Essendon star Matthew Lloyd says he and his teammates are ""sick and tired"" of hearing and talking about the third quarter brawl that took place during the team’s Round 11 match against Hawthorn last Saturday. Lloyd described the melee as ""unacceptable"" and said the sooner it is put to bed the better.

""We can't wait for the tribunal and the AFL to deal with what's going to happen because all the players are just sick and tired of hearing about it. It's just something that happened and we just want to get on with it,"" Lloyd said.

""You never think anything serious is going to happen but obviously when you see a bit of claret and things like that coming out of players … all the players wished it didn't happen either but obviously the AFL will take care of that and the players are sort of over it at the moment.""

Lloyd said he was proud of the way his teammates handled what had become a very volatile situation.

""We're proud of the way we handled it as a footy club and didn't go over the top in the situation. We (at Essendon) were looking to protect our players,"" he said.

""I don't see any problem in actually trying to diffuse the situation if you're mate is in trouble and that's something that the club expects from you but doesn't expect any more or going over the top like that. But then going further - the punches and the kneeing or whatever - that's what's unacceptable.""