My final message to the players yesterday is this: 

Adversity is a friend that defines who we are. We can fight it, or we can succumb to it.

In life you will not always win, you will make mistakes; you will not always have success at a chosen goal. But in our life if we let a challenge or an adversity break us and destroy our life, then we have truly failed. 

The adversity that we have struggled through has not broken us, so I don’t believe that we have failed.

The Essendon Football Club was a great part of my life, and I thank it for it.