Essendon are growing increasingly confident that their players were not administered prohibited substances as part of their controversial supplement program last year.
Various media reports in recent weeks have alleged that under the supervision of former sports scientist Stephen Dank, Essendon players were given the anti-obesity drug AOD-9604, which has been confirmed by the World Anti-Doping Authority to be a banned drug, as well as Thymosin.
Some forms of Thymosin are permitted for use by athletes but others are not, and it's not clear which type the Bombers may have used.
But Essendon chairman David Evans, who said he was 'deeply sorry' for the 'institutional failures' which occurred in the club's chain of command in 2012, suggested those claims were most probably wide of the mark.
"We have got the help from two pharmacological experts in Dr Andrew Garnham and Professor Ross McKinnon, they have been advising the board for the last three months," Evans said at the unveiling of the Switkowski Report into the governance of the Essendon Football Club last year.
"We are getting more and more confident about the solid safety profile (of supplements used) and indeed the fact that there was nothing banned that was given to our players."
Evans said that the joint AFL-Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation would shed light on suggestions that the club had been victim of fraudulent behaviour with inappropriate Medicare claims, including blood tests of players, being made by doctors outside of the club as well as compounds being purchased that may not have been intended for use at Essendon.
Despite reports of a systematic injection program taking place at the Essendon last year, Evans said a blanket ban on the use of injections and intravenous therapy wasn't appropriate.
Evans has put his head on the chopping block by bringing forward an election for his position to November, but he isn't the only senior figure at his club whose job is on the line.
The Essendon chairman has refused to guarantee the safety of any key official at the club, and has put the whole club on notice with changes in personnel possibly being made even prior to the AFL-ASADA probe concluding.
"There will be some change, there already has been some change, there will be ongoing change to implement the recommendations that are in this (Switkowski) report, the board will be committed to that," Evans said.
"There's still some deliberations to happen as a result of the report which the board will sit down and talk to over the course of the coming days and weeks.
"The thing I would say on people is that action and change will occur but it comes to the board when we've got all the facts and right now there is still a very significant part of this process which is the AFL and ASADA investigation which is not complete yet that we will require to make the changes that the club needs."
When asked if he could guarantee officials wouldn't lose their jobs until after the AFL-ASADA probe had finished, Evans said: "I'm not guaranteeing anything."
Evans confirmed that former football manager Paul Hamilton and general manager Danny Corcoran were the two people referred to in the third key finding of the Switkowski Report which found there was a lack of clarity about who was in charge of Essendon's football department last year and that there were two separate roles, with 'fuzzy lines of responsibility'.