‘Successful teams have to go on a journey of some pain’: Can the Bombers bear it?

But the question colleague Andrew Wu posed to Brad Scott post-match about whether the Bombers should be past such results, given the players’ level of experience, resonated with many fans exasperated at Essendon’s numerous false dawns. Once again, the red and black had jeopardised a finals spot by not performing when it mattered.

Essendon were the AFL’s fourth most experienced team to take the field in round 19, with only Collingwood, Sydney and Geelong ahead of their average of 113.8 games played. And that was without 251-game veteran Dyson Heppell playing.

Ling understands those numbers and why they added to people’s disappointment, but he says they don’t tell the full picture when it comes to the brittle Bombers.

The number of massive games most of their players have been in – only Jake Kelly and Jake Stringer have played in grand finals – is way below that of Geelong (344 games of finals experience), Collingwood (269) and Sydney (216). Essendon’s list, by contrast, has 65 finals worth of experience, most of it imported from other clubs.

“A lot of their guys are still on the younger side,” Ling said. “They have played enough footy to be getting consistency in play, but the full comprehension of exactly what needs to go on in crucial moments … they are probably still living the education part of that journey at the moment.”

Nate Caddy was playing just his fifth match last round.

Archie Perkins, Jye Caldwell, Harrison Jones, Sam Durham and Nik Cox are, despite playing around 60 games apiece, inexperienced in big matches.

The question of whether the penny should have dropped by now led to a spirited debate between respected analysts and premiership players Luke Hodge and David King on SEN radio last Saturday.

Hodge, although acknowledging the debacle that unfolded, argued the Bombers were still learning, whereas King argued that players such as recruit Ben McKay – who has been on an AFL list since 2016 – should have the experience to handle big moments. McKay is 26, but has played in just 18 wins in 89 games. He lacked composure against the Crows, but Hodge believes it will come with experience for the Bombers if they are good enough.

“They haven’t won a final in 7000 days, so how do they know how to be composed in pressure situations,” Hodge said. “They let themselves down in the composed parts of it, both offence and defence.”

Anyone who watched Essendon’s three wins by a goal or less and their draw on Anzac Day this season would have seen the round 19 result as inevitable.

In those wins, it was luck rather than game management that helped the Bombers prevail as they hack kicked and panicked under pressure in almost every part of the final five minutes.

They lost their composure, mentally going into save-the-game mode too early while physically rushing everything.

The umpires saved them against the Crows in round seven, while the Saints were not good enough to take the numerous chances the Bombers left for them to take in round four.

The final five minutes of each game are worth watching; they show the Bombers are immature when it comes to protecting leads.

Ling has sobering news for impatient Bombers fans.

“I don’t think it necessarily means that two weeks later you have fixed all of it,” he said. “You are still, unfortunately, talking in seasons rather than weeks.

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“You could draw a line between the 2005 semi-final learnings and the really, really late stages of the 2007 preliminary final [to see what Geelong learnt from the Nick Davis experience], but that is two years of consistent training and learning and reviewing games to solidify the learnings of that semi-final.”

Whether the lessons that were obvious in Essendon’s early wins were taught hard enough is unclear, but the players certainly didn’t change their behaviour.

After last Friday night, Scott knows he has the team’s full attention, saying they were on “the edge of their seats” during this week’s painful review.

Essendon have the attention of the football world, too. Can they finally learn?

“We are not the team we aspire to be yet,” Scott said.

Ling and Madden know that feeling.

“People want it to happen overnight, but it doesn’t,” Madden said.

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