SEN’s Andy Maher believes Brad Scott’s Bombers have done enough to prove they’re good enough to play finals in 2024, making a compelling case for Essendon to make history this season.
The Bombers stamped their credentials with a gritty draw against the reigning premiers on Anzac Day and are locked into the top eight this weekend.
With West Coast (14th), North Melbourne (18th) and Richmond (15th) to come in across the next four weeks, Essendon should spend at least the coming months in the finals mix.
But Maher believes Scott can take his side further than a narrow finals miss, as they did in 2023, and says Essendon should be aiming higher.
“For me, that is a massive validation for Essendon,” Maher told SEN’s The Run Home of the draw against Collingwood).
“Whatever your expectations were for the Bombers going into 2024 and through the first six weeks of the season… they rise now.
“Essendon needs to be internally resetting what they considered possible and I think the expectations from pundits and the fanbase… I think Essendon is now a very different prospect to what a lot of us had them pegged as at the start of the season.
“If they miss from here, they would be a very disappointed footy club at the end of the year.
“They are good enough now to build on what they have established this season and play finals.”
Essendon won inside 50s against the Magpies and belted Craig McRae’s side in clearances and contested footy, after Collingwood humiliated Port Adelaide in the contest the week prior.
Meanwhile, the Bombers’ two losses this year have come against top four hopefuls Sydney and Port Adelaide. Although it’s a position not dissimilar to 2023 – Scott, in his first year, had Essendon fifth on the ladder and with a 9-7 record after Round 17 – Maher can see the evident improvement.
“Finals bound until Round 18 last year, they stuffed it up and fell away. I’m going to make a statement, I’m going out on a limb, it’s not going to happen this year,” he declared.
“They’ve got plenty of artillery to come back into this side… names like Matt Guelfi, Archie Perkins, Jordan Ridley, Will Setterfield and the possibilities provided by Elijah Tsastas, Zach Reid and Nate Caddy… who knows by the end of 2024 what those unknowns might produce for this club.
“They’ve got the depth, the best captain in the league right now, key personnel at both ends of the ground.
“Don’t stuff it up this year.”
Essendon currently holds the longest drought for a finals win in the competition, having famously not won in September since 2004.
They’ve lost Elimination Finals in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019 and most recently under Ben Rutten in 2021.
