AFL Daily: Essendon chief executive Xavier Campbell backs club to salvage season ahead of vital Fremantle clash
Essendon boss Xavier Campbell says the club can overcome Saturday night's horror show and salvage its season as it aims to secure a finals berth against Fremantle this weekend. RECAP TODAY'S FOOTY NEWS.
Essendon boss Xavier Campbell has backed coach John Worsfold and his football department to arrest the club’s disastrous slump in time to save their finals campaign.
The Bombers travel to Perth to take on Fremantle in their biggest contest for the year as Dockers coach Ross Lyon questioning their woeful finals record yesterday.
It comes with star forward Jake Stringer in doubt for the clash after finishing the loss on the bench with hamstring tightness.
The Dons are yet to rule Stringer out but if they risk him after an early-season hamstring tear his finals chances could be over if he suffers a recurrence.
Essendon has lost four finals since 2004 by 96 points, 65 points, 62 points and lost to North Melbourne by 12 points in an elimination final despite holding a five-goal half time lead.
Club legend Tim Watson and club best-and-fairest winner Brendon Goddard on Monday urged Worsfold to hold a confronting audit of the failings in the past six quarters.
In that time Essendon has conceded 29.17 to Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs and kicked only 7.13.
Lyon did not name Essendon when comparing his team’s record to sides which “haven’t won a final in 15 years” but there was no mistaking his intent.
Campbell stopped short of backing in Worsfold for 2020 if the club failed to qualify for September but said the team could quickly turn around its fortunes.
“John is our coach. The hypotheticals are the narrative that will be trotted out this week and I understand the business,” he said.
“But I think in the context of where we sit we are very much alive, we sit seventh on the ladder, there is a big opportunity ahead of us and we want to make the most of it and we feel excited about that opportunity.
“My confidence is in the football program. They have made that improvement year on year.
“Yes, we have got to work on that continuity and consistency and building that in our group
“The modern game is hard, its harsh, it punishes when you are off like it did on the weekend and it rewards you with opportunities like it did three weeks ago. We had a stirring club-based victory against the Crows three weeks ago and that’s the perspective we need.”
Campbell believes Essendon has already made positive steps this year but says those last six quarters are an aberration.
“I think it’s pretty obvious it’s not just the weekend, the second half against Port Adelaide wasn’t at the level we expect, from a coaching perspective, a playing perspective, all of us have to take responsibility for that and I don’t think it’s reflective of our season.
“We sit seventh on the ladder, we have won 11 games, we are ahead of where we were last year but the weekend’s result didn’t reflect that and we have got to get back to that belief, building that belief again.
“We have a positive playing group and positive playing group and we have to get back to that very quickly.”
Essendon has 15 players on its injury list but could welcome back Aaron Francis (neck) and Darcy Parish (concussion) with Adam Saad likely another week away.
Goddard said the players looked “disinterested” as the game slipped away.
“They didn’t come to fight,” he told RSN.
“(It was like they said), ‘We’ll just cop it’.”
Watson said coach John Worsfold had to hit his players “right between the eyes” with the “half-arsed efforts” against the Dogs.
“He’s got a decision, whether or not he tries to maintain the confidence of this group and how hard he goes on them, but I am of the belief that you need to be confronted with all the errors that you made as an individual and a group – and there were so many examples of the way players performed at the weekend that weren’t acceptable, that weren’t up to AFL standard,” he said on SEN.
“They need to be confronted with that. If you can’t be brutal with a performance like that you’ve got the wrong group of players. If they’re fragile, bad luck.”
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Originally published as AFL Daily: Essendon chief executive Xavier Campbell backs club to salvage season ahead of vital Fremantle clash