James Hird and Mark Thompson among Essendon staff charged by AFL The AFL has formally charged Essendon for bringing the game into disrepute in relation to the club's 2011/12 supplements program. Essendon coach James Hird, right, and assistant Mark Thompson are among four senior management charged by the AFL with bringing the game into disrepute. ESSENDON has been charged by the AFL with bringing the game into disrepute over last year's supplements saga. Coach James Hird, senior assistant Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid have also been charged with bringing the game into disrepute. The club and the four officials will face an AFL commission hearing on August 26, the AFL's general counsel Andrew Dillon announced tonight. The charges stem from an Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation into the club, which began in February, after the club reported concerns with their 2011-12 supplement program. Dillon said on the evidence currently before the AFL, no anti-doping charges would be laid against Bombers players. But the ASADA investigation remains ongoing. "In relation to the Essendon players I can advise that although WADA has declared AOD9604 is a banned substance, on the information currently before the AFL there is no specific anti-doping rule violation attributed to any individual player for the use of AOD9604 or any other prohibited substance," Dillon said. As such at the present time there will be no infraction notices issued under the AFL anti-doping code. I note the investigation into Essendon's 2011-12 supplements program by ASADA and the AFL remains open and could lead to further charges under the AFL rules against other individuals. The AFL received ASADA's 400-page interim report on August 2. Dillon made no mention of potential penaltie. However, there are a range of options open to the AFL, including stripping the Bombers of premiership points, taking away draft picks, imposing fines, and suspending and fining their officials. The scheduled hearing date is just four days before the start of this year's finals, and if the Bombers are stripped of points they could lose their place in them. Even before the charges were laid, Hird this morning forecast the Bombers would fight them. "I think we all find it hard to believe that charges can be laid on individuals or the club when none of our players have (been) shown to take performance-enhancing drugs, none of our players have shown that they've been harmed by anything that's been given," Hird said. And we're dealing with an interim report - the report's not finalised. We don't believe we've done anything wrong on those lines. We will fight. It's about our reputation, it's about the football club, our football club's the greatest football club in Australia and we're going to protect its name. Earlier this year, the Bombers held their own internal review into the governance at the club, headed by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski. Finalised in May, that review found that the club last year had been a "pharmacologically experimental environment" and that some management processes normally associated with good governance had failed. Chief executive Ian Robson resigned within weeks of that report being tabled. Club president David Evans resigned in late July, after a post-match health episode the previous night. High performance manager Dean Robinson, who was suspended by the club when it called for the investigation, resigned a day earlier than Evans and has threatened to sue the club.