JOBE Watson will this week decide whether to lodge a submission to the AFL Commission ahead of the League's looming call whether he keeps the 2012 Brownlow Medal.
The star midfielder is set to front the League on November 15 when, in light of the past and present Essendon players' failed appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, a decision will be made on his medal.
"The AFL has been pretty clear on what this looks like and it's up to Jobe as to how he wants to approach it," Bombers CEO Xavier Campbell told SEN.
"We (Essendon) certainly have some views but we'll certainly be led by Jobe and where he's at and what he wants to do with respect to that approach.
"I think he's still contemplating that."
Watson won the game's highest individual honour in the season the club undertook its controversial supplements program, and was one of 34 players hit with 12-month bans by the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this year.
That ruling was challenged by the group of Bombers players, and the League chose not to make a call on Watson's Brownlow until an appeal result was confirmed.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, who won't sit on the panel deciding Watson's medal, has previously said making that call would be "as hard a decision (as) they will ever have to make".
With judgement day on the horizon, Campbell was still hopeful Watson would keep the Brownlow.
"The club's made its position [known] in the past. We feel there's grounds for him keeping that – I'm not going to go into those reasons now, it's something we'll do in private with the AFL Commission in due course," he said.
If Watson is stripped of the Brownlow, it could be handed to joint runners-up Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin, or no winner might be declared.
Meanwhile, Campbell said it was highly unlikely that the 34 banned players would take their appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Subsequently, next year could therefore be the first time since 2013 that an AFL season won't be clouded by the Essendon supplements saga.
The 10 Bombers returning to the club from suspensions will aim to make their comebacks in round one in a blockbuster against Hawthorn on Saturday, March 25.
Campbell, who revealed the club asked to host either Hawthorn or Melbourne in round one, said there wouldn't be any extra fanfare planned around the occasion.
"No, it will be business as usual for us," he said.
"It certainly adds extra significance to the game for obvious reasons, but I think our fans and the broader AFL public would've seen this year we've got a lot of emerging talent coming through our club.
"I'm sure those (banned) players wouldn't mind me saying that we're much bigger than just the individuals.
"It's a good thing for our fans and the broader AFL public to have a year, for the first time in probably four years, unencumbered with the issues of the past.
"For us, it's certainly about moving forward now."
