As revealed in her column on Friday, members of the AFL commission have been detailing for Caroline Wilson their hopes and dreams.

In this case, their hopes that Jobe Watson would hand back the 2012 Brownlow Medal and save them the trouble of actually having to make a difficult decision.

Wilson wrote – doubtlessly as instructed, unless she can actually read minds – that “senior and long-standing commissioners thought and certainly hoped that Watson would make the decision for them”.

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Upon the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s guilty finding – a finding that however unexpected, must have been planned for – the AFL’s options on Watson’s Brownlow were as simple as they were uncomfortable: strip the award, or allow it to stand.

Remarkably, they decided to do neither. Instead the AFL chose to chart a familiar course: attempt to engineer and manage the most painless (for them) outcome possible, no matter how transparent the reality.

After more than three years, you’d think they might have learnt something.

But no, there would be no easy end on this for Watson. No ripping off the Band-Aid. He’d go under the knife of the suits again, as though the death-by-thousand-cuts – which the AFL itself played no small part in – already suffered by the players in this god-forsaken saga wasn’t enough.

Their first move was to publicly invite Watson to a humiliating meeting where, it said, he would be given the chance to get on his knees and plead to keep his medal.

As a proud person, Watson understandably didn’t even entertain it.



Then, of course, there’s the players’ appeal on the CAS judgement to Swiss courts, which in any case delays a final decision on the medal.

The AFL’s next move then isn’t to make a decision or even simply wait for the appeal to be heard. Instead, the “thoughts and hopes” of its highest officers – the commissioners – are communicated to Wilson for printing in newspapers in order to heap more public pressure on Watson.

Wilson’s track record in obtaining the private thoughts of AFL heavies throughout this saga is first-rate. She’s clearly gathered sources at the highest level of the game who use her to communicate things they don’t dare utter themselves. For a journalist, it’s admirable. It’s her job.

For the supposed “leaders” of the leaking organisation, it’s reprehensible weasel-work. Too afraid to take a strong stance publicly, they instead hide behind journalists to say things without really saying them; in this case, that despite everything Watson has already been through, it should be him who does the dirty work the Commission is charged with carrying out.

The continued lack of leadership is incredible. That those holding supposedly the most prestigious positions – those charged with running the game – should continue to behave this way is mind-boggling. It surely does nothing for any of their individual reputations, many of which were built outside football.

Is being a Commissioner only about attending the odd meeting and shaking hands with politicians? Unfortunately, aren’t they sometimes required to make difficult decisions? To – wait for it – lead?

Is it too much to ask the AFL to play a straight bat, just for once? No manipulation, no managing of outcomes, no buck-passing?

The outcome of the players’ hail-mary Swiss appeal notwithstanding, the reality is clear: Watson loses his Brownlow. It was won at a time when it’s been found he was committing one of the most serious offences in football. It simply cannot stand. There are rules in place.



That’s not to suggest it’s fair on Watson. For a number of reasons, including the doubt regarding any advantage actually gained by the infamous supplement program, my own opinion is that Watson deserved his medal in 2012. I don’t think it’s fair he has to hand it back and I don’t for one second think he should voluntarily do so, particularly given he still believes in his own ultimate innocence. It’s an ugly situation, but it’s just another consequence of another very ugly situation: that inside Essendon in 2012.

It’s black-and-white – the medal simply cannot stand, by the AFL’s own rules and its own anti-doping code. When the final legal page on this never-ending mess is finally turned, let’s hope the AFL behave with just a shred of dignity and show some leadership.

I won’t be holding my breath.