It is highly likely that Essendon’s highest paid players this AFL season will be their legal team.
The long-term price Essendon will pay for their ill-conceived program of injecting players with risky, on-the-edge supplements looks set to be even higher.
Their coach – Essendon living legend James Hird – has been banished for a year.
Their players have been stripped of the sport’s biggest team reward, taking part in finals.
High draft picks – the lifeblood of any AFL club – have been stripped for two years.
All because Essendon set out to make their players bigger, stronger and more competitive – and failed hopelessly in their duty of care to them while doing so.
Hird will be able to return to his job after his 12-month ban, and the Bombers have promised him a contract extension beyond 2015 to secure his future.
The Bombers’ leadership have promised to rebuild, reform and learn some lessons.
But there are two big unanswered questions.
Firstly, whether Essendon players took banned substances during the supplements program.
After six and a half months of dragging the sport through the mud, an interim ASADA report stretching to more than 400 pages and 13,000 supporting documents, an initial 34-page AFL charge sheet that beggared belief and a damning internal review of the Bombers’ poor governance, still no one at the club can say for sure what Essendon players took or what effects it might have on them have long-term.
No Essendon player has received an infraction notice from ASADA for having taken banned drugs.
But as the investigation remains open, they might, and suspensions to go along with it.
If that happens, it could be devastating to the club.
Secondly, what will be the long-term effect on Essendon from its penalties, especially losing draft picks?
Carlton had a similar penalty applied in 2002 for salary cap rorting. They finished bottom two four of the next five seasons, and in reality have only just recovered.
Free agency and Essendon being allowed to trade back into the draft improves their position, though that may mean more pain and upheaval in letting good players go to make a deal.
Before this season, Essendon had looked an upwardly mobile side capable of being a finals force.
Its future is now as questionable as the status of the substances injected into their players.