Essendon and the afl settled on far lesser charges than the original charges sheet. Looks like they were all rubbish since the AFL settled.
Like many criminal cases, the parties settle to get a guilty verdict with out a long drawn case. Not that i'd expect that you could work that out. In this case the AFL got what they wanted, Hird suspended and settling quickly to get a guilty verdict got Essendon out of the finals. A 10yo could work that out.
If Essendon were so innocent why didn't they challenged the entire findings and take them to court like they keep threatening. Something to do with being guilty? I'd so so. They wouldn't and never will because all their filth would be dragged through the mud publicly in court. We'd know the truth and Essendon would come out terribly, especially after Alvari, Charters and Danks were subpeonaed. Essendon will avoid that like the plague.