North Melbourne champion David King has sent a warning to Essendon ahead of 2024, saying the pressure is on to live up to the off-season hype the club has created.
In addition to the hype of a strong trade and draft period, which included locking down key Roos defender Ben McKay and Port Adelaide speedster Xavier Duursma, the Bombers were quick to condemn their failed 2023 campaign and promise more in 2024.
It comes after senior coach Brad Scott said his playing group would come into pre-season “with a sick feeling in their stomach”, after a major drop saw them fall from fifth spot in round 17, to 11th by season’s end.
READ MORE: Aussie amateur golfer leads Australian Open
READ MORE: Luai bombshell pinned on notorious agent
READ MORE: NFL star joining the AFL after Super Bowl blunder
Essendon managed 11 wins, but ended their season with just three victories from their last 10 outings.
Key leaders and club youngsters also took their destiny into their own hands in October, as a group of more than 15 players undertook a high altitude training camp in Arizona, in hopes of ending the club’s 20-year finals win drought.
Essendon key forward Kyle Langford confirmed the camp was player-driven, in hopes of revitalising the group that fell away late 2023.
“Scotty (coach Brad Scott) hasn’t really driven this. This is player driven,” Langford said.
“Obviously we had a lot of hard conversations at the back end of the year.”
Now King wants to see the club live up to the expectations they have projected to the rest of the league.
“If you talk to the rusted-on Essendon fans, it’s got to go past words, that’s the discussion,” King said on SEN radio on Thursday.
“The talk is, ‘Hey, we’re not accepting this, these are the standards. If you’re not this, this and this, you’re not getting played’.
“Well, I reckon they played a few last year that weren’t meeting those standards.
“Did selection match the words? I don’t think it did last year.
“If you’re going to put those hooks to the playing group, you’ve got to follow them through and see them through.”
Essendon have not won a final in more than 7,000 days, with King worried the club may just be all talk.
“We talk about Essendon a lot and they talk a lot,” he said.
“It is a little bit, do their actions back up what they say?”
https://twitter.com/essendonfc/status/1730103387138748663
Despite his hesitations, King lauded the Bombers’ initiative to drive their club forward.
“It’s great signs though. All those young guys going off to training camps together and investing their own money,” King said.
“They’ve actually personally invested in themselves as a mini business if you like, to deliver upon their end of the bargain.”