Experienced Essendon midfielder David Zaharakis has taken a brief chance to reflect on his career ahead of his 200th senior game against Greater Western Sydney at Marvel Stadium on Thursday.
With 199 matches to choose from including his successful debut against Fremantle in round two back in 2009, Zaharakis picked out a handful of his most memorable games.
The 38-point defeat of the Dockers that yielded a Rising Star nomination is one that sticks out for Zaharakis, who racked up 21 disposals and seven inside 50s in the impressive first game.
Interstate comeback victories over West Coast and Fremantle under intense pressure in 2013, and the side’s stirring 25-point defeat of Hawthorn in round one in 2017 with several teammates returning from year-long suspensions are the other clashes that resonate with him the most.
“Your debut is obviously the massive one; that’s when your whole family gets there and your mates from school, your teachers and your footy coaches from a young age,” Zaharakis said on Wednesday.
“In 2013, when we beat West Coast and Freo over in Perth when everything was going the way it was (during the supplements saga) and we just went over there as a team. We were down in both games and came back and won.
“Those two wins really stand out for mine, that they were amazing wins when the group was so tight in that scenario.
“And then round one in 2017 when the boys came back (from suspension) and you got to play with your mates again, that was pretty special.”
After growing up as a passionate Essendon supporter, Zaharakis said the chance to enter the big stage again in the red and black with his family will be a particularly special moment on Thursday.
“It’s a great thing for me and the family, I’m sure they’ll love tomorrow night and soak in the occasion.
“I’ve got my little niece and nephew, my sister wants them to come out (on to the ground) with me, because we’ve always been Essendon people and an Essendon family.
“That will be a great moment to share with them.”
The milestone Bomber said the side has not looked too much into its heavy 72-point loss at the hands of the Giants in round one, instead narrowing its focus on what went wrong against West Coast last week.
The Eagles beat the Bombers by 35 points at Optus Stadium last Thursday, built largely off the back of a dominant second quarter – registering 14 scoring shots to three – that quickly put the Dons on the back foot.
“You don’t look at that (game in round one), because we’ve played 12 games in between,” Zaharakis said.
“We’ve shown some good patches this year, we’ve been beaten at times, but then I don’t think we’ve put a performance out like we did in round one (since then).
“So that’s on the back burner, it’s not really been spoken about this week and we’re more focused about what we didn’t do last week against West Coast that we can implement this week.
“We were quite disappointed in that second quarter last week against West Coast and we just want to try to rectify that.
“We spoke about a few things this week on how we can change that look when a side dominates us like they did in that second quarter.”
The important clash with the Giants will begin at 7:20pm on Thursday.
