I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the club is trying to protect Hogan as best they can. Instead of the story being drunken docker involved in skirmish it becomes troubled docker needs help.
I don't necessarily agree with the story and the making of excuses because I'm somewhat old school, but I certainly believe in clubs doing what they think is best to protect their players.
In terms of what this means for Freo, you play with the cards you're dealt, plenty of players have jumped at their chance in situations like this and I think we've got some players capable of standing up.
What does it mean for Ross? There's a lot of people on here writing us off (regardless of reason) so for me it becomes a matter of effort. If I can see 100% effort, and a group of guys with nothing left to give, Ross gets to keep his job, regardless of results. If I see players heads dropping during the game, time for some new blood!