His Essendon team might have been outclassed as their AFL season ended against West Coast on Thursday night, but coach John Worsfold predicts a bright future for the Bombers whether he’s at the helm or not.
Essendon entered the AFL finals from eighth position and copped the reigning premiers in Perth in an elimination final. The Bombers made a couple of runs, but overall were dominated by the Eagles who won by 55 points in front of 59,216 at Optus Stadium.
It stretched Essendon’s run to six straight finals defeats at an average of 50 points since a win against Melbourne in 2004.
Worsfold didn’t add much to the situation of his future post-match except to say that he is contracted to coach Essendon in 2020 and that’s what he plans on doing.
“Well I’ve got a contract, that’s as much an assurance as I have,” Worsfold said.
“What else could you ask for? If the question is if I’m confident, does it really matter how confident I am because I’m not the decision-maker. I’m really confident with what I’ve built with this group and where we’re currently placed, and their ability to go forward.
“I’m really pleased with what we’ve done to date but where it is going forward, I’m more than willing and keen to continue on building this group. I really respect them and enjoy working with them.”
Many were expecting big things from Essendon in 2019 and scraping into the eight and losing an elimination final by 55 points might be seen by some as underachieving.
If you put Mark Baguley, Joe Daniher, Devon Smith, David Myers and David Zaharakis back into the team then things could have been different.
Worsfold knows Bombers fans will be disappointed but it was a vastly finals inexperienced team against the reigning premiers. He has no question about how bright the future is for Essendon.
“They will be disappointed that we weren’t good enough to beat the reigning premiers over here, like we all are but really proud of the group,” Worsfold said.
“What we’ve dealt with over the last month in particular with injuries to guys and the way Michael Hurley got out there and played over the last month. The work that the captain (Dyson Heppell) has done just to be available for us and to perform with real heart, they should be proud of that.
“They should be excited about what the group is building and I think they are going to see Essendon grow into becoming a very strong team for a lot of years to come.
“I wouldn’t say I’m upbeat, I’m pretty flat that the season is finished.”
