A bitterly disappointed Essendon coach Brad Scott has assured the Bombers’ long-suffering supporters that there will be a “concerted effort” in the off-season to remedy what is ailing the perennially underachieving club.
Just as they did last season, Essendon has crashed and burned this year, after sitting in the top five as late as Round 17, to dramatically drop out of the finals frame.
The Bombers have now lost seven of their last 10 games, the latest of which a humiliating after-the-siren defeat to Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium.
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And while they remain a mathematical chance to finish in the top eight, two games against premiership contenders Sydney and Brisbane (away) to finish the season strongly suggest finals footy is now in the pipe-dream realm for the Bombers.
Their finals win drought will now almost certainly stretch into a 21st year next season.
“Nothing’s easy in this game,” Scott said after the Dons’ one-point loss to Gold Coast.
“We’ll have a concerted effort in the off-season, don’t worry about that.”
When adding the Gold Coast loss to recent defeats against other bottom-six sides Adelaide and St Kilda with their finals hopes on the line, Scott admitted the team had “certainly stressed” themselves and their supporters in the past month.
But the Bombers coach was adamant that dropping eminently winnable games to inferior opposition (according to the ladder, anyway) wasn’t as a result of mental weakness or an inability to cope with pressure.
“It’s just a tight comp. That’s what it is,” Scott said.
“We beat Fremantle the week before. We’re not a team that is good enough at the moment just to come out and expect to just blow teams off the park.
“Every game that we’ve played this year has been a tight tussle at most stages.”
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While Scott said his players were shattered, he believed going through such traumatic footy experiences would only hold them in good stead in the long run.
“I’m speaking here now mostly to our fans who are bitterly disappointed and I can assure them that our players, whether they believe it or not, are more disappointed than anyone else,” Scott said.
“This game is a challenge, it’s full of frustrations and jubilations but you’ve just got to be able to bounce back from the devastation of a loss like that.
“It’s cold comfort but I am a big believer in that you’ve got to keep putting yourself in the position.
“The easiest part is we just start the season 0-6 and then just storm home and everyone’s happy. You win the same number of games, but we’d rather put ourselves in the frame and push and push and push and put ourselves in that position.
“As hard as it is now, you can draw on that in the future because you’ve been there, you’ve experienced it.
“You need to stress yourself and then you get a response from it and we’ve certainly stressed ourselves and stressed our supporters and now it’s how we get the response.”
Utility Nik Cox won’t be available to face the Swans due to concussion.
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