AFL presidents back league's stance Essendon's 17 rival clubs on Thursday urged the Bombers to steer clear of the courts in their dispute with the AFL over the supplements scandal. Essendon coach James Hird launched Supreme Court action on Thursday morning aimed at having an independent body, not the AFL Commission, hear the charge against him and seeking a ruling that the league provide more detail on its evidence plus a list of witnesses it will call. Hird's move came a day after the league released a 34-page document detailing the grounds on which it has charged the Bombers with bringing the game into disrepute. Hird, assistant Mark Thompson, football manager Danny Corcoran and club doctor Bruce Reid are also facing the same charge, which the club and all four individuals plan to fight. AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick asked club chiefs to attend a meeting at AFL House on Thursday and Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon said the clubs supported the commission's right to hear the case. "We wish to unanimously express our confidence in the AFL Commission and AFL management," Gordon said. We call upon all parties to exercise restraint and discretion in any public comments about this matter and with the safety and welfare of players and their families and the integrity of the game as the paramount considerations. In our view, it is of paramount importance that every effort be made to resolve these matters within the AFL industry. We resolved to unanimously express our support for the integrity of the AFL rules and the need for those rules and the integrity of our competition to be preserved. Gordon's statement is a bitter blow for the Bombers after their chairman Paul Little had spoken on Wednesday of the strong level of support in the football community for Essendon in the scandal over the club's use of supplements in 2012. "I, along with a significant percentage of all (the) football public, have lost total confidence in the AFL executive to handle this matter," Little said. Gordon said after discussions with the league and Little on Thursday, the 17 other clubs met in the absence of the AFL and the Bombers to consider the Essendon dispute. Port Adelaide president David Koch said before the meeting that resolving the issue between seventh-placed Essendon and the league before next month's finals series was vital. "No one wants a public slanging match," he said. Hawthorn president Andrew Newbold said he was concerned for the greater good of the game. "The other codes in Australia must be looking at us and rubbing their hands with glee," he said. A caller to Melbourne's Triple M radio, claiming to be the mother of an Essendon player, said her son was considering quitting the game. Parents felt "muzzled" by the club and were frustrated that all the Bombers were talking about was how to protect themselves, she said. Her son had been used as a guinea pig, the sobbing woman said. "To watch James Hird yesterday talk, and I mean James Hird is a man who I have always respected," she said. But to watch his press conference yesterday, it was all about him. It was all about me, me, me.