Cosman, Csabi and Forster spoke to the Essendon players about their experience in Bali and the life and death situation they found themselves in. The playing group was deeply moved by the three sharing their harrowing experience and were grateful for them taking the time to share their ordeal.
""Three of the Bali victims came and spoke to us. It did play a fair part in what I had to say leading the side against West Coast. They had a lot of life and death decisions to make in the Bali situation, whether they had the will to live. The three have such a bond from the incident. Our life and death situation was on the ground against West Coast in a knock out Round 10 final. It did spur the guys on and it put life into perspective and made us appreciate what we have got. It was a great thing to have speakers like that come to the club,"" Matthew Lloyd said after the game on Sunday.
Forster, Cosmann and Csabi are all life long Essendon supporters and former Melbourne residents. They were delighted to be involved with the club and hoped their experience in Bali could spur the team on. ""It has been a great situation - we have been involved with the footy club since late last year. We had Kevin Sheedy up at the Gold Coast speaking to the Surfers Paradise Football Club and from there it has evolved. We have kept in contact with the club and were invited down this weekend to do a talk to the players. We have had a fantastic week and the weekend was topped off by a great victory against West Coast,"" said Forster.
Forster's right foot was blown off in the Bali bombing. He has had nine operations and to date he still may lose his foot. ""I still have a lot of rehab to do through to keep my foot. I am drawing on strength from meeting the football players and giving my positivity to them through the week has been a great thing. Harvs said he used some of our speech from the other day to inspire the players in the match against West Coast. Being an Essendon supporter all my life I have had a fantastic weekend,"" Forster said.
Some might say there is more to life than just winning a football game and you can't compare doing battle on a football field to what the three encountered in Bali. Forster agreeded and said after speaking to the players it is hard to know which way it will go. ""It could work 180 degrees. Sheedy mentioned the other day that they live in a cocoon type world where everything is football and sometimes hearing something that we have been through can put perspective on their lives,"" Forster said. ""Paul Barnard is my favourite player and I spoke to him at the club. He said I look at myself and I have had two weeks off through suspension it is one of those things. He said after speaking to us he looks at his minute situation and it doesn't exists compared to what we have been through.""
