Essendon is likely to go it alone from its coach James Hird on Monday and pursue a plea deal with the AFL that will have the club barred from this year's finals, fined heavily and missing two years of prime draft picks.
Hird is shaping to continue his personal legal resistance to the charges levelled against him and unless a deal was able to be brokered overnight on Sunday will enter the commission hearing and insist the AFL is compromised and does not have the jurisdiction to hear the charges against him.
Hird's refusal to agree to a ban of any longer than six months for admitting to a legally redefined and more marginal role in the Essendon supplements scandal was believed to be one of the impediments to sealing a plea bargain deal ahead of the commission hearing.
James Hird is shaping to continue his personal legal resistance to the charges levelled against him.
James Hird is shaping to continue his personal legal resistance to the charges levelled against him. Photo: Getty Images
Unless a deal with Hird is reached ahead of the 8.30am hearing, Hird's lawyers are expected to inform the commission it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter and that they would pursue their injunction, which forms part of the writ they have lodged in the Supreme Court.
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Further complicating the already complex legal picture it is understood Essendon's ability to agree to charges at the weekend was affected by the legal position of club doctor Bruce Reid whose licence to practise medicine and his professional indemnity insurance could be affected by any adverse finding against him.
Former Essendon full-forward Matthew Lloyd said on Channel Nine on Sunday he expected Reid to step down from the club this week.
Essendon is not intending to challenge the AFL's jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Presently, it is expected to agree to be eliminated from the finals this year though it will be free to play Richmond on Saturday in the last round of the home-and-away season.
The club will also be fined $2 million and lose its first and second-round draft picks in this year's national draft as well as its first-round draft pick - and possibly its second round - next year.
Reid and football manager Danny Corcoran are both facing six-month bans while assistant Mark Thompson would be fined more than $40,000 but not suspended.
Essendon chairman Paul Little admitted on Saturday night a deal with the AFL was very close. The deal as it stands now is substantially the same as that which was almost reached with the AFL last week when Essendon rejected the offer and the AFL responded by making public the full list of charges against the club.
Little said on Saturday he would not only wish for Hird to return to coaching Essendon after any potential suspension but that it would be the club's preference this occur.
Hird said in a lengthy post-match interview after Saturday night's come-from-behind victory that he wanted ''to prove that I'm innocent of 99 per cent of those charges''.
''You look at those charges and they make me sick that they're out there and people would believe that that is the truth about me. I'm determined to clear that up and we'll go from there about suspension or not suspension.
''The priority, not just for me but the club and myself, is to clear a lot of those charges up. And then, of course, I want to come back and coach if I do get suspended.''
Hird said he looked forward to a chance to explain his side.
All parties who have been charged are expected to attend the commission hearing.
Little and acting chief executive Ray Gunston are likely to attend as well as Hird, Reid, Corcoran and Thompson along with a phalanx of senior and Queen's counsel, junior counsel and solicitors.
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