Hard to know. Really depends on how ugly and protracted any legal action gets. I do suspect, at least, that we've finally hit ground zero though.
Obviously we'll be belted in most games this year so that's going to be an acid test, but most seem to be saying (as any fan who isn't pissweak should) that we don't have any choice but to just tough this year out and look forward to 2017. You'd think it's very unlikely all 12 of the current players will stay, but once we tough out this year and the ones that do stay return to the park, things can only improve.
Closure is hard to define. Footy will never quite feel the same to me, because regardless of your views on what's happened, it's been a very chastening experience as a fan and inevitably, it does mean that you've lost the innocence of footy being, for want of a better way to put it, 'just a game'- an escape from the banality of every day life. And having seen North in mortal danger as you guys did less than a decade ago, I'm sure you can associate with the stress of that.
But as I'm sure you will also attest to, it's made any subsequent success you've had much sweeter and if there's anything keeping me going in a fan sense now, it's the faith that this is probably ultimately what Essendon, perversely enough, needed. To make us wake the **** up. To make us realise that 'We Are Essendon' doesn't ensure success, nor impress anyone. That right now, to the contrary, all it inspires is derision and disdain, and that the club has to do things right to start the climb back.
Think of it being in a bushfire context- eventually the regrowth happens. Now, we're still far too close to the time of the big fire for there to be regrowth yet, and other fires still threaten us. But we're finally at the point where there's no choice but to rebuild from scratch.
It'll be a long and hard journey, but in a bizarre way, the pressure is off as a fan this year. We're every chance to not win a game, although Sod's Law dictates we'll probably sneak a win over a Cartlon or Melbourne or Brisbane at some point, and given our list, I can't realistically EXPECT a single win this year. I'll go along and just watch the kids, and the top ups, and Goddard pointing, and be happy if they at least try.
I can't say I'm looking forward to all of it, but it'll be a journey nonetheless. A true fan sticks fat in the tough times.