Chairman Rob Chapman says Adelaide “battled hard” with the AFL to negotiate sanctions for the Club’s involvement in the Kurt Tippett contract saga last year.

Chapman’s remarks followed the heavy penalties handed down to Essendon by the AFL Commission on Tuesday night. Chapman stated it was “imprudent” for the Crows to comment on Essendon’s sanctions, but said the Club was compelled to respond after AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou accused Adelaide of not fully cooperating with the League during its investigation.

Chapman dismissed Demetriou’s assertions and said Adelaide’s sanctions, which involved a $300,000 fine, the loss of first and second-round draft picks in 2012-13 and suspensions of key staff, were the result of robust negotiations with the AFL.

“We had bare-fisted knuckle fights behind closed doors and really hard negotiations. People don’t know that because we chose not to say it. We thought that was the right way to get the best outcome for our football club,” Chapman told FIVEaa on Wednesday night.

“I’ll cop criticism if people think we were weak on that, but it was the best thing for our football club. We got a negotiated outcome. Where it (the sanctions) started to where it ended up was more than 50 per cent better – the $300,000 fine started at $1million; there weren’t (initially) suspensions there were sackings and the (loss of) draft picks were harsher than what we ended up with.

“We had a commitment to the process to get it done and not play it out through the media, notwithstanding leaks, to get the right result for us, for the AFL and to not bring this game into disrepute.”

Chapman agreed with the AFL Commission that the sanctions imposed on the Bombers were the “heaviest handed down in AFL history”.

“The Essendon players and coaches have worked for 11 months and earned the right to play in finals and that’s been stripped off them,” Chapman said.

“People have said to me in the last 20 hours, ‘a $2million fine … that’s not the issue’ … but you tell me where you’re going to find $2million from – that’s a big hurdle.

“I think Essendon has got a very harsh sanction and their club has suffered enormously throughout the period of this investigation and will do for some time.”