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Whether you like them or love them, hate them or loathe them, you have to admire the Essendon players.
With eight games remaining, and four of those against clubs entrenched in the top eight, who knows if the Dons can climb one step higher on the AFL ladder by September, and move from ninth into a finals berth.
Whether they do or not – and it will be a toss of the coin – the players truly should be applauded for their efforts in 2014.
I’ve intentionally stayed away from the Essendon saga this season. Instead of saying what should happen or give my thoughts on the way the situation has played out, I’ve decided to wait until it’s all done and dusted before putting my two cents’ in.
But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have a comment on the actual football the Dons are playing in 2014, and the character of their players.
Their form has been up and down, and considering what has transpired off-field in the past few weeks, that’s hardly surprising. But you can’t really fault their attitude and character over the past three weeks since ASADA brought the show cause notices out. Again it was shown last Friday against Geelong.
These players, many still kids, suddenly don’t know what their future holds, and face the possibility of being forced to spend a lengthy period on the sidelines. But somehow they can still manage to focus on football and give their all, despite the uncertainty of the future, and the memory of giving their all twelve months ago only to be booted out of their spot in the finals.
Essendon coach Mark Thompson, who has done a remarkable job to keep this group together, said after the loss he was disappointed in his team’s habit of only switching on once it had given away large leads. It’s not surprising a coach is disappointed, and it’s true what he says, but you have to also acknowledge their performance to fight back in those situations.
Surely it would be so easy at the moment for the Essendon players to toss in the towel in those instances.
Thompson added that to be a good team you have to be ready to play when the siren starts. His team doesn’t do that, but the fact they are still competing against the top teams is impressive in itself.
Apart from their faithful supporters, I don’t think anyone would honestly think Essendon are contenders in 2014, and they probably won’t be, but they are just one out of the eight. And not only have they done it over the past three weeks under the duress of not knowing what their futures hold, but also without their best player and leader Jobe Watson.
Admittedly nobody would want to throw away a lead away and lose to Melbourne by a point, but it did come at the end of that tumultuous week of the ASADA announcement, and while not a force, the Demons are certainly not the easybeats they have been in previous seasons.
What stands out more to me is the way they bounced back a week later and beat Adelaide.
Last season I wrote that I felt for the Essendon supporters who would go each week and cheer for their team, not knowing if they would be allowed to compete in the finals if they made it. I was shot down by many.
I was told the whole situation would only serve to make the club, its players and all its supporters even stronger.
A year on, and I can only agree.
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