By Jon Pierik
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd has declared the honeymoon is over under coach Ben Rutten and says his former club must win a final this season.
The Bombers returned to September action last year and appear to be an emerging force, although they have not won a final since 2004 when they beat Melbourne in an elimination final.
The Bombers played finals last year but lost to the Bulldogs.Credit: Getty Images
Under new coach Rutten last season, the Bombers played a strong, attacking brand of football and were led by slick midfielders Darcy Parish and Zach Merrett and the midfield-forward strength of Jake Stringer. They finished fourth for goals kicked.
Ahead of the Bombers’ AAMI Community Series clash against St Kilda on Saturday, Lloyd said the time had come for a club that won the last of its 16 flags in 2000 to make some serious inroads.
“I’ve been hard on [Essendon] for years, but I’m as excited as anyone in terms of the list make-up,” Lloyd told 3AW.
“I think they have a lot of talent, as much talent as the top four or five in the competition, but I’m holding because … [John] Worsfold goes, Rutten comes in and there’s an immediate spike in performance and they make the finals.
“Can [Nik] Cox and [Archie] Perkins go again? The honeymoon period is over. Everyone is ready for the Bombers and there’s this expectation, so now we’ll see what they’re truly made of.
“They need to win a final to justify [things]. I think they have a good enough side to be top six, but expectation gets to some teams.”
The Bombers need ruckman Sam Draper to continue to develop, while Dylan Shiel and Jye Caldwell will hope for injury-free seasons. Andrew McGrath also has an important role to play in the midfield, with skipper Dyson Heppell set for another strong campaign at half-back.
Bombers’ president Paul Brasher told The Age last week that he expects his side to be a legitimate premiership contender within the next two or three years, and that this season was about “building” towards a flag.
In what may have been a move to ease the spotlight on the club, Brasher said the Bombers wanted to make the finals this year but felt there were 10 teams vying for two to four positions in the final eight.
“Obviously, we certainly want to make finals, absolutely. But what we want to do is win a grand final - and I don’t mean necessarily this year. That’s what we want to do and everything we’re going to do is going towards that,” he said.
The Bombers were crunched by 49 points by the Western Bulldogs in last year’s elimination final in Launceston, a sobering reminder they have much work still to do in a year when they will enjoy their 150th year celebrations.
As part of a five-year blueprint released in December, the Bombers declared they want to win a flag in each of the AFL, AFLW (they will join in late 2022), VFL, VFLW and VWFL (wheelchair) programs by the end of 2026, and add considerably to their commercial base with a shrewd independent investments portfolio, while strengthening their supporter base. They had 81,662 members this year, behind only West Coast, Richmond and Collingwood.
The Bombers took to the training track on Tuesday, with livewire forward Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti continuing to build towards his return to the senior side.
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