After Essendon skipper Jobe Watson spilled the beans on his illegal supplement use, there was much conjecture and speculation from the media, many rumblings of public discontent, but nothing forthcoming from the AFL who went quiet on the matter until a week later, when they hinted at possible premiership point losses for the Bombers in the near future.

The initial silence and slow response may have been nothing more than the AFL ensuring they did not say anything either way in case whatever statement they made impacted on the ASADA findings. However, one does stop and wonder if the AFL is working quietly in the background to minimise sentencing and fallout of the guilty parties, for the simple reason of assisting the Essendon Football Club in surviving this crisis with minimal impact.

Many sporting codes wouldn’t be so lenient on wayward players and would have implemented mandatory stand-downs on self-confessed ones, even before any regulatory body handed down its decision. If the verdict of the AFL is to strip the club of premiership points and suspend players for up to 2 years, it will spell disaster for the Bombers, with far reaching effects.

It means if six, eight or even more players are laid off for a couple of years, Essendon will have to draw from its reserve (AFL) side to make up playing numbers. The League may extend assistance and grant the Bombers permission to make up their playing numbers (rookie list) in the short term. But if Essendon are refused help, the result could seriously expose the inflexibility of the AFL’s salary cap and draft regulations, which don’t allow the buying or selling of players at any time other than end-of-year swap deals or once a year draft picks.

So if Essendon are proven guilty, they could find that under the current AFL regulations they may not even have the capacity to field a team. The AFL naturally will be reluctant to do this to the Bombers, but if ASADA and WADA declare the guilty parties, the AFL will have no choice but to implement the law and eventual harsh punishment, or risk being criticised, ridiculed and pilloried by the media and sports fans alike. In fact, the AFL has already missed an opportunity to officially request self-confessed illegal drug recipients Essendon coach James Hird and team captain Jobe Watson stand down, at least until ASADA hands down its verdict.

The AFL must make examples of football personality icons and award winning star players breaking the rules by dismissing claims of ignorance and issuing long and harsh sentences. It’s a fact that extremely harsh punishment will destroy hero reputations, damage hall-of-fame inductees and disappoint thousands of fans, but it has to be done.

The AFL has to, without question, strip guilty players of individual awards or hall-of-fame status, no matter how damaging the fallout. Although there are elements in the AFL hierarchy that will perceive excessive punishment as a disaster, it will nevertheless emphasise the message to footy fans, players, teams and international sporting bodies that performance enhancing or other illicit drugs in the AFL are not acceptable at any circumstances or level of competition.

Simultaneously, the AFL must also severely punish administration, coaching and medical staff that were part of this elaborate performance enhancing drug scandal and initial denial. The Essendon Football Club has failed its responsibility by its gross negligence and complete disregard of players’ welfare, in allowing them to be repeatedly injected with performance enhancing drugs, whether it was with or without their knowledge or consent.

The AFL has no choice – if the Bombers are proven guilty they will have to not only strip the club of premiership points for the current and last season, but heavily fine the club in the millions of dollars for bringing the game of AFL football into disrepute.

Very little has ever been transparent about the Essendon Football Club performance enhancing drug issue since the story broke earlier this year, and at times there has been a reluctance by the AFL and the Essendon Football Club to provide information to the media. The public will hope that when ASADA hands down its findings, the AFL doesn’t water the punishment to surreptitiously protect its favourite sons and inflexible regulations.

Surely the AFL Commissioners must realise their credibility is on the line, and nothing short of severe punishment delivered to the guilty will suffice in this instance. Anything less and the AFL will be looked upon as weak, ineffective and compromising its integrity.