Hello again Bomber fans,
Well, here we are at the last round of the season.
What a fabulous ride this young team has given us in 2021.
And it all comes down to this weekend.
There's always a different set of season goals and objectives from the group inside a club, but from the outside not many of even our most ardent supporters would have seen what was coming.
The growth and development in the player group, while still having plenty of scope to go, has been outstanding. A club can judge a football program and environment on how many players on its list have career-best years. This year I’ve counted at least a dozen players in this category and that’s not including the four or five new players to our list. If we can have a run of a few more years of this happening, that is when we will be in position to have a real crack at September glory.
Having said that, why wait either?
Club champion and now impressive media performer, Matty Lloyd, recently made comments regarding where he’d prefer us to finish this season. He’s quoted as saying he’d prefer us to finish outside the eight so that hard decisions and a hard attitude and approach is maintained from all within the club to keep striving to be better ,and to be better prepared for a finals tilt in following years.
I don’t agree with Lloydy on this one.
There is no better development for a team than to actually play in finals. Win or lose, they can be worth many more games of experience to a young group that expects to continue to improve. So much can be learned including where we have advanced as a team from playing in big games and where are we still deficient and need to progress further.
Sorry to ‘put the cart before the horse’ though.
There is still a big game to play this weekend and they don’t get any bigger than against one of our old foes, Collingwood. How good is it to be still in the finals race and have our fate in our own hands and not have to rely on any other teams winning or losing.
The case was exactly the same way back in 1972 when we had to play the third-placed Pies in round 22 to earn a spot in what was the first ‘final five’. A crowd of over 35,000 crammed into Windy Hill to watch the Bombers win a high-scoring affair by five points to earn that final spot. Peter McKenna kicked eight goals for Collingwood to take his season tally to 130 and our spearhead at the other end, Geoff Blethyn, who had kicked his century the week before against Fitzroy, kicked five valuable majors.
Last games of the home and away season mean that around the AFL we are seeing some club stalwarts for the last time. Congratulations to Cale Hooker on his wonderful career with the club. The skinny kid from East Fremantle, picked at No.54 in the 2007 national draft, got the best out of himself and that’s all a club asks for. Maybe we haven’t seen the last of 'Hooksy' this season either. You never know what circumstances may occur to allow him to play a valuable role. Just be ready, son.
My favourite last game of a regular season was back in 1990 when I had the good fortune to play in the four Daniher brothers' game against St Kilda down at Moorabbin. The celebration of the game centred around the fact that brother Neale was to play his 82nd and final game for the club with his three brothers for the first and only time. ‘Rowdy’ experienced multiple ACL knee injuries and various injury complications over a 12-year span and unbelievably, twice in that time, didn’t play a senior game for three consecutive seasons. Yes, THREE consecutive seasons.
How proud parents Jim and Edna Daniher must have been when our 35-point win was in no small part due to their boys - Anthony and Chris with 27 and 24 disposals respectively, ‘Tezza’ had his 15 and kicked a goal and Neale kicked three goals and four behinds.
What a family! I’ll be able to tell my grandkids about that special day.
Back to this weekend.
You generally get what you deserve in this game.
The equation: If the boys win, they will deserve to play finals, and if they don’t, they won’t. Simple. There is so much anticipation to see how far they’ve come this year by just concentrating on the task at hand with no distractions of other results, and continuing to execute the things that have them playing at a high standard in the last few months.
No crowd at the ‘G’ will mean having to generate their own enthusiasm and voice. This has not been a factor in the last few games. It has been superb.
Well, you never know what may be around the corner. Personally and selfishly, I’m hoping to see our beloved team in Perth before the year is out.
Good luck fellas and as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams".
Until next time, go Bombers.
GO’D
Gary O'Donnell played 243 games from 1987 to 1998, leading the Bombers as captain for two seasons in a decorated career in the red and black. Known as 'Mr Reliable', he was a vital part of Essendon's 1993 premiership side - a year which also saw him win the Crichton Medal as the Bombers' best and fairest. Blending tales of the past with the present, he'll be a contributor to essendonfc.com.au in 2021.
