Here is what the main players have had to say about those events:
JAMES HIRD
Press conference at Windy Hill, Thursday morning
"I was at David's house that night. Myself, Bruce (Reid), Danny (Corcoran), Ian Robson and David were all there and Andrew made a call at some stage in that meeting and the contents of that call were discussed.
"I've told the truth to ASADA and I know other people have as well. That will come out over time."
Asked whether the club was tipped off by the AFL
"I think that is for the club to comment on, more than myself, I think that is a club issue. I think I would prefer the club address that."
Asked whether Demetriou had done anything wrong
"I'm not sure. I wouldn't have thought so, I wouldn't have thought he has, but I'm not the ACC (Australian Crime Commission), I'm not ASADA. I'm a football coach trying to coach a game."
Asked if he was aware at that meeting the ACC was looking into the use of substances at an AFL club
"I don't think I was aware. I'm not sure if anyone else was aware, but I wasn't."
DAVID EVANS
After a board meeting at Windy Hill on Thursday night
"I want to make this really clear: tonight was a regular and scheduled monthly board meeting. In relation to media reports, I am not standing down as chairman and the board did not ask me to explain my version of events. This was a routine board meeting. Yes, we've got some big issues ahead of us, but we are all awaiting the ASADA investigation to be completed."
ANDREW DEMETRIOU
Thursday morning on 3AW
"The AFL didn't know who the club in question was because the ACC, who briefed us a few days earlier on the Thursday, wouldn't disclose to us who the clubs involved were.
"There absolutely was a discussion that I had with David, because I'd spoken to him throughout the day and I did ring him that night. I was returning his phone call.
"It wasn't tipping off David Evans that Essendon was the club, because we didn't know who the club was.
"I kept saying, 'I don't know any more, David. I don't know who the club is'.
"He rang me and I returned his phone call at nine o'clock that night."
On Essendon's request to be investigated
"There was a meeting the next day because David Evans contacted the AFL the following morning after his crisis meeting that night and he asked to come in ... and following that meeting about all the things he discovered the day before, he asked the AFL to launch an investigation into Essendon. The Essendon Football Club called for it. So that part is true."
Friday morning, ABC Radio
Asked if he had mentioned the AFL's January 31 briefing by the ACC that an AFL club or clubs were likely to investigated over supplements programs
"(I was asked) whether I tipped off David Evans before they came forward ... and I stated yesterday categorically, as I did on previous occasions, that I did not. And I did not for one simple reason: I didn't know who the club in question was.
"The AFL wasn't aware of who the club was in question because the ACC, who briefed us a few days earlier on the Thursday, wouldn't disclose to us who the clubs involved were."
On seeking advice from AFL investigator Brett Clothier on alleged testimony he tipped off Essendon
"Being accused of tipping off Essendon and breaking the law because I signed a confidentiality agreement with the ACC – not withstanding that they didn't actually disclose to me this club – I take those matters seriously."
"I will defend my reputation and clear the air to make sure the truth is told. In my world it is very easy to sell the truth. I learned that a long time ago."
Friday morning, 3AW
3AW host Neil Mitchell: This Essendon dispute is it getting a bit personal between you and James Hird?
"I hope not. I've got the highest regard for James Hird. He's been one of the great players, one of the legends of the Essendon Football Club, a significant figure in our game. So it's certainly not a personal thing on my behalf and I wouldn't have thought for James to be honest."
Mitchell: He did seem to be suggesting at his press conference yesterday that somebody wasn't telling the truth?
"I don't know whether that's true. I wouldn't read it that way. He has a version of events which might be very well true in his mind and that's fine too."
Mitchell: You get a briefing from the ACC which is confidential that a number of clubs will be under some sort of investigation. You then talk to David Evans … and knowing the background to the Essendon problem … it isn't mentioned that Essendon could be under investigation?
"Yes, because I didn't know it was Essendon."
Mitchell: You must have put two and two together?
"No I didn't, actually. Because if you think about that time there were stories about perhaps one or two other clubs."
Talkback caller, 'Jamie': Did you tell Evans there was a club under investigation?
"In the conversation I had with David when he was agitated he was asking me about things that he'd learnt during the day and he was asking me, 'Is the Essendon Football Club … a club that's going to be under investigation from ASADA? I'm hearing things all day.' And I said, 'I don't know, I don't know if you're the club.'"
'Jamie': So you said you don't know if you're the club, so therefore you're telling him there is a club under investigation?
"No, no, I was responding to his question."
