This week, an AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal hearing begun to decide whether 34 current and former Essendon players used a banned drug.

No issue has divided footy fans more than this case, which begun back in the summer of 1806.

Yet despite this division, a win by Essendon would be a win for us all.

How’s that? You ask.

Simple.

It’s a triumph for everyone who does the boring bits of their job really badly.

Ask any policeman, plumber, public servant or AFL club executive and they’ll all tell you the worst part of their job is the paperwork.

Having to write stuff down is the worst. All I want to do at work is give my ill-conceived opinions in meetings and then get back to surfing the web.

Yet despite everyone hating it, there’s always someone in management demanding you fill out a leave form, take the minutes or write a report on that incident you caused at the Christmas party.

If Essendon does win, it’s a big tick for a management style that says ‘you don’t need to write things down and don’t worry about records.’

How can Essendon win? It’s not that they can prove what their players took wasn’t illegal, it’s that there’s no record of what they took, at all.

The Bombers are lucky they had James Hird and not serial note taker Tania Hird working for them at the time.

Contrast this to the Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal. A secret dossier was found hidden in the home of acting chief executive Matt Hanson.

In fact, the Storm kept a detailed bookkeeping system of their fraudulent invoices and contracts. They were dead to rights.

We’ve also had the AFL and ASADA embarrassed over emails outlining ‘secret deals’ and offering witnesses jobs.

Writing things down is just setting you up to fail.

If Essendon do win, we have all the proof we need to stop writing down anything.

We can give up on WIP reports, emails, leave forms and even show cause letters.

Every single day on Earth would be a paradise free from the crushing yoke of bureaucracy.

A win for Essendon would be a win for everyone who phones it in at work, day after paperwork filled day.