Controversial Essendon great Mark Thompson says the club's top brass knew about the team's supplements program and the way AFL boss Gillon McLachlan "treated people was pretty poor" during the scandal.
Speaking to the Herald Sun, Thompson opened up on his personal toll from the Essendon saga, which resulted in both he and coach James Hird losing their jobs.
Thompson scoffed at suggestions Bombers chief executive Ian Robson didn't know what was going on at Windy Hill.
"They probably didn't know the intricacies of the program, but they knew the program - they were paying for it, for God's sake," he said.
Asked about how he thought the AFL dealt with the problem, Thompson said Gillon McLachlan's primary focus was keeping the brand unblemished.
"I didn't think he handled the supplements program well. He tried to steer it. Direct it. So that the game never took a great hit on their image. But it wasn't about the game, it was about people. And I thought the way he treated people was pretty poor."
The club great said the players and everybody else involved in the team were let down by former Bombers chairman David Evans.
"I didn't really think he helped the situation by conceding and taking the side of the AFL," Thompson said.
"I thought that the players and their wives and girlfriends and family deserved their club to stand up and fight for them.
"They didn't expect to have their club, their employers, to be in bed with the sport, who were in bed with the government department."
While coach James Hird, football boss Danny Corcoran and Thompson were punished over the supplements program, no other club official was sanctioned by the AFL.
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