Essendon could leave behind 18 months of misery or face player suspensions en masse when D-day for the AFL doping scandal arrives on Friday.
The Bombers suffered the indignity of being dumped from the finals and blood-letting at the top, with club leaders David Evans and Ian Robson departing, amid the fallout from the saga.
The AFL suspended coach James Hird for 12 months.
There have also been recent suggestions that big-name players such as Paddy Ryder could activate get-out clauses and shift to rival clubs if they could show Essendon breached its contractual duty.
But the worst could be yet to come if players are forced to sit out part of an AFL season on doping charges.
Federal Court Justice John Middleton will at 1.30pm (AEST) on Friday deliver the verdict the entire AFL community has been waiting for since Essendon revealed the doping claims in February 2013.
The Bombers initially promised to co-operate with an Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation.
But the club now believes ASADA ran an illegal investigation into their 2012 supplements program, which resulted in doping allegations against 34 current and former players.
An Essendon court victory could have those show-cause notices set aside.
But even that may not be enough to save the players, with ASADA saying it could simply reopen the investigation and reissue the notices.
In a three-day hearing in August, Essendon argued the anti-doping body had no right to hold a joint investigation with the AFL.
The Bombers claim that ASADA recruited the league in order to utilise its coercive powers in its interviews with Essendon players and staff.
Under the AFL's code of conduct, Essendon's players and coaches had to co-operate with ASADA or face match bans and fines.
But ASADA says it was entitled to seek AFL assistance and did nothing illegal.
Justice Middleton's ruling, while long-awaited, may not prove to be the definitive circuit breaker in the feud that has already hijacked successive AFL seasons.
With ASADA threatening to reissue the notices and Essendon chairman Paul Little even hinting at a willingness to seek federal government intervention, Friday could simply be the beginning of round two of the dispute.
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