Essendon’s best-and-fairest winner Brendon Goddard wants the crisis-stricken AFL club to think big next year, saying they should aim for the premiership.
Goddard won his first club best-and-fairest award on Wednesday night, a year after he used the AFL’s new free agency provision to cross from St Kilda.
The Crichton Medallist said in his acceptance speech that team success, not any individual honour, was why he joined the Bombers.
“I believe this team can not only challenge for top four, but we’ve got to start talking about premierships,” he said.
“We’ve got to start talking about grand finals.”
But before the Bombers can start thinking seriously about their goals for next season, they must appoint an interim coach.
You might like
Club chairman Paul Little said at the best and fairest count that they hope to confirm the stand-in coach next week.
Little said Essendon’s unprecedented crisis happened because their football department cut too many corners and employed the wrong people.
While the AFL hit Essendon with unprecedented punishments in late August, the Bombers remain under Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation (ASADA).
Despite this and the speculation about possible tough anti-doping penalties from ASADA, Little said: “the worst is now behind us.”
Little also said early last year, their football department was given everything it needed to succeed.
Without naming them, he appeared to criticise their former high performance manager Dean Robinson and sports scientist Stephen Dank.
Stay informed, daily
“Corners were cut, budgets mostly ignored, policies and procedures invariably received lip service only,” he added.
“We employed the wrong people in our high performance area in our search for success, and allowed them to operate in a poorly supervised manner.
“Protocols and procedures were vague and resulted in blurred accountability throughout most operational areas of the football department.
“In 2013 it was unanimously agreed by the board that the club had a problem and that we should self report our concerns to the AFL and ASADA immediately.
“The two Essendon employees at the centre of the investigation (Robinson and Dank) left the club and to this day, still have not been charged by any party.”
Little apologised for the scandal, which resulted in the AFL being kicked out of the finals.
Coach James Hird, who was cheered at the function whenever his name was mentioned on stage, was suspended for 12 months.
Hird attended the dinner, but the only coaches to talk on stage were Thompson and fellow assistant Simon Goodwin.
