced on the few occasions when, due to injury, he spent matchday in the coaches’ box and witnessed Thompson’s extensive knowledge of the game.

“It was amazing when I missed a couple of games, you’d listen to him in the box… the way he knows how the game’s being played and the trend of the next quarter was unbelievable,” he said.

“It was probably the reason why he was so successful.”

Thompson played in three premierships with Essendon (1984, 1985, 1993 – as captain), coached Geelong to two flags (2007, 2009), and is considered an icon at both clubs.

“He’s obviously a legend of the footy club,” Zaharakis said.

“[He] played here [and] coached here, so whatever he’s going through, I offer him my support and obviously [so do] a lot of people (at Essendon), because they were quite close with him when he came (to the club).”