ESSENDON great Tim Watson believes the AFL has already made up its mind to strip Essendon of its premiership points as part of the fallout from the investigation into the club's supplement use.
ASADA's interim report was handed to the League on Friday, and Essendon has confirmed it has also received the 400-page document.
But AFL deputy CEO Gillon McLachlan refuted Watson's claims by saying the League was yet to make any decision about whether action needed to be taken against Essendon as a result of the findings in the report.
"Obviously Andrew Dillon, the general counsel of the AFL and the head of our integrity unit, is considering the report," McLachlan said.
"The first thing's first, to decide if there's any action to be taken."
Earlier on Monday, Watson, the father of Bombers skipper and reigning Brownlow medallist Jobe, said he thought the AFL had decided on the penalty to hand to Essendon.
"The AFL operate, better than a political party the way that they operate, the way that they leak out information," Watson said on radio station SEN.
"They conditioned, I think the general public, a while ago to this whole idea that points were going to be taken away.
"I think they've already determined in their own minds, even before this report was handed down at the weekend on Friday, that that would be the punishment that was actually afforded to Essendon."
Watson said he expected the punishment to be delivered before the finals start in a month, and said legal action could elongate the saga.
"They'll take their punishment I guess that will be handed down and then they'll have discussions about whether or not they want to challenge that in a legal sense and that could go on for a while," Watson said.
"I think the thing about this is it would all have to be concluded before the finals.
"If Essendon were going to lose points, it can't happen during the last month, while they're still playing in the finals.
"It would have to happen before the finals began, otherwise it would just be an absolute mockery of the last month of footy."
The Bombers are fifth on the ladder, having lost their grip on a top-four position with successive heavy defeats in the past two weeks.
They have not won a final since 2004, and last made September action in 2011, when they lost an elimination final against Carlton.
