We, the lawyers representing the Essendon Football Club and James Hird, wish to make one thing clear to the AFL; we are going to keep this thing going until the club and James run out of money

Why? Because this case strikes right at the heart of that natural justice thing people keep banging on about.

Also, we’ve just seen next year’s private school bills and wow! We thought lawyers charged like wounded bulls.

Our message to the Essendon faithful is that there are a million reasons to stand by Hird, every billable hour after billable hour.

When we’re at lunch or golf or avoiding our families, we are all still standing by Hird because everyone wants to talk about the case, so start the meter running we say.

The Essendon members should be applauded for the way they’ve stuck by James and signed up in record numbers as members.

We want to assure you that your membership money is being well spent on a new beach house in Portsea, several pieces of difficult and pretentious art, a large share in a promising racing horse and countless overpriced watches.

The Essendon Board should also be praised for their courageous strategy of taking on the AFL and all the other clubs, despite the obvious insanity of this approach.

This strategy should lead to a legal quagmire that will take so long to resolve that several clerks should make partner before this is all over.

So thank you James and Paul, you are making a small group of already rich people even richer. Bless.