UPDATE: The AFL's investigation into whether Essendon invited unlisted players to train without the League's permission is unlikely to be completed until next week at the earliest.

The AFL confirmed on Thursday it was investigating claims the Bombers had breached AFL rules on unlisted player training in the lead up to Wednesday's Rookie Draft.

Acting Essendon CEO Ray Gunston and list manager Adrian Dodoro arrived at AFL House for talks with the League on Friday.

But an AFL spokesman told AFL.com.au on Friday afternoon the investigation was not likely to be completed until the middle of next week at the earliest. 

Clubs must notify the AFL if unlisted players are training with them before the national, pre-season and rookie drafts, but some clubs believe Essendon had players training without being given official permission, or who were ineligible to receive permission.

Training lists are issuedpublicly during the pre-season, and all clubs are notified whenever there is achange in the permission to train lists. 

AFL.com.au understands thatseveral players who trained with the Bombers were subsequently rookie listedwith other clubs at Wednesday's draft. 

The only player Essendonnamed on the official permission to train list made public last week wasMichael Sikora from the club's VFL team. 

He was overlooked, with theDons drafting Queensland ruckman Fraser Thurlow and Essendon VFL player PatrickAmbrose. 

AFL rules say that clubs are not permitted to request, invite,allow, require or direct a player who had attended a combine or state screeningsession to be tested, evaluated or to do any form of training with either theclub or an associated club before being drafted. 

Clubs can face a financialsanction of $10,000 for a first offence and a $20,000 fine for subsequentbreach of the rule. 

Essendon will behoping it is able to satisfy the AFL it has not breached any rules as itendeavours to recover from a shocking 2013.  

After a dramatic year in whichthe club was fined $2 million and excluded from the first two rounds of thedraft, new Essendon coach Mark Thompson told reporters the club had some workto do to rebuild faith. 

"It's really importantthat we restore that faith and respect. A lot of people are close to thisfootball club. It's like their family, it's their association, it's theirtradition. So for them to lose 1 per cent of respect for us, it hurts all ofus. So we have to give our time and our efforts and make them happy again aboutour club." 

When asked about expectationsfor 2013 the two-time premiership coach at Geelong said: "We're going totry and just do things right." 

An Essendon spokesman told AFL.com.au the club was cooperating: "We are working with the AFL to have this matter resolved as quickly as possible."