WHEN the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal's hearing in Essendon's 2012 supplements program ends is "anyone's guess" but the mindset of Dons players has never wavered, coach James Hird says.
The hearing, which has taken a break for the Australia Day public holiday, resumes on Tuesday with the tribunal to hear evidence from the lawyers of the 34 present and former Bombers players and of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.
The key findings will relate to the admissibility of certain evidence, and decide whether the players face a ban.
Speaking at the club's training base at Tullamarine on Monday, Hird said he was hopeful he would have his whole list to choose from in this year's NAB Challenge series.
That begins for Essendon against St Kilda in Morwell on March 7.
"It's not really up to us. Hopefully we'll have the players to play in the NAB Challenge. When the tribunal finishes, it finishes," Hird said on Monday.
"There's not much more we can do about that. Really, it's not that much of a concern for us. We'll keep training.
"The players have been dealing with it for two years and we certainly hope it ends soon.
"But when it ends is anyone's guess. Until then, they'll keep going about what they're doing."
Much of the focus of Monday's training session was on Hird's game-plan.
He said it wouldn't change much from last year's, which involved having the players ready to quickly transition from attack to defence.
The players practiced their positioning at stoppages and also went through some full-ground drills in a two-hour session in front of the Bomber faithful.
Hird said the impending result of the hearing was not having an adverse affect on the players.
"They seem to be pretty relaxed and pretty resilient and focused on playing football," Hird said.
"They get their updates from their lawyers as the hearing goes on but inside here (the club) the players appear to be in a fantastic spot."
The majority of the players were out on the track, although Jake Carlisle, Tayte Pears, Courtenay Dempsey, David Myers, Jason Ashby and Nick Kommer were restricted to light duties.
Hird was confident Carlisle, who has been dealing with ongoing knee tendinitis, would be fit to play in the NAB Challenge.
"Jake has got a bit of knee tendinitis – but he's fit," Hird said.
"He could play in a couple of weeks if we wanted him to but we're taking it pretty conservatively with him.
"With a young player like Jake, we need to make sure we look after him."
There was a big cheer at the start of training with Alex Browne, who tore his ACL against Gold Coast last February, and Will Hams (hip) cleared by the medical staff to participate in full training for the first time this pre-season.
