Attacking halfback Adam Saad hopes Essendon can use the pain of their AFL finals exit to motivate them, while hoping John Worsfold remains as coach.
The Bombers’ season ended in Perth on Thursday night with a 55-point defeat at the hands of the West Coast drawing to close a rollercoaster campaign where the future of Worsfold as coach has been a significant talking point.
Since Thursday night, Worsfold’s future has remained a hot topic despite him being contracted for 2020.
Saad hasn’t taken much notice of the discussion over the future of his coach, all he knows is that after playing his first final, he wants to continue to grow as a player under Worsfold.
“Woosha has been great ever since I came here,” Saad said.
“The boys really love him and the way he coaches, and I haven’t heard too much of that outside noise. But as a playing group we back him in, we love having him as coach and hopefully he can keep coaching us for a few more years yet.”
Saad has now completed two seasons with Essendon after 48 games in three years at the Gold Coast Suns.
He showed flashes of what he was capable of with some breathtaking runs on Thursday night finishing with 18 possessions and 583m gained despite being tagged by Mark Hutchings.
Saad will learn plenty from his first appearance in a final and he hopes it’s the same for his teammates.
“Mark has tagged me a couple of times and he’s a really good player. I take a lot of learnings from this game in terms of my running patterns and how I can get used a bit more while still defending as well,” he said.
“I keep trying to play my role for the team even if I get tagged. I was inconsistent again so for me going forward I’ll review the tape, watch the edits and see where I can improve.
“You learn a lot and obviously playing away from home in a final against the reigning premiers just shows that we are still a bit off from the top teams in the competition. We can take a lot from this and for a lot of us it was our first final including me.
“Hopefully that experience helps us moving forward and we have to move on while reviewing the year, have a good pre-season and be ready to take it on head on next year. It’s all about consistently playing our brand of footy for four quarters.”