Mystery continues to surround the circumstances behind veteran Shannon Grant's club-imposed suspension despite North Melbourne's best efforts to put the issue to bed on Tuesday morning.
At a hastily convened press conference involving Grant and Kangaroos football manager Donald McDonald, the 31-year-old denied a single incident was responsible for his one-match ban.
Rather, Grant had been 'a little bit loud and boisterous' at a sponsors' golf day as a result of 'having a little bit too much to drink', he said.
"That's pretty much just about it," said Grant, who denied reports he tipped over a Portaloo.
"There were no major incidents. There were no major issues that actually happened from the golf day."
The club's cloak and daggers treatment of the issue has attracted much criticism since Grant's suspension was made public last Wednesday night.
Club president James Brayshaw refused to address the issue the following night on The Footy Show, which he co-hosts, as did Dean Laidley at his press conference last Friday.
While Grant said in hindsight the club may have been better served by publicly addressing the issue last week, McDonald was happy with how North had dealt with the matter.
"The media don't dictate terms to our footy club. I mean the people who we're really concerned about, is the message we want to get out to our members and our sponsors, the people who are our No.1 supporters," he said.
"We just wanted to send a message out to them and let them be rest assured that there isn't any big problem at the North Melbourne footy club."
Skipper Adam Simpson, whose club escaped with a two-point win over Port Adelaide on Saturday night, said the issue had not been a distraction for the players or the coaching staff.
"We thought we dealt with it last week. There wasn't really much to report to be honest," Simpson said.
"The incident wasn't that big. It was the combination of one or two years of events. We thought it was done and dusted. Hopefully it is now."
Grant, along with team-mates Aaron Edwards and Hamish McIntosh, were capsicum-sprayed by police after drunken clashes with security at a music festival seven months ago in Geelong.