ON HIS last night as senior coach at Essendon, Mark Thompson has pleaded for the club's players to be freed from the stress of the on-going Australian Sports Anti-Doping investigation.
After the club's season-ending 12-point elimination final defeat to North Melbourne, Thompson said he has yet to make a decision on his plans for next season and whether he will remain at the club in a coaching capacity.
Thompson had not wanted his coaching future to be a distraction for the players, who he said deserved some closure to the saga, particularly the 34 current and former Bombers issued show-cause notices by ASADA.
"I really feel sorry for them. I do. Everybody's been saying the players are the No.1 priority, well right now the players have 34 show-cause notices under their nose," he said.
"Two years later. And everybody admits and knows that they've done not much wrong. Where's the decency in that? That's what I feel for. I feel for the players."
The club last month went to the Federal Court in an attempt to have last year's investigation declared illegal, with Justice John Middleton yet to hand down his findings.
Thompson was honest when asked where his frustration around the players' position was aimed.
"It's at us. We're responsible for it. No one in particular, no one. It's just all of us. We've just got to try and free the players," he said.
"They want to know, I think. And they deserve it, to know either way, whatever happens. They just want something."
With James Hird's 12-month ban over and Hird back working at the club behind the scenes in recent weeks, Thompson will hand over the reins as senior coach.
Thompson said he would not be senior coach at the club in 2015, but that he would soon sit down with Essendon and "work something out".
Going out on with a disappointing finals defeat was not the end he had in mind.
"It's sad to finish. I was bitterly upset. It's not the way I wanted to finish; I wanted to win some finals. Why not be ambitious? We were capable of doing it," he said.
"You look at half-time and you thought we'd probably do it, and we should've. I feel a bit sad for myself and the other coaches, everyone at the club, supporters. [We] probably deserved better."
