Jye Caldwell on Essendon’s season, rivalry with Sydney and off-season US plans
A group of Essendon players will head to the US again this off-season in a bid to end the club’s two-decade wait for a finals win next year.
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Newly re-signed Bomber Jye Caldwell says the Essendon players must take responsibility for a second successive late-season fade out, but he insisted the team is more advanced in structure and system than it was 12 months ago.
And Caldwell, who this week signed a four-year deal locking him in until the end of 2028, has tipped a strong response in what could be a fiery Friday night’s clash with ladder leader Sydney at Marvel Stadium.
He said the Bombers players had to own the last quarter execution errors which saw them kick 1.9 from 19 entries in last week’s heartbreaking after-the-siren loss to Gold Coast, rather than Brad Scott and the other coaches.
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“We take the criticism,” Caldwell told the Herald Sun. “It’s so frustrating … we are in games but you have to close them out. When you don’t do that, you deserve the criticism.
“We’ve had a few of those games (the loss to the Suns). When that happens you reflect and think if we had won those games, we would have been sitting comfy in the top six. But we can do anything about that now. We just have to look at what’s in front of us.
“Brad is a solutions-based coach, but he is pretty stern with the players when he needs to be. He always gets his point across, but he also comes with solutions, which is good.”
The Bombers are almost certain to miss finals, sitting in 10th position just two premiership points outside the eight but with crunch games against Sydney and Brisbane Lions.
For Caldwell, though, he says while there is life, there is hope in terms of making a late, unlikely surge.
He urged impatient Essendon fans to stay the course, saying the group was determined to close out the season in a different manner to last year when they lost the final two games to Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood by a collective 196 points.
“It’s a challenge for us against two great sides in Sydney and Brissie – top-four clubs,” he said. “It is going to be a bit different to last year.”
“It would probably be easy to fall over and put up the white flag, but we are desperate to win both of these games and still cement our spot in the top eight.
“Compare that to last year when we played the Giants and Collingwood … (we were) smoked in the last two games. That is something we don’t want to repeat.
“We have to go out there this Friday, and (the next) Saturday and take it right up to them.”
Essendon and Sydney fought out a heated round 2 clash at the SCG this season, with a number of on-field scraps including Peter Wright’s collision with Harry Cunningham, which resulted in a four-game ban for Bombers’ forward.
Swan Tom Papley, who is out injured now, criticised the Bombers after Sydney’s 30-point win earlier this year, saying on 3AW: “You can pretend to be tough, but you’ve still got to win the ball and win the game. It’s all a facade I think, but anyway.”
Caldwell said the Bombers looked forward to the challenge of taking on the Swans again.
“They’ve got a great midfield and we obviously have great respect for them,” he said.
“But on our end, it’s super exciting to get another shot at them.
“When we play against good midfielders, we like the challenge. We will work through the week on their strengths and weaknesses, but we need to put it into practice.”
Despite the Bombers’ losing seven of their past 10 games after seemingly having an impregnable hold on a top eight spot a few months ago, he remains buoyed by the team’s future prospects.
“We haven’t been playing great footy the last few weeks … but I feel like we have a really good young group coming through,” he said.
“There are probably 10 to 12 players around the same age, and most have come through together. Melbourne did that a few years ago with the likes of (Christian) Petracca, (Clayton) Oliver and those sort of guys. Some of the group have now played 50 and 100 games together, which sort of builds the connection. It takes time, but we are getting there.”
Caldwell said Brad Scott had pushed this belief internally, highlighting how the challenges of the past month will make the group harder and stronger.
“We are probably sitting in the same position as last year, but I think our overall game is a lot better than last year,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of work through the pre-season and a lot of work through the season, and everyone is buying into our structures and systems.
“We are a lot more confident today than where we were this time last year.”
Caldwell, 23, will tick over a career-best 22 games in a season on Friday, taking his overall tally to 77. He is heading towards 500 disposals this season, is ranked No. 1 at the club in tackles, and No. 2 in clearances and contested possessions.
“It was a no-brainer,” he said of the contract extension.
He knows the Essendon army is impatient for success, but says the players share that frustration and will work to make themselves better.
“Each year they (the fans) keep stepping up,” he said. “It’s a lot different coming from the Giants, so I suppose I have seen each end of the spectrum.”
“They’ve been phenomenal for us. We hope we can reward them (in the future).”
No matter what happens over the next fortnight, Caldwell said the players’ desire to get better will include another post-season conditioning trip to the US.
Around 20 Essendon players funded their own trip to the Exos training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, last November in an effort to get better.
“That trip was awesome … we had about 20-odd guys working together on getting better,” Caldwell said.
“We are going over again … a few of the boys are going to Exos (the training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona) … but a few of us (instead) are going to use some contacts in the (US) college (system) to get in some training over there. We just want to keep getting better.”
For the moment, though, his sights are solely set on Sydney and making amends for the one that got away last week.
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