{"id":343098,"date":"2023-10-31T07:07:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T08:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=343098"},"modified":"2023-10-31T20:02:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T20:02:31","slug":"hard-conversations-drive-bombers-self-funded-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=343098","title":{"rendered":"'Hard conversations' drive Bombers self-funded trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> players have taken their destiny into their own hands as a group of more than 15 players head to the US to undertake a high altitude training camp in Arizona, in hopes of ending the club's 20-year finals win drought.<\/p>\n

\ufeffAfter missing the finals in 2023 despite a promising start to their season, the Bombers, led by forward Kyle Langford, midfielder Andrew McGrath and defender Jordan Ridley, have taken it upon themselves to become a genuine threat next year.<\/p>\n

The trip to Phoenix, Arizona has not been organised by the club, instead planned and paid for by the players themselves.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The gun NRL players your club could lose tomorrow<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Grim pay accusations rock team's World Cup campaign<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Axed club launches audacious bid to re-enter NRL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Bombers will be taking the camp seriously, with 2024 marking 20 years since the club's last finals victory, a grim\ufeff milestone for the red and black.<\/p>\n

"We're flying to San Fran(cisco), then Phoenix. We're there for about two weeks training," Langford told 9News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"Essendon<\/p>\n

"There's probably a group of 16, 17 of us going over that will really kickstart our pre season.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Langford, alongside teammates Jye Menzie and Kaine\ufeff Baldwin, jetted off on Tuesday, to join a large group of others already in the US.<\/p>\n

"Andy McGrath and Jordan Ridley, they've been\ufeff in there in the past, so they're the ones that have organised it all," Langford said.<\/p>\n

The most exciting part of the trip\ufeff is that it had nothing to do with coach Brad Scott or any other coaches or leaders at Essendon, a telltale sign that this playing group want to change the club for the better.<\/p>\n

\"Essendon<\/p>\n

"Scotty (coach Brad Scott) hasn't really driven this. This is player driven\ufeff," Langford said.<\/p>\n

"Obviously we had a lot of hard conversations at the back end of the year."<\/p>\n

Legendary league coach Mick Malthouse was the trailblazer for high altitude camps, taking Collingwood and Carton during his coaching tenures at both clubs.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/essendonfc\/status\/1718866795153776838<\/a><\/p>\n

"It's a great initiative that a lot of the younger boys have jumped on, ready for the season," Menzie told 9News.<\/em><\/p>\n

Essendon and its fans will be hoping this trip acts as the catalyst for much-needed change at the proud club.<\/p>\n

"We don't like the way in which we finished. I think we're a much better team," Langford said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon players have taken their destiny into their own hands as a group of more than 15 players head to the US to undertake a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343103,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343098\/revisions\/343103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/343100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}