Now, I know I am sometimes not the coldest can in the fridge, but can someone please tell me how Essendon Football Club paying James Hird his salary in full for doing nothing in 2014 has any sense of remorse or contrition from the Bombers? Can anyone also explain how the whole process and inquiry into the Bombers can now be viewed as anything but a negotiated sham?

And, in the ultimate insult in the public's intelligence, can anyone explain how paying James his 2014 contracted salary in full in December 2013 rather than in 2014 somehow resolves the issue of him being paid in 2014?

I do not know who to feel more contempt for in the case, the smug self-righteous Bombers and James Hird or the Boys' Club that is the AFL Commission.

I now believe that the NRL have handled this case better. Let ASADA make their final findings, let due process take its course, do not interfere and corrupt the process and deal with it appropriately when all information is on the table.

Rumour has it that the Bombers players will be issued with infraction notices in the new year and for all the sympathy I feel for the players as individuals I hope that ASADA throws the book at them. Clearly the AFL cannot dish out real punishment and the club will not accept any so it must be enforced.

It is not often that I agree with Rebecca Wilson from News Ltd but I think we are getting to the stage where nothing less than a Royal Commission will suffice.