Hocking said his mobile phone and laptop were taken for analysis during the six-month audit by the AFL and external consultants EY Australia.
The League revealed on Wednesday that the Cats had not breached any total player payments or soft cap rules, but they had failed to disclose some third-party deals.
The club was fined $77,500, with $40,000 of that suspended pending no breaches of TPP or soft cap rules in the next two years.
Hocking said the club was regretful that it had put itself into this situation.
“There’s a feeling of letting (people) down, you don’t want to get caught up in these items,” he said.
“This has been extensive. As far as vindication goes, I’m not sitting here saying ‘you beauty’. This has been six months worth of work.
“[My mobile phone and laptop] were taken for four hours; they went through those and they have an AI search that went though things. It was that intensive.
“There will be a range of people out there that think this is a cover up and that because I have a relationship with the AFL Geelong are receiving favours. It’s not the case, this is one of the more trying things I have been through.
“The reason those devices were taken was to make sure they could research all areas.
“They chase down and try to reveal any movement of players or discussions relating to sponsors, player managers etc.
“There’s always been this question about how do Geelong continue to get the big players?
“Players want to come down here. We have to make sure it’s done appropriately and above board.”
Hocking declined to go into specifics of the arrangements that had not been reported to the AFL, but gave the example of accommodation being provided to a Geelong employee by a third party.
“I can’t go into all of them because it would be getting very personal around our people,” he said.
“An example would be that an associate, a sponsor of the club, a individual in that group or business has access to a holiday house or a farm and a player or staff member goes and stays there for one, two, three nights.
“That is seen as a breach of the soft cap policy because there is a value attached to that.
“All that has to happen is the player or staff member has to declare that at the end of the year. You need to declare where you have been but there is grey area.
“In the fine print the AFL has said they will be tightening the policy up. It is on us to educate our people better in this area but that is an example of something that is classed as a breach.
