Essendon skipper Jobe Watson has decided to hand back the 2012 Brownlow Medal after serving a suspension for an anti-doping code violation.

The AFL commission is due to meet on Tuesday and had been set to discuss whether to strip Watson of the award after he and 33 past and present Essendon players were banned over the club’s 2012 supplements program.

“If there is a question in people’s minds as to whether the 2012 award is tainted, the fairest and best thing to do is to give it back and honour the history that has gone before me,” Watson said via a statement on Friday.