Bombers still anger Mitchell

FOUR-TIME Hawthorn premiership player Sam Mitchell was “pissed off” that the Essendon sports supplements scandal tarnished the reputation of the AFL, revealing he took his frustration to the AFL Players’ Association at the time.

As the fierce rivals Hawks and Bombers prepare to square off today, with potentially a finals spot on the line, Mitchell said while he had some sympathy for the Essendon players banned for a season over the saga, he was “surprised” the senior players didn’t oppose the program.

Part of that frustration boiled over when he made an “injections gibe” to then Bomber Michael Hibberd in a heated Hawthorn-Essendon clash in 2015.

“I’ll be honest, as an AFL player, the Essendon scandal pissed me off,” Mitchell revealed in his new autobiography, Relentless.

“What happened cast an unfair stain over the overwhelming majority of players who had never taken part in any injection program and I took my frustration to the AFL Players’ Association.

“I have no inside information about the situation at the time and understand the Essendon players were poorly managed and governed, but I have always found myself falling short of calling them the victims.”

Calling it a “messy affair”, Mitchell said he believed the Essendon players “were at the lower end of the blame game, but they weren’t entirely blameless for what happened at Windy Hill during 2012”.

“I felt sorrier for the first and second-year players who were involved in it. They probably didn’t know any better,” he said.

“While I have some sympathy for the way it turned out for the players, who were ultimately suspended for a season, I am still surprised they didn’t oppose the program, especially the senior players who had been around a long time.”