A sixty-one point drubbing to start the season. There have been worse defeats, I know, in the history of the Essendon Football Club but few as laden with dread as this one. With a side gutted by the drugs scandal, a side chocked up by ageing also ran veterans and youthful inexperience this result will likely be the weekly norm.
The new captain said we might surprise a few people early on while the oldies were fresh and before the younger players became fatigued. It ain’t lookin’ good. I was too young to glory in the ’62 and ’65 flags but I remember the pain of ’68 as if it was yesterday. I remember our nadir years in ’70 and ’71 before the Tuddy resurrection. They were dark days when Bomber games were consigned to the ignominy of being broadcast on 3DB, the racing station, if we were lucky. As the song says, ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet’.
Things are going to get mighty ugly for the Red & Black this year and while bonus draft picks will be guaranteed the club’s bottom line will be further savaged. Only the future knows how many breach of duty of care and loss of income claims the club will have to defend. Expect payouts in the millions.
Will the club actually be solvent in three years time? Who knows. I am sure they have already cashed in their WWII war bonds to pay out their golden haired boy who, though still in denial, is central to the whole catastrophe. I am sure the Bomber faithful will turn up in droves to support their ‘boys’ next week but thereafter diminished crowds will be the trend, a trend the club will be fearful of as it struggles to make ends meet.
Loyalty has its limits. Nobody likes to watch their side used as witches hats by the opposition but that is the likely reality of the Dons’ 2016 season. Whatever it takes! What did we take? Thanks a heap Jimmy. Go Bombers!