At Essendon's season launch, coach James Hird and chairman David Evans ensure the club will not be brought to their knees by the drug scandal hanging over them.
Essendon president David Evans says the club will get to the bottom of the drug scandal. Picture: Tim Carrafa Source: Herald Sun
AN emotional David Evans has described the drugs furore surrounding Essendon as a watershed moment for the club.
The Bombers chairman apologised for the mistakes that had led to an Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation into whether Essendon players had used performance-enhancing drugs.
Speaking at last night's season launch, Evans promised the truth would come out eventually.
"Mistakes have been made, and I sincerely apologise that they have occurred," he said.
"We will get to the bottom of what happened, we will make sure those mistakes never happen again.
"It is hard to say much more than that right now because while we know some things, there is so much we don't know.
"And we're continuing to piece together a long and complicated jigsaw puzzle."
Last week Essendon employed former Telstra chief Dr Ziggy Switkowski to ascertain how and why the club found itself in an anti-doping investigation.
The AFL seems certain to penalise the Bombers for bringing the game into disrepute in regards to its off-site injecting program last year.
Evans called on the club's faithful to stick together despite the enormous challenges they were currently facing.
"The issues of the last month are galvanising the Essendon Football Club together," he said.
"We will get through this and we will be a better, stronger organisation.
"We will look back on the start of the season 2013 as a difficult time, but as a watershed moment. A moment when we confronted our mistakes, when we learned some tough lessons, and we took stock."
Evans said he was confident the players would be cleared of any wrongdoing. "We will do everything we can to make sure they get to play," he said.
The Bombers last night inducted former champions Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas into its Hall of Fame.
Others to also be recognised included former premiership players Roy McConnell, Fred Baring and Daryl Gerlach; long-time committeeman Bill Brew and last year's No.1 ticket-holder Bruce Heymanson.
The Bombers fly to Canberra to play Greater Western Sydney at Manuka Oval on Friday night and will again have the luxury of plenty of tall forward options with ruckman Tom Bellchambers coming through last week's clash with Richmond unscathed.
Bellchambers spent much of the pre-season recovering from a freak accident, when he broke a bone in the right ankle after landing on the foot of an assistant coach during the warm-up before last year's Round 23 game against Collingwood.
"He (the development coach) normally doesn't do the ruck stuff before a game. It was his first time and I think it will be his last time as well," he said.
"I was in the moonboot for six weeks overseas and I did all the recovery down to a tee and, touch wood, it has been great so far."
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