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CHALLENGE OF STAYING NUMBER ONE
Essendon has won one of its past six matches and as a result has been under scrutiny over the past few weeks. The media has come out and said Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy is mad, the club is struggling and a number of Bombers players are out of form. Sheedy said the club is bound to cop criticism after the success it has had over the past few years. ""The winning protects you from that (criticism). There haven't been many sides that have been up there, like we have for the last three or four years. In fairness to the club and the players, they have been up for a very, long, long time. Olympic games athletes are not up for that long! These football players have to be up year after year after year. That is one of the tough things about AFL footy, that I don't think the players get respect for,"" Sheedy said.
Essendon has won one of its past six matches and as a result has been under scrutiny over the past few weeks. The media has come out and said Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy is mad, the club is struggling and a number of Bombers players are out of form. Sheedy said the club is bound to cop criticism after the success it has had over the past few years. ""The winning protects you from that (criticism). There haven't been many sides that have been up there, like we have for the last three or four years. In fairness to the club and the players, they have been up for a very, long, long time. Olympic games athletes are not up for that long! These football players have to be up year after year after year. That is one of the tough things about AFL footy, that I don't think the players get respect for,"" Sheedy said.
Q. What is your response to people, particularly the media calling you mad? A. There is only one other coach that has been kept at a footy club for 22 years and gee whiz if I am mad - we have been in seven grand finals and three preliminary finals in the last 20 years - then how are the other coaches looking? So if that is madness, people are criticising or the other clubs are struggling. I am a happy type of person who does things a little bit differently at times - I don't want to be a boring person in my life on the way to the mud hut!
Q.What are your thoughts about this week's game? A. We have a terrific game coming up against Collingwood and I would imagine the game will be a packed house. I would think that while Collingwood are trying to stay in the four and we are trying to get an opportunity just to make the finals. We will play better than what we did last week. We have played two pretty tough games that might hold us in good stead for this one.
Q. How much better do you have to play this week? A. If we played somewhere near the mark of the Brisbane game I would be pretty happy with that. We have played two teams in the top four. This is the third team in the top four in a row, so it has been a tough hit-out. I think the two games we have just had, just might top us off to play Collingwood. I think our last two games have been ferocious.
Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy suggested today that dual premiership player Mark Mercuri may not play again this season. Mercuri had surgery after injuring his groin in the Round 13 match against Melbourne and was reportedly recovering well until Sheedy's comments today. ""He (Mercuri) won't play against Collingwood and he may not play for the rest of the year. The VFL side only has two weeks to go and he is still probably out for at least another week. So he would probably have to get form pretty quickly and the VFL season doesn't go as long as the AFL season,"" Sheedy said.
