After nearly three years of turmoil, the 34 past and present Essendon players involved in the AFL club's supplements saga will know their fates early Tuesday morning.
The Bombers dropped a bombshell on February 5 2013, when they announced they had self-reported to the AFL and ASADA over concerns players had possibly been administered banned substances as part of the club's supplements program during the 2012 season.
It is hoped Tuesday's Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision on the World Anti-Doping Agency's appeal will finally bring the matter to a close.
WADA appealed to CAS after the AFL anti-doping tribunal found in March last year that there was insufficient evidence to find the players guilty of doping offences.
The players were accused of using banned peptide Thymosin beta-4.
CAS is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, but hearings were held in Sydney last November and Essendon confirmed on Saturday that the appeal verdict would be handed down on Tuesday morning.
John Worsfold spoke to reporters on Friday and said that the club was ready for whatever outcome transpires.
"All that's totally out of our control certainly out of my control so everything for me is business as usual and then the club has contingencies in plan around any decision that's handed down," he said.
"We're pretty much just tracking along preparing for the season.
"The club's got things in place. We've got people around the club who have constantly kept the players informed and talked to them and will be on hand next week as well."
In sanctions handed down in 2013, the AFL banned then-coach James Hird for 12 months, kicked Essendon out of the finals, fined the club $2million and stripped it of draft picks.
The Bombers remain steadfast in their belief that the players won't miss any games whether the appeal is upheld or not.
But if suspensions are handed out, the club could be forced to use top-up players from other leagues as it did during the 2015 NAB Cup when the players in question served provisional bans.
It is believed that only 12 of the 34 players involved in the 2012 supplements program remain at the club.
The rest have either been delisted, retired or traded, with Jake Carlisle, Paddy Ryder, Jake Melksham, Stewart Crameri and Angus Monfries all at Essendon in 2012 but now at other clubs.
Worsfold replaced Hird as senior coach in October after he resigned in a bid to allow the club to move on from the saga.
Senior assistant coach Mark Thompson, chairman David Evans, chief executive Ian Robson and high-performance manager Dean Robinson were among other high-profile figures to depart the club over the issue.
Controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank, a key figure in the program, received a life ban from the AFL anti-doping tribunal in June last year.
The club is also awaiting sentencing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in action brought by WorkSafe Victoria.
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