ESSENDON captain Jobe Watson says without the Bombers’ camaraderie the drugs scandal would have destroyed careers.

Watson is anxiously awaiting the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal verdict on Tuesday, admitting the past two-year roller-coaster ride was an experience “that I think players will draw on for the rest of their lives”.

Watson, 30, has begun work experience in property to help seek some respite from the probe into the club’s 2012 supplement program.

He said the personal toll on the playing group would have been far greater had it not been for the bond and unity they shared.

“You can get something that is a circuit-breaker so it takes your mind off it and you can move on, but when it is over such a lengthy period of time, those individual circuit breakers don’t really, well, they help for a bit,” Watson said.

“But, in the end, you end up coming back and you are still in the same boat.

“I’m just fortunate that I’ve got such a strong and united and loyal playing group and I think that we have leant on each other a lot and without the support of your teammates I don’t think anyone would have been able to cope or get through it.

“The family has been incredible for all the players. But if this was an individual sport, I don’t think people would have coped.”

Watson said the players had been focused on playing Round 1 against Sydney next Saturday, despite the threat of doping bans.

“There has been some frustration but we have focused on trying to prepare ourselves as best as we can to play, to perform and to compete against the two teams from the Grand Final that we play in the first two rounds,” he said.

“If you needed any incentive to prepare yourself well, it’s right there in Round 1 and Round 2.”

FANS and the media will be locked out of Tuesday’s AFL-Anti-Doping Tribunal judgment.

AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal chairman David Jones is expected to deliver his verdict on the “Essendon 34” at 2pm on Tuesday — but his associate Justin Hooper told the Herald Sun the hearing would continue in private.

Any information officially released by the AFL after the verdict will be signed off on by players, who have rights to privacy until after a final sanction is delivered or their 21-day appeal period has expired.

If any of the players are found guilty, the tribunal may immediately hear submissions on sanctions.

But sanctions almost certainly will not be decided on Tuesday.