Longford star Michael Quinn has sympathy for his ex-Essendon team-mates who have been 'tarnished' by the Aussie Rules doping scandal.

12 current Essendon players are among 34 suspended until November due to anti-doping violations at the club.

Quinn played with the club from 2009 to '11 and he told SunSport: "I would have played with the majority of those players.

"I wouldn't have talked to them since but I'd feel for them, a lot of their careers were effectively put on hold, if not ended. For lads who were in and around 30, it was really tough.

"From the 34 players, 12 of them are still with Essendon and five are with other clubs. So half of them are out of the AFL system and, in my opinion, a lot of those players would still have been involved only for this.

"Other clubs weren't interested in taking a risk on them."

The versatile Quinn concluded: "I feel for the lads involved. It's something that's dragged on for three years.

"Their names and reputations have been tarnished."

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