EVERY year at the start of the Brownlow Medal count, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, as Andrew Demetriou and all others before him did, goes through the various formalities of the evening.
Watson to hand back his Brownlow
One of those is a reminder that the medal count also serves as a formally constituted meeting of the AFL Commission.
It may be the best-dressed, most watched and well-fed meeting of the AFL Commission, but it is a Commission meeting all the same.
It is in the presence of the commissioners and with their tacit approval, that the seamless decision is made to award the Brownlow to the next best eligible player, if the highest vote-getter at the end of the count has been suspended and is therefore ineligible to win for not meeting the 'fairest' requirement of the medal.
It is for that reason that the commissioners might not have any choice but to award the 2012 Brownlow to Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin when they meet on Tuesday.
The precedent would seem to be that if a player has breached the 'fairest' component, the medal (or medals) is awarded to the next in line.
That might change if the AFL has rewritten the Brownlow eligibility rules to make a distinction between players who have breached the 'fairest' component on the field as opposed to off it. If they have done so, then they have never made that public.
So it would seem more likely than not that Cotchin and Mitchell will become your next two Brownlow medalists.
Cotchin is already on record as saying he would accept the medal.
Mitchell has been coyer on the subject, and in an ironic twist, was in the middle of his introductory media conference as a West Coast player on Friday when Jobe Watson's statement of forfeit came through.
Mitchell said nothing when the possibility first rose when the WADA bans were announced and played an equally straight bat on Friday. You suspect he finds the whole thing uncomfortable, and who could blame him?
If the AFL decided not to award the medals and instead leave 2012 blank, there would be no complaints from Cotchin and Mitchell, and you suspect the football public. It could mean that by Tuesday evening, the book will be finally closed on this entire sorry saga.
We're sorry Jobe: Dons take the blame
The League also faces a tricky question about when and how to award the medals to Cotchin and Mitchell if this is the way forward. The AFL needs to strike a balance between a low-key presentation in front of a select few and a full-blown ceremony, perhaps as an adjunct to next year's count.
The former doesn't seem right because the Brownlow is a pretty big deal; the latter utterly inappropriate given the circumstances.
A further complication for Mitchell is that in 2012 he played for Hawthorn, but now he is an Eagle. Giving him the medal in Perth wouldn't seem right.
Top 10 vote-winners in the 2012 Brownlow Medal
1. Jobe Watson - 30 votes
2. Trent Cotchin - 26
Sam Mitchell - 26
4. Dane Swan - 25
Scott Thompson - 25
6. Gary Ablett - 24
7. Patrick Dangerfield - 23
8. Dayne Beams - 19
Lenny Hayes - 19
Josh Kennedy - 19
